Hello
I’m Treasure Jennings, the Mental Health Complaints Commissioner. As this year comes to an end, I wanted to give you an update on what we’ve been doing, and what’s coming up in the New Year.
Firstly, I want to say thank you to everybody who has contacted my office. So far this year we’ve received more than 1800 complaints from consumers, carers and their family about public mental health services. Our resolutions and investigations team have been working hard to resolve your concerns, as well as driving improvements in services that have been identified through your complaints.
We’re currently working on several projects and one that I am especially excited about is a collaborative project with multicultural communities in Victoria to make the MHCC more accessible to their communities’ unique needs and circumstances. Through this we’ve learned that there are many barriers faced by people in migrant communities, including stigma and language, that prevents people from speaking up.
In response to this, we will be launching materials in up to 20 different languages other than English to simply explain about the MHCC, build awareness of the right to complain, as well as letting people know we offer interpreters in any language free of charge.
We are also developing new trauma informed guidelines for complaints processes in partnership with the Bouverie Centre. In our research we identified that this is an area where globally, few resources exist.
We have been interviewing people with lived experience about how to make a complaints process that is trauma informed. Once completed in the new year, we will be implementing these guidelines into our MHCC processes as well as promoting them across public mental health services in Victoria.
Many MHCC staff have continued visiting inpatient units across regional and metropolitan Victoria, meeting with their staff and consumers as part of our efforts to build a positive complaints culture. Our It’s OK to Complain campaign has been building awareness of the right to complain, along with plain English resources on our social media channel that help people understand and talk about their rights under the current Mental Health Act.
We also meet regularly with the consumer and carer peak bodies in Victoria and seek their feedback on behalf of their members on ways we can improve. Lived experience is essential to what we do, and the MHCC is supported through our own lived experience staff and our lived experience Advisory Council
We have also been sharing information that highlights common myths about making a complaint, and how complaints can improve the system.
We can only look into your concerns if you make a complaint to us so if you’re unsure about whether or not to complain, please contact us to discuss your options.
For more information, please visit MHCC.vic.gov.au or call 1800 246 054
Thanks for watching.
Updated