| Media Release
Friday 25/Sep/2009 (1456 hrs CST) Mental Health Facilities - Urgent need for action
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency Ltd
ABN: 63 118 017 842
1 Gardiner St Darwin NT 0800
Ph: 08 8982 5100 / Fax: 08 8982 5199
1800 898 251
MEDIA RELEASE
Friday 25 September 2009
Mental Health Facilities – Urgent need for action
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) supports calls made by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to immediately improve facilities for people with mental health issues.
NAAJA urges the NT Government to put resources into properly caring for people with mental illness and disabilities. NAAJA Chairperson, Mr. Norman George said “Australia is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which guarantees important rights, such as the right to live in the community. At the moment, people are being kept in jail only because the Government is failing to resource community-based options.”
NAAJA notes the Chief Justice’s comments that it is no wonder defence practitioners are advising clients with mental health impairments against pursuing a mental impairment or unfitness to stand trial defence, especially for relatively minor matters. “Because the facilities in the community are inadequate, if our clients are found not guilty because of their mental impairment, they might end up spending the rest of their lives in jail,” Mr George said.
NAAJA calls for urgent action to help protect the community as follows;
1. For the NT Government to immediately fulfil its commitment and urgently provide extra beds and staff in the mental health facilities at the Alice Springs and Royal Darwin hospitals. It is unacceptable that these extra beds are to be made available in 12 to 18 months - these beds are needed now.
2. Appropriate long term accommodation for people suffering severe mental illness. These facilities are desperately needed for people who cannot manage themselves in the community and who currently drift between jail and the Long Grass;
3. A significant increase in supported short and medium-term accommodation for people with mental illness. Once people have a stable place to live and where they have social and medical support, it becomes possible to provide assistance in related areas, such as drug and alcohol counseling. At the moment, there is a massive shortfall of drug and alcohol counseling for people with mental illness;
4. Establishment of a mental health diversion court such as that in South Australia. The SA Court Diversion Program allows for early assessment, simplified processes and streamlined service delivery to address mental health needs of defendants
5. Review of the existing legislative provisions pertaining to mental impairment and unfitness to stand trial, to allow people to raise a legitimate defence of mental impairment without opening themselves to possibility of indefinite imprisonment.
Ends
For further information: Samantha Taylor-Hunt (08) 8982 5135 or Priscilla Collins (08) 8982 5110
NAAJA delivers quality & culturally appropriate Aboriginal Legal Services
in the Top Endof the Northern Territory in the areas of criminal, family and civil law
www.naaja.org.au Back |
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