Authors: Ellie Hodges, Shaun Sweeney, Dainius Pūras, Anne Burgess, Skye Lang & Carolyn McKay
Year: 2023
Event: 2023 The MHS conference - Adelaide
Subject: Human Rights: How can we do things differently? International and local perspectives
Type of resource: Video
Abstract:
This symposium explores national and international perspectives on involuntary care, human rights violations and the rights-based services that outline a different way for mental health care to be delivered. The session will highlight what rights-based services are, the obstacles to their provision and give examples internationally and locally, including a case example from Adelaide of designing to do different.
The World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) “Guidance on community mental health services: promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches” affirms that mental health care must be grounded in a human rights-based approach. Since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006, an increasing number of countries have sought to reform their laws, policies and services related to mental health care.
Dainius Puras will provide an international perspective on human rights and mental health, while local speakers Ellie Hodges and Shaun Sweeney will provide a very local perspective. The session will be facilitated by Anne Burgess.
The design and implementation of a new mental health centre for Adelaide’s north was developed using the Adapted Philosophy of Care model which was co-created with the lived experience community. The planning and design process of this Head to Health/ Crisis Stabilisation Centre has flipped traditional Government service planning on its head, centring on the care experience that people want and have the right to receive.
Through all stages of the commissioning cycle, from planning, design, development, implementation to evaluation the Adapted Philosophy of Care has underpinned the project, daring to do different, bringing the insights and contributions of the lived experience community to every stage and to every decision. Through collaboration between State and Federal Government, local providers and people with lived experience, this project shows that an alternative way to plan, design and deliver services is possible. This alternative approach redresses the imbalance of power.
The development of this project can be seen as a blueprint for other services to follow. By centring the insights and wisdom of the lived experience community through genuine and ongoing co-design, the outcomes for this service will be different. By elevating lived experience wisdom to all stages of project Governance beyond consultation, the Adapted Philosophy of Care model will change the outcomes for people who use this service. Ensuring the elimination of practices associated with human rights violations, including restrictive and coercive practices, dignity, choice, control and self-determination can be upheld.
The Adapted Philosophy of Care (LELAN & TACSI; 2023) became the key guiding reference document throughout every stage of the commissioning cycle from planning and design to commissioning, implementation and evaluation. In this project, there was a shift from agency-centred to person-centred planning. This inverted perspective upholds human rights by listening to the insights and wisdom of community when deciding what’s right for the care they experience.
References
Philosophy of Care (TACSI/ LELAN, 2020)
Mental Health Services Plan (SA Health, 2020-2025)
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