Rethinking Mental Health Laws: An Integrated Approach: data

Full description

The dataset contains more than 60 voluntary confidential interviews conducted from 2008 to 2010 with international and Australian mental health experts currently or previously involved in the mental health system, in Australia (35), New Zealand (12), Canada (9), the United States (2), Hungary (1) and the United Kingdom (7). Participants included representatives of consumer and carer organisations: judicial decision makers, legal academics, professional bodies, psychiatrists and psychologists. During the interviews, Monash University researchers, Bernadette McSherry, Penny Weller and Danielle Andrewartha focused on perceptions of mental health laws. Questions sought to discover how good mental health was promoted and maintained, how discrimination against individuals with mental and/or intellectual impairments was prevented and whether there was a consensus or difference between participants based on their jurisdiction or their role in the mental health system. Rights-based care was of particular interest. Topics included mental health, guardianship and decision-making incapacity; the treatment of individuals with mental and/or intellectual impairments in the criminal justice system; and the rights of individuals with mental and/or intellectual impairments. Transcripts were managed by Kathleen Patterson, executive officer, and a research assistant, Kay Wilson, has used NVIVO to analyse the themes. The dataset also includes bibliographies of related books, articles, legislation and case law with analysis and annotations. Five articles will be published using de-identified quotations based on the interview data.

Notes

Sound recordings (3.09 Mb); Transcriptions (79.6 Mb); Series of Bibliographies (doc)

Significance statement

Since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities came into being, mental health policy has become increasingly important to governments around the world, and provided added impetus for a rethinking of mental health laws and regulatory frameworks. Analysis of the interviews will contribute to reforming mental health laws and help develop model frameworks for both civil commitment laws for those with serious mental illnesses and sentencing laws for mentally ill offenders.