How IMHA can help and how to contact us (Auslan)

How IMHA can help and how to contact us (Auslan)

Title: How IMHA can help and how to contact us (Auslan)

Producer: Independent Mental Health Advocacy

Name of speaker: Auslan Consultancy

Speech Content:

Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) can help you to know your rights and have your say. IMHA is a free and independent advocacy service for people who:

  • are receiving compulsory treatment, or
  • are worried about receiving compulsory treatment.

Receiving compulsory treatment means you must have treatment, even if you don’t want it. Even if you are receiving compulsory treatment, there are rules about how this works. Rights are rules to protect you under the law.

One of your rights is to be contacted by IMHA.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Act states that IMHA will be notified when you are receiving compulsory treatment and we will contact you unless you have told us not to. We will contact you by phone or we may come to see you when we are visiting the inpatient unit. You can also contact us directly if you want to speak to us.

If you don’t want us to contact you, you can tell us not to by:

You can scan this QR code to take you directly to the website.

If you are not currently receiving compulsory treatment but are worried your treatment team might put you on compulsory treatment, you can still access IMHA services. You will need to call us on 1300 947 820 or email at contact@imha.vic.gov.au as we will not get notified. We will organize an interpreter if you need one.

Common reasons people might be concerned about being put on compulsory treatment include:

  • feeling like you can’t make your own decisions about your treatment,
  • feeling like you can’t say no to your treating team, or
  • your psychiatrist has said you will be put on a compulsory treatment order soon.

What does IMHA do?

IMHA can support you to make decisions about, and be involved in, your mental health assessment, treatment, and recovery.

This includes:

  • helping you to understand information about your assessment, treatment, care and recovery
  • supporting you to make and express your own decisions about assessment, treatment and care
  • assisting you to understand and exercise your rights, such as making an advance statement of preferences, choosing a nominated support person, or seeking a second psychiatric opinion
  • representing or advocating for your views to your mental health and wellbeing service with your consent, and
  • supporting you to link in with other services you decide you need

You can get in contact with IMHA, we're here to help.

If you are deaf, can’t hear well, or have difficulty using your voice you can:

We will then organise to contact you in a way that works for you.

You can also use the National Relay Service to contact us. This service uses specially trained staff to act as the central link between people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech impairment, and the person or organisation they are calling.

To use the National Relay Service, you can visit their website at www.accesshub.gov.au/about-the-nrs, and provide them with our phone number, 1300 947 820. Our phone line is 7 days a week from 9.30am – 4.30pm.

The National Relay Service website provides a few different ways to communicate, including

  • TeleTypeWriter on 133 677
  • text message on 0423 677 767,
  • chat via the website
  • and video relay via Skype.

The National Relay Service website provides you with instructions on how to use chat or Skype.

For more information about your rights, visit our website at www.imha.vic.gov.au. You can also scan this QR code to take you directly to the website.

[End transcript]

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