“Totally underserved”: Mental health watchdog cuts could impact regional Victorians’ ability to complain

In regional Victoria, where mental health services can be stretched to breaking point, things don’t always go according to plan.

When mistakes occur, or people aren’t satisfied with the service they've received, they can make a complaint to Victoria’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission (MHWC), which was established in 2023.

How does it work?

Four commissioners - each of whom have been impacted by mental health - receive the correspondence and assess whether the MHWC is the appropriate body to handle the matter or another organisation is better placed to assist. 

• Most complaints are resolved informally by assisting people to raise concerns directly with their mental health provider or by facilitating discussions between parties.

• If a matter is complex, it may move to a formal process, which involves developing a written complaint and resolution plan, seeking a response from the service provider, or requesting meetings, documents or records to help reach an outcome. 

• In some cases, the MHWC may proceed to a full investigation.

In hot water: The state government, which is attempting to find billions of dollars in budget cuts, has come under fire for announcing plans to downsize the number of commissioners from four to one, and remove the stipulation that they must have been impacted by mental health challenges.

The government justified this decision, telling The Age the proposed changes “will help to strengthen [the MHWC’s] role so it can focus on the areas where it can have the greatest impact”.

Not happy Jacinta: More than a dozen organisations have signed an open letter to the Victorian government opposing the changes.

• The bill would also stop the MHWC from accessing information about recommendations made by the 2021 Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. 

• This means commissioners wouldn't be able to track the state’s progress in  achieving the 21 recommendations made, such as prevention, dedicated Indigenous resourcing and bolstering the lived experience workforce.

Dr Rochelle Hine, Senior Lecturer in Rural Health at Monash University, told The Brolga’s sister publication the Gippsland Monitor that the MHWC was “essentially a watchdog on the mental health service system”, and that the changes could mean fewer opportunities for people to raise concerns.

Underserved regions: “We know that regional areas, like Warrnambool and south west Victoria, are traditionally underserved by mental health support services,” said Katie Larsen from Mind Australia, which runs mental health support service Step Thru Care in West Vic.

• “Any reduction of resources designed to hear and respond to the different needs and experiences of people will have an impact on regional communities,” she told the Brolga.

Just makes sense: Larsen said the requirement of leaders in the mental health sector to have lived experience was “especially important for a commissioner who is there to regulate and improve the mental health system for the benefit of people accessing services”. 

• 🗣️ “In the past their voices were not part of the conversation - too often people who were diagnosed and treated had decisions made for them,” she said.

• “Lived experience leadership roles ensure there are people sitting at senior decision making tables who can represent the wisdom, insight and knowledge of people living with mental health challenges.”

Who will be impacted?

“At least 45 percent of us will have a mental health challenge at some point in our life,” Hine told the Monitor.

“You've got one commissioner to deal with all of the people who want to give feedback or make a complaint.”

She said people with mental health challenges have higher rates of social health issues like homelessness, unemployment, experience of family violence, sexual assault and public violence.

• “Without a well resourced avenue for support and redress, when they experience poor practice within the mental health system, their voices will be silenced.”