By Julia Medew Health Editor
Complaints about mental health services have soared in Victoria, triggering a review of physical and chemical restraints used on people in emergency departments.
There are also concerns about assaults and other harm caused to people in mental health units by staff and other patients, as well as fears patients are being stripped of their mobile phones and ability to contact police if they want to report an incident.
Mental Health Complaints Commissioner Lynne Coulson Barr was flooded with nearly 1000 complaints last year.Credit: Thinkstock
In her first annual report, Victoria's new Mental Health Complaints Commissioner Lynne Coulson Barr said she had been flooded with nearly 1000 complaints last year - up from 590 received by the Chief Psychiatrist and the Health Services Commissioner in 2013-14.
While most complaints were about treatments, communication and access to services, Ms Coulson Barr said a small number related to assaults, injuries, near misses and critical incidents.
"Over our first year, we identified particular concerns about the use of restrictive interventions in emergency departments, and questions about the adequacy of reporting, oversight and safeguards in respect of these practices," she said in her annual report for 2014-15.
The matter has been referred to the Department of Health and Human Services for a review, along with concerns people's mobile phones and computers are being confiscated upon entry to mental health units, taking away people's ability to communicate privately.
The report said people with mental illnesses have a right to the least restrictive treatment when it comes to the use of seclusion and restraint, medication and treatment settings, including locked units.
Chief executive of the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council, Dean Barton-Smith, said he was aware of the issues raised and said some people were being held in seclusion for more than four hours in emergency departments before being seen by a specialist. While there may be extreme occasions where this is required, he said this could escalate someone's distress and trauma.
The complaints come as new data shows about one in three people with a mental illness who seek treatment in an emergency department are waiting longer than eight hours to be admitted to a mental health bed.
President of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Anthony Cross said a shortage of mental health services was causing people to wait for long periods of time in emergency departments and that these shortages may lead to longer periods of chemical and physical restraint for people which was "unfortunately very common".
Dr Cross said restraints were only used when deemed necessary to protect the patient or others in the emergency department. Restraints include "four point" padded shackles for people's wrists and ankles so they can be tied to a bed and drugs such as sedatives and tranquilisers.
"No health care worker looks forward to using restraints on patients," he said. "The vast majority of psychiatric patients do not need restraints."