Rethinking Mental Health Laws: An Integrated
Approach
In December 2007, Professor Bernadette McSherry commenced a
prestigious five year Australian Research Council Federation
Fellowship which will focus on developing a research program
into mental health laws.
The main aim of this research program is to explore the role
the law has and should have in improving access to optimal mental
health care and promoting and maintaining good mental health.
The program will bring together international and Australian
mental health experts from a range of disciplines as well as
consumer representatives to develop model frameworks for both
civil commitment laws for those with serious mental illnesses
and sentencing laws for mentally ill offenders. These model
frameworks will integrate theoretical and clinical approaches
for attaining the highest attainable standard of mental health
care and will put Australia in the forefront of the developing
international focus on reforming mental health laws.
The Rethinking Mental Health Laws project currently has an
Executive Officer, a postdoctoral research fellow, a research
associate, four doctoral students and a research assistant.
Professor McSherry and other members of the research team will
be carrying out interviews with interested parties across Australia
and in New Zealand, Scotland, England, Ireland and Canada from
June 2008. There will also be two workshops to be held in 2009
and 2010.
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