Video transcript: How to prepare for your Tribunal hearing
The Tribunal will decide if you need compulsory treatment.
Preparing for your hearing can make it easier to have your say about whether you need compulsory treatment.
You can do these things to prepare for your hearing:
- Get someone to help you
- Read your treating team’s report
- Plan what you will say
- Talk to your treating team or the Tribunal about how to participate
- Bring your advance statement of preferences
You can ask these people to help you prepare for your hearing:
Members of your treating team
They understand your treatment. You can ask them to help you understand why they think you need compulsory treatment.
You can also ask them to help you speak to an advocate or a lawyer.
Your health service may also have a peer worker or a consumer consultant who can help you prepare for your hearing.
A family member, friend or carer
They can help you prepare and can attend the hearing with you.
You can also make somebody your nominated support person who will:
- receive information about your treatment
- be invited to your hearing
- help you communicate your views and preferences.
You can make somebody your nominated support person using the Nominated Support Persons Form.
You can learn more about nominating a person to support you on the Independent Mental Health Advocacy website.
Find out more about family, friends and carers at Tribunal hearings.
An Independent Mental Health Advocate
These advocates help people have their say about mental health treatment.
An advocate should contact you or you can ask for an advocate by contacting:
Independent Mental Health Advocacy
Telephone: 1300 947 820
Email: contact@imha.vic.gov.au
A lawyer
You can ask a lawyer for advice or to speak for you at your hearing by calling:
- Victoria Legal Aid - 1300 792 387
- Mental Health Legal Centre - (03) 9629 4422
- Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service - (03) 9418 5920
You can also ask a private lawyer to help you.
An interpreter
You can telephone the Tribunal with an interpreter by calling the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450.
If you want an interpreter at your hearing, we will pay for it. You can tell your treating team that you want an interpreter at your hearing. They will tell us, and we will organise an interpreter for you.
Before your hearing, your treating team will write a report for you and the Tribunal. The report includes your treatment and why they believe you need compulsory treatment.
A copy of this report should be given to you at least 2 business days before your hearing. Ask your health service for a copy if you have not received one.
The report can be hard to understand. You can ask someone to help you understand it. You can also share your report with a family member, friend or carer.
Your treating team should also offer you access to the other documents the treating team will provide to the Tribunal at least 2 business days before your hearing. For more information see Access to documents in Mental Health Tribunal hearings.
At your hearing we will ask you about:
- your mental health
- your treatment
- what you think about being a compulsory patient on a treatment order.
You can use our What I want to tell the Tribunal form to plan and write what you want to say at your Tribunal hearing.
The criteria for compulsory treatment on a treatment order are:
1. You have a mental illness
2. You need treatment now to prevent
- a serious deterioration in your mental health or physical health or
- serious harm to you or someone else
3. You will be treated now if you are on a treatment order
4. There is no reasonable less restrictive way to enable you to receive immediate treatment.
If the answer to all these questions is yes, we will make a treatment order.
If the answer to any of these questions is no, we will cancel (revoke) your treatment order.
To find out how to plan what you want to say at a hearing about ECT see electroconvulsive treatment (ECT).
The hearing will be conducted as an online meeting using Microsoft Teams.
You can participate in your hearing:
- at the health service
- by video using Microsoft Teams
- by telephone.
Talk to your treating team about how you would like to participate.
A link to join the hearing online will be available 3 days before the hearing.
Contact the Tribunal if you would like us to email you the link to join the hearing online.
An advance statement of preferences is a legal document that sets out your preferences for your treatment, care and support if you become unwell.
If you have an advance statement of preferences, please email a copy to the Mental Health Tribunal or ask your treating team to provide it to the Tribunal.
Find out more about advance statements of preferences on the Independent Mental Health Advocacy website.
You can ask us to change your hearing to a later date by calling 1800 242 703 or emailing the Mental Health Tribunal.
It may not be possible to change your hearing date because of timeframes required by the law. We will tell you whether we can change the hearing date.