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Rights and Responsibilities
Admitting a friend or relative to hospital
Getting a consumer to see a Doctor
Right to know what is happening to a relative or friend
If the medical superintendent refuses to admit a relative or friend
Helping a relative or friend to be discharged
Anti-discrimination legislation
Your rights at work

Rights and Responsibilities

The Mental Health Statements of Rights and Responsibilities forms part of the National Mental Health Strategies and outlines, among other things, the rights and responsibilities of non-professional carers or advocates. In summary:

• Carers have a right to respect for human worth, dignity and privacy.
• Carers have a right to comprehensive information, education, training and support to facilitate the understanding, advocacy and care of those consumers they care for.
• With the consent of the consumer, carers are entitled to:
  • Have access to the consumer;
  • Be consulted by service providers about measures under consideration for treatment of the consumer or for his or her welfare;
  • Arrange support services such as respite care, counseling and community nursing facilities;
  • Exchange information with those providing treatment concerning the consumer’s lifestyles and their relationship with others.
• Carers and have the right to put information concerning family relationships and any matters relating to the mental state of the consumer to health service providers.
  
• Carers have a right to seek further opinions regarding the diagnosis and care of the consumer.
• Carers have a right to place limits on their availability to consumers.
• Carers have a right to mechanisms of complaint and redress.
• Carers have a right to help with their own difficulties, which may have been generated by the process of caring for or acting as an advocate for a person with a mental health problem or disorder.
• Carers have a responsibility to:
  • Respect the human worth and dignity of the person who has a mental health problem or mental disorder;
  • Consider the opinions of professional and other staff and recognise their skills in providing care and treatment for the person who has a mental health problem or mental disorder; and
  • Cooperate, as far as possible, with reasonable programs of treatment and care aimed at returning the consumer to optimal personal autonomy.
• The parent/guardian/carer of a child or adolescent has a responsibility to obtain appropriate professional assistance if they have a reason to believe that the child may have a mental health problem or disorder.

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Admitting a friend or relative to hospital

If someone is very concerned for the wellbeing of a friend or relative, they should take them to a doctor for examination. If the doctor is of the opinion that this person has a mental illness, the doctor will write a schedule to allow assessment at the hospital and admission if appropriate. Section 23 of the Mental Health Act also allows friends or relatives to make a written request to the medical superintendent of a hospital to detain a person. However, this right is very limited, and can only be used where the situation is urgent, and it is too far for the friend or relative to travel to see a doctor. More detailed information regarding the process of admitting a friend or relative is provided in Chapter Two (see section 'Admission to Hospital'.

Getting a consumer to see a Doctor

In many situations, it must be acknowledged, it is very difficult for a carer to get an unwell person to agree to see a doctor. The following are some creative suggestions that a carer may wish to follow in order to encourage a consumer to visit a GP:

1. If the carer has a supportive GP, the carer may wish to enlist the help of the GP with this matter.
2. The carer may wish to enlist the support of a Mental Health Crisis Team at their local Community Health Centre (listed in the White Pages, available at http://www.whitepages.com.au) if there is one in the local area. Most CHCs have a mental health professional (social worker, psychologist or counsellor) who may be able to talk with you and assist you with your concerns.
3. The carer may wish to enlist the help of another family member or person that the consumer trusts to talk to them. This option will obviously depend on the quality of family or other relationships and whether or not the carer feels comfortable disclosing information about the consumer to others.
   

Right to know what is happening to a relative or friend

All information about a patient is confidential, and cannot be released without their permission.  The Mental Health Actrequires that the ‘nearest relative’, or a relative or personal friend nominated by someone who has been brought for admission, be notified when the person is brought before a magistrate. This notice will only be given, if the person being admitted does not object.

If the medical superintendent refuses to admit a relative or friend

Talk to the medical superintendent. In particular, if a friend or relative thinks that there are some matters that the medical superintendent has not considered or is unaware of, they should raise them. However, the decision to admit remains with the medical superintendent who must, under the Mental Health Act, discharge a person if they are not ‘mentally ill’ or ‘mentally disordered’, or if it is felt that they will not benefit from care and treatment.

Helping a relative or friend to be discharged

Under the Mental Health Act, a friend or relative may apply to the medical superintendent for the discharge of a relative or friend. The friend or relative needs to give an undertaking that the person to be discharged will be properly cared for.  Friends or relatives may also appeal to the Mental Health Review Tribunal (Contact details can be found in Chapter 18) against any refusal by the medical superintendent for discharge.

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Anti-discrimination legislation

On the 1^st of March 2001, anti-discrimination law was updated to include the rights of carers. The new legislation effectively made it unlawful to discriminate against someone because of their caring responsibilities. Under the new legislation, it is unlawful to:

• Discriminate against carers in job applications and in work;
• To treat you unfairly because you may care for someone with a disability, you do care for someone with a disability or you may care for someone in the future who has a disability.

The following people, so long as they need your care and support, are included in this legislation:

• Your child;
• The child of your current or ex-husband, wife, de facto opposite sex partner or de facto same sex partner;
• Any adult who you are the legal guardian of;
• Any immediate family member (this includes your husband, wife, de facto partner; your ex-husband, wife, de facto partner, your grandchild (either by your current or former partner), the grandchild of your ex partner) your parent, the parent of your partner or ex-partner, your grandparent, the grandparent of your current or ex partner, your brother or sister, and/or the brother or sister of your current or ex partner.

Your rights at work

In general, you have the right to apply for (and be considered for) all jobs, apprenticeships and traineeships on the basis of merit – your actual, past, presumed or future caring responsibilities must not be taken into account.

In addition, all employers must provide you with any special arrangements you require to do all the essential things the job requires while at the same time managing your caring responsibilities, unless it would cause them ‘unjustifiable hardship’ to do this.  Some of the arrangements your employer could make may include:

• Allowing you to work from home some or all days
• Changing your starting or finishing times, roster arrangements or break times;
• Allowing you to work your hours over fewer days;
• Allowing you to work part time instead of full time or to job share with another person;
• Being flexible with the amount of paid or unpaid leave you can and cannot take as well as when you can take it.

The above list is only an example of the types of arrangements that can be made - there are no set rules: it is up to you and your employer to negotiate. It is important to remember that employers can refuse to give you a job if your caring responsibilities mean that you are unable to do the job. For example, if you need to look after your sick mother at home for the foreseeable future and the job cannot be carried out from home, the employer has the right to refuse to employ you.

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