The election wrap-up

This campaign is now complete. We thank the hundreds of people who supported us in this long, and heart-felt campaign.

The election was held in November 2018, and Labor was re-elected to government. While this campaign is over, the issues remain.

This time, we didn’t get the changes we were seeking, but:

  • Two of our priorities were picked up by The Greens as election commitments
  • We got some high profile media coverage
  • We grew the number of active consumers standing up for change

Overall, we raised the profile of consumers and our issues, much more than in any past election. In itself, this is an important success—and it will stand us in good stead at the next election.

We invite you to help us keep the issues alive: read our campaign materials and use them where you can. Keep an eye out for future campaigns and ways to get involved.

Please note: Some of the content and images on this page may be distressing for some people. We show images of restraint and discuss a range of traumatic issues, including sexual violence, experienced by mental health consumers/survivors.

Victoria’s state election is coming: 24 November 2018
Let’s make it matter

On this page

Latest Election News

Labor announces that the promised Royal Commission will be led by a psychiatrist.

VMIAC’s views about a Royal Commission:

A Royal Commission into Mental Health?
Response by Maggie Toko, VMIAC CEO

Labor party announces election promise for a Royal Commission into Mental Health and mental health professionals in schools.

A Royal Commission? Interview with Indigo Daya, VMIAC Human Rights Advisor

The Greens announce mental health election promises, including $10M to prevent sexual violence in hospitals, $50M per year ongoing for community mental health sector and increased funding for Orygen youth mental health.

Election Scorecard

We’re proud to share the new VMIAC Election Scorecard!

Want to know what the big parties have promised in the election? How do they measure up to consumer priorities? We’ve done all the hard work for you, in this two page summary.

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We’ll update the scorecard as needed and share a final version just before election day.

Download the latest scorecard below:

scorecard

The campaign

VMIAC is proud to launch our election platform for the 2018 Victorian state election. The campaign is called ‘Hurt in hospitals, casualties in the community’. Strong words, but we know they are justified.

  • We call on all political candidates and parties to commit to real changes that stop us being hurt in the systems that are supposed to help us.
  • We call on consumers and our supporters across Victoria to raise your voices with us. Our issues are serious. Our rights matter. And we all vote.

Over the coming months this page will grow as we add:

  • Consumer stories and videos about the issues
  • Campaign activities and events
  • Resources for use in campaigning
  • Responses to mental health campaign announcements by the different parties
  • Election news

Keep up to date: follow us on Twitter or Facebook

Show your support: become a VMIAC member. It’s free, and it includes opportunities to have your say and make a difference.

Our election platform

VMIAC’s election platform details some of the biggest issues affecting our community. It includes:

  • The 3 big issues
  • Our position on each issue
  • Calls for change on each issue
  • Background information about each issue

The platform is based on decades of advocacy with and for our consumer/survivor community.

Why this campaign?

Things are getting worse, not better.

Mental health is always in the media. Governments talking about what a great job they’re doing. Health services and psychiatrists talking about their innovative research and programs.

But we’re the peak body that represents the most silenced, distressed and marginalised people affected by mental health problems. And our community is saying loud and clear that governments are not listening, services are not helping, and things are getting worse, not better.

We can speak for ourselves

For too long, governments and the community have listened to the mental health sector, or others, about what we need. Of course, they have a right to speak up.

But we can speak for ourselves—we don’t want, or need, others to speak on our behalf. And we have something different to say.

Our basic needs are not being met. Thousands of us are harmed in devastating ways every year—and it’s not getting better.

We’re not campaigning for profits, a pay rise, or a surplus on our bottom line. We’re asking to be safe, treated with dignity, to be free from violence and abuse, to have our fundamental rights respected, and access to reasonable services that we have a right to.

The three big issues

1. Hurt in hospital

Consumers continue to experience serious physical and psychological harms in Victorian mental health hospital units.

The mental health sector is not accountable enough, and government provides little transparency about the harms that happen behind the locked doors of hospital units.

We call for:

  • A major new initiative to limit predictable harms from compulsory and restrictive treatment
  • Fund a pilot peer-run crisis service based on successful overseas services. It’s time to try something contemporary, safe, effective and different.

Did you know?

57percent

10percent
347percent
hospital bed

2. Sexual violence in hospital

In the midst of our distress, people admitted to Victorian mental health hospital units are still experiencing sexual harassment and assault. This is despite more than 25 years of reports on this issue.

Victorian hospitals & successive governments have failed to protect consumers from sexual violence while in hospital. The recent report by the Mental Health Complaints Commissioner is damning—and we need urgent, large-scale action.

We call for:

  • An acknowledgement and apology to survivors
  • Responding to The Right to be Safe report: Act now to implement our recommended urgent safety actions
  • Responding to The Right to be Safe report: Commit to address implementation risks and fund at least $40m to begin implementation
  • Address the needs of historical survivors
  • Increase transparency and accountability for staff perpetrators and staff negligence

Did you know?

55percent

68percent
welcome

3. Casualties in the community

Thousands of distressed Victorians can no longer access any non-clinical community support or rehabilitation services. People with psychosocial disability are being locked out of the NDIS, and the community support sector has been decimated.

We call for:

  • Hold the Commonwealth government accountable for NDIS failings
  • Fund a new kind of state-wide service: ‘Walk-In community support’
  • Fund VMIAC to provide independent advocacy and peer support to people struggling to access the NDIS
  • Fund a coproduced project to better understand and address widespread support, habilitation and rehabilitation gaps following five years of disruptive sector change

Did you know?

These are all broken promises about the NDIS…

fact1

fact2
fact3

Short Films About the Issues

VMIAC is proud to have worked with consumers to produce this series of short films, by consumers, about the issues that matter to them.
We’ve got even more films on VMIAC’s YouTube channel, visit it here.

Get Involved

  • Get active locally: Keep an eye on this site for campaigning tips and resources, including ways to have your say with your local election candidates.
  • Join us: Please think about becoming a VMIAC member. It’s free, and every new member increases the influence of our collective voice.
  • Social media: Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and help raise awareness by retweeting and sharing our posts

Resources

Check out our tip sheet on ways to make a difference! 

Download our campaign images… perfect to print as postcards! Click below to download individual images, or click here to download all the postcards in a set, formatted for A4 printing. Help us get the message out there, share them around…

Use the media! If you hear or see a story that’s not OK, call the station, write a letter to the editor, comment on social media, or give us the heads up at VMIAC.

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