Ensuring children and young people’s rights through mental health oversight
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 Ensuring children and young people’s rights through mental health oversight
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The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Public Advocate undertook a two-year project (1 July 2021 – 30 June 2023) to understand the extent to which children and young people, notably those involved with the ACT care and protection system, were being involuntarily detained and treated under the Mental Health Act 2015 (MH Act) in the ACT.
In accordance with legislation in the territory, the Public Advocate must be notified and provided with certain documentation when limitations are imposed on the rights of individuals, including children and young people. This includes where children and young people are involuntarily detained and treated in the ACT mental health system, and where children and young people are subject to care and protection proceedings.
This project sought to analyse the documentation provided to the Public Advocate to better understand:
- the extent to which children and young people were being involuntarily detained and treated in accordance with the MH Act, and
- the extent to which those children were also residing in out-of-home care (OOHC) arrangements. This project found that children and young people in the OOHC system were significantly overrepresented in the ACT involuntary mental health system.
The project also found that over half of the total number of mental health documents received by the Public Advocate involved a relatively small number of children and young people.
Of this group of children and young people who were subject to repeated involuntary actions under the MH Act:
- Most were involved with Child and Youth Protection Services (CYPS), with some children and young people subject to care and protection orders.
- Most had been or were involved with the justice system, including in civil and criminal proceedings either as a victim or alleged offender.
- Nearly half had a co-occurring disability, such as a cognitive disability or neurodiversity.
- Most had a history of childhood trauma and exposure to family violence.
- Some had unstable housing, including homelessness
