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.