Rau ordeal a raw deal

Rau ordeal prompts call for separate Qld inquiry but the community calls for a public inquiry!

The Queensland Government has been urged to hold its own inquiry into mental health and corrective services in light of the Cornelia Rau case.

The Queensland Alliance, which represents mental health and prisoner groups, says Ms Rau's treatment after she was picked up by police on Cape York Peninsula exposes significant systematic failings.

Ms Rau spent time in a Queensland prison and a hospital before being handed to immigration authorities who kept her in detention for another four months.

Alliance executive director Jeff Cheverton says mental health sufferers are being abused in Queensland and it is time to find out why.

"There needs to be a thorough ongoing investigation," he said.

"I don't think there's been an inquiry into mental health in Queensland since the 1970s and the latest inquiry was the Burdekin inquiry in 1993, which found enormous human rights abuses.

"Clearly the Government isn't giving mental health the priority that we believe it deserves."

The Federal Fascist Government has appointed a former Federal Police commissioner to look into the case? Police investigating themselves!

What will we get from this fascist governments private police enquiry? A whitewash, new draconian legislation (that oppresses the community further), certainly not the truth, or even a better policy that ensures that this doesn't happen again. Not even those responsible taken to task. Argue for reverse surveillance! We want a public inquiry!

By Public Inquiry 9 February 05

Australian held in Baxter detention centre
It has been revealed an Australian resident has been locked up in Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia for the past four months. Authorities had been unable to establish her identity since she was found wandering in far north Queensland last September.

Lawyers want Baxter detainee released for treatment !
Lawyers acting for a hunger-striking detainee inside South Australia's Baxter detention centre have asked the Federal Court to order a psychiatric assessment for the man, saying he needs to be in mental health care, not detention.

Baxter protesters 'being denied water, sleep'?
One of the three Iranian men has been on the roof of the gymnasium since Sunday last week, with two others joining him on Tuesday.

Detainees urged to abandon rooftop protest!
Kathy Verran from Rural Australians for Refugees, says one of the men has since come down and has been taken into the management unit. [solitary confinement for Xmas?]

Advocates warn of detention centre riot risk
A prominent refugee advocate warns South Australia's Baxter Detention Centre is on the brink of a major riot. A protest involving about 25 male detainees broke out at the centre on Tuesday, over a new system which is delaying the process of dispensing medication to detainees.

Villawood detainees go on hunger strike
A refugee advocacy group says up to 200 detainees at the Villawood Detention Centre, in Sydney, have begun a hunger strike to draw attention to their situation ahead of the federal election.

Afghan children lose High Court battle against detention
Lawyers have lost their constitutional challenge to the detention of four children at a South Australian immigration centre. Four siblings from Afghanistan, aged between seven and 15, have been in detention since they arrived in Australia in 2001.

Australia's "GITMO" System
Australia's "GITMO" System In June 2002 on the PM program on ABC radio, PHILIP RUDDOCK is quoted as saying: "Well, let me just say, detention centres are not prisons. They are administrative detention.

Senior cleric damns Baxter as 'disgraceful'
A senior world religious figure has called on the Federal Government to scrap its mandatory detention policy after visiting the Baxter detention centre in South Australia's north.

Detention centre media ban criticised
The Howard Government has been criticised in a report by media freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders for stopping journalists covering the conditions in refugee detention centres.

Baxter detainee continues hunger strike
A detainee at the Baxter detention centre near Port Augusta in South Australia has been on a hunger strike for a week. Sri Lankan Zeldon Daggie, 23, says he has been detained since arriving in Australia four years ago.

Democrats to keep up pressure over asylum seekers
The Australian Democrats will maintain their pressure on the next federal government over Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, if the party can retain its strength in the Senate.

MENTAL HEALTH COMMUNITY CONSULTATIONS

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and the Mental Health Council of Australia (MHCA) will hold Community Forums in Sydney and Broken Hill to investigate claims that the system has turned its back on those in need of mental health care.

Forums in each State and Territory are being held as part of national research into the human rights of people with a mental illness. The results of this research will allow HREOC and the MHCA to review progress made since the "Burdekin Report" in 1993.

Sydney Monday 12 July 2004 9:30 am - 11:30 am NSW Department of Commerce Level 4, Conference Room 1, McKell Building 2-24 Rawson Place, Sydney (entrance & register at security desk on Level 3)

Broken Hill Thursday 15 July 2004 12:45 pm - 1:45 pm Centre for the Community Function Room 200 Beryl Street, Sturt Park.

Written submissions are welcome and can be addressed to:

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 133 Castlereagh Street SYDNEY NSW 2000 Email: paffairs@humanrights.gov.au or

Mental Health Council of Australia PO Box 174, DEAKIN WEST ACT 2601 Email: admin@mhca.com.au

For more information please contact: Gabrielle Crowe, Communications Manager, MHCA on 02 6285 3100 or email gabrielle.crowe@mhca.com.au

Auslan Interpreters & Hearing Loop facilities available at Sydney forum, Hearing Loop facilities available at Broken Hill forum.

Open to all members of the public, free of charge.

Invitation to two community consultations run by The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and the Mental Health Council of Australia to investigate claims the system has turned its back on those in need of mental health care.

Please Note that the first one is THIS MONDAY. We apologise for the late notice, but we were only just informed. Schizophrenia Fellowship.

"Anne Lanham" anne@sfnsw.org.au

By Anne Lanham posted 9 July 04

Related:

National Mental Health Conference
Dr Carmen Lawrence MHR, opened the Forum and spoke about her role and she spoke of concerns about children in detention and people coming to our shores for help to escape their persecution and they are put in detention in Australia. The Pacific solution in Nauru where some are held for 12 months and some for up to 2 or 3 years.

Schizophrenia: talking may help when drugs don't
New research has strengthened the case for using 'talk therapy' in the treatment of schizophrenia, especially for those who don't respond well to drugs.

Presentation at the Ngo Mental Health Conference
I am James Condren from Justice Action I am a Community Mentor and caseworker. My role is to do prisoner support for those who are in Jail or at risk of going to Jail.

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN N S W
Ms CLOVER MOORE (Bligh) [4.43 p.m.]: Today I speak about the shocking situation for people with mental illness, and call for urgent government action. There have been calls for reform of mental health services as far back as the 1983 Richmond report, followed by the 1988 Barclay report and the 1993 Burdekin report.

Baume plan would keep ex-prisoners from hospitals
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Conditions in the HRMU
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The psychiatric protection order for the "battered mental patient"
Psychiatric patients are routinely treated against their will. Legally enforceable psychiatric protection orders would protect patients from coercive psychiatric interventions...

Forensic Hospital at Long Bay
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Eli Lilly buys Schizophrenia Fellowship
I think anyone concerned about the capture of community/consumer groups by pharmaceutical companies will not feel reassured by the current website of the Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW.

Adelaide's Glenside psychiatric hospital: Escape from hell?
A third person has escaped from the Adelaide's Glenside psychiatric hospital as health authorities prepare to begin a second review of security.

Child detainees 'living in a nightmare', report finds
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Letter from the mother of a prisoner on remand at the High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre I am writing to give you permission to make any inquiries on my behalf as I am invalid pensioner who doesn't drive and been only well enough to travel by train once in 15 months to see my son Scott Simpson. I have enclosed a copy of Scott's letter and also a copy of gaol papers form I have to fill out and wait to see if I'm allowed in to see him. He doesn't get any visits. He is in the Supermax and deprived of any privileges not even legal Aid will fund a solicitor to see him in Goulburn.

Intolerable Conditions of Prisoners at Goulburn's HRMU
We wish to with respect, level a serious complaint against the Chief Executive Officer, Corrections Health Services, Dr Richard Matthews.

Judicial, mental health and police corruption
Ian Kay, who blew the whistle on judicial and police corruption here in Victoria has recently been improperly incarcerated in MAP Prison, Melbourne for doing nothing more than writing a letter of complaint to his local MP.