2.0 - The Purpose of the Mental Health Act 2000 (Qld)
The purpose of the Mental Health Act 2000 (Qld) (the Act) is to provide for the involuntary assessment and treatment, and the protection, of persons (whether adults or minors) who have a mental illness, while at the same time safeguarding their rights and freedoms; and balancing their rights and freedoms with the rights and freedoms of other persons.
Under section 5, the Act sets out to achieve this purpose by:
- Providing for the detention, admission, assessment and treatment of persons having, or believed to have, a mental illness;
- Establishing the Mental Health Review Tribunal to carry out reviews relating to involuntary patients, and to hear applications to administer or perform particular treatments; and
- Establishing the Mental Health Court to decide (amongst other things) the state of mind of those persons charged with a criminal offence.
Section 5(e) asserts that when making a decision in relation to a forensic patient under the Act, the decision-maker must consider the protection of the community and the needs of a victim of an alleged offence to which the applicable forensic order relates. The Queensland Parliament added this section in early 2008 in response to a report ensuing from the Review of the Queensland Mental Health Act, in 2007 (colloquially known as the Butler Review).
The Butler Review made several recommendations in relation to the Act as a whole, but with a particular emphasis on improving the balance between the rights and freedoms of persons with a mental illness, the interests of victims of crime allegedly perpetrated by forensic patients, and the protection of the community.
