Information obtained via Freedom of Information

Mental health consumers and advocates have long asked for greater transparency from the Mental Health Complaints Commissioner. After refusing to release comparative data on mental health services, I obtained the below information under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic). The below data is from 2018-2020. I also have data from earlier years and have just not had time to upload it. The password for all documents is “MHCC2022”.

By service:

• Albury Wodonga Health

• Alfred Health

• Austin Health

• Ballarat Health

• Barwon Health

• Bendigo Health

• Eastern Health

• Forensicare

• Goulburn Valley Health

• Latrobe Regional Hospital

• Melbourne Health

• Muldura Base Hospital

• Monash Health

• Peninsula Health

• Royal Children’s Hospital

• South West Health Care

• St Vincent’s Hospital.

Further FOI - July 2022

In May 2022 I also submitted a freedom of information request and obtained independent feedback from survey results on the MHCC. These are detailed below:

• 2017 results

• 2018 results

• 2020 results.

The MHCC has not sought independent feedback from Orima (the independent provider) since the 2020 results.

The MHCC refused an application for recommendations that they had made to services (response letter here). This is currently (at 2 Feb 2023) being reviewed by the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner.

Update: The Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner found in May 2023 that the Commission should release the recommendations. You can read the decision letter here. Sadly, the Commission did not accept this decision and has appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in Mental Health Complaints Commissioner v Simon Katterl Z405/2023. You can read about the concerns from community members here in the Guardian.

Update: In early 2023 the Commission released a report on their role on systems oversight. It contains information that only 24% of people found that complaints were helpful to them, while only 26% of the same respondents said it was helpful to others.

Further FOI - November 2024

After requesting for 18 months without success, I FOI’d an evaluation I was part of, looking at the trial sites of the Hospital in the Home Program. There were many positive findings, including a recommendation to expand the program. We also found that human rights were still not well understood by services and that the collaboration by the clinical workforce with the lived experience workforce across both trial sites needed significant improvement.

Evaluation here.