This is what it sounds like, when pink elephants fly

[The Age didn’t publish this as a letter to the editor. Thank Prince for self-publishing!]

Victoria is embarking on significant mental health reform, including the elimination of seclusion (solitary confinement) and restraint (physical and mechanical) within 10 years. For some, like myself, the process could go further and faster. For others, the change is too swift. For Roderick McRae, Victorian Branch president of the Australian Medical Association, it is ‘right up there with pink elephants flying.’

Dr McRae said that we could not ‘wish away mental illness’, but many in the sector had a more humble wish that he had read the legislation. The legislation has relatively minor changes to the current arrangements and as noted, the time-scale for elimination is ten years.

It is not fanciful thinking to eliminate seclusion and restraint; it is ethical, evidence-informed practice. People with lived experience consistently tell us that the use of force is violence and causes profound trauma. Had Dr McRae and the AMA read the Royal Commission report, they would have noted that there are hundreds of examples globally where non-coercive practices replace and eliminate seclusion and restraint.

The AMA can have an important role in supporting the reform agenda, if it better engages the people it ultimately serves – people using the system.

Simon Katterl, Brunswick