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Objective:: The purpose of this paper is to provide some learnings for the NDIS from the referral pattern and cost of implementing the Partners in Recovery initiative of Gippsland.Method:: Information on referral areas made for each consumer was collated from support facilitators. Cost estimates were determined using budget estimates, administrative costs and a literature review and are reported from a government perspective.Results:: Sixty-three per cent of all referrals were made to organisations that provided multiple types of services. Thirty-one per cent were to Mental Health Community Support Services. Eighteen per cent of referrals were made to clinical mental health services. The total cost of providing the service for a consumer per year (set-up and ongoing) was estimated to be AUD$15,755 and the ongoing cost per year was estimated to be AUD$13,434. The cost of doing nothing is likely to cost more in the longer term, with poor mental health outcomes such as hospital admission, unemployment benefits, prison, homelessness and psychiatric residential care.Conclusions:: Supporting recovery in persons with Severe and Persistent Mental Illness is likely to be economically more beneficial than not doing so. Recovery can be better supported when frequently utilised services are co-located. These might be some learnings for the NDIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To critically examine a recent decision of the Victorian Supreme Court that found that the Mental Health Tribunal and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal erred in the application of the capacity test in the Mental Health Act 2014 (Vic) and that compulsory electroconvulsive therapy would infringe upon the human rights of two patients who had no insight into their chronic schizophrenia.Conclusions: After considering the concepts of insight and capacity to consent to treatment, the paper concludes that the decision in NJE and PBU v Mental Health Tribunal [2018] VSC 564 is problematic clinically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of the project was to identify changes in the practice of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in a metropolitan mental health service before and after the Mental Health Act 2014 (2014 Act) in Victoria.Method: Retrospective clinical file audit of ECT administration across all three sites at Eastern Health (EH) two years before and two years after introduction of the 2014 Act.Results: There was a statistically significant decrease in the number of compulsory ECT treatments and in the number of patients who had compulsory ECT across the three hospitals at EH in the two years following the 2014 Act compared to the two years prior to the 2014 Act. There was no significant difference in the number of voluntary ECT treatments and in the number of patients who had voluntary ECT.Conclusion: The review showed that there has been a significant decrease in the number of compulsory ECT treatments and in the number of patients who had compulsory ECT after the introduction of the 2014 Act. Potential reasons for the changes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]