The report found that the Act is not being complied with and overall Aboriginal consumers are not consistently being offered their rights. While some initial progress has been made towards fulfilling the promise of the Act, and there are some positive examples of collaboration, there is still a long way to go before all Aboriginal people being assessed, examined and treated have access to the rights offered by the Act.
The report contains 15 recommendations all of which were supported or supported in principle in a joint response to the preliminary report from the Director General of the Department of Health, the five health service providers and the Acting Mental Health Commissioner. The Chief Advocate has recommended to the Minister that an inter-agency working party be established to develop an agreed action plan to implement the report recommendations for consideration and endorsement by the new Mental Health Executive Committee with a report back to the Minister in 12 months.
