New Mental Health and Wellbeing Act (Vic): Submission in Response to the Engagement Paper

This submission to the Victorian Department of Health responds to the engagement paper on a new Mental Health and Wellbeing Act, which will implement recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Addressing two of the paper’s questions, Research Australia maintains that although the Royal Commission’s proposed Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing will be created under separate legislation, innovation, translational research co-designed with people with lived experience, and evaluation should be written into the new Act itself. It recommends adding to Objective 1 commitments to evaluate new and existing treatments for clinical and cost effectiveness and user acceptability, to adopt better treatments rapidly and discontinue less effective ones, to promote research, and to support people with lived experience, carers and the workforce to co-design and take part in research. It proposes a fourteenth principle recognising an entitlement to effective, evidence-based care, and asks that the Secretary’s proposed power to establish information-sharing systems extend to systems for research, citing the Commonwealth Data Availability and Transparency Bill 2020 as a model.