Consumer handbook to the Mental Health Act 2014

The Consumer handbook to the Mental Health Act 2014 (Handbook) was written by consumers with lived experience of mental health challenges to help you understand the Act, navigate the mental health system and uphold your rights. This handbook is user friendly, relevant and informative. The Handbook outlines:

  • consumer and carer rights
  • assessment, referral and examination
  • hospital admission, treatment options and discharge
  • further opinions
  • community treatment orders
  • the roles of the Mental Health Advocacy Service, the Mental Health Tribunal and the Chief Psychiatrist
  • complaints and feedback pathways.

The Handbook also sets out the Charter of Mental Health Care Principles (Charter), which describes the 15 principles that the legislation is built on and which mental health services and private psychiatric hostels must always consider when providing treatment, care and support to a person experiencing mental challenges whether they’re a voluntary and involuntary patient.

Mental Health Fact Sheets

We partner with Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia (MIFA) to provide practical and easy to understand factsheets about mental health conditions and treatment.

MIFWA is a MI Networks member, with sister organisations across Australia we offer information and support in your local areas. You can call us on 1800 985 944. MI Networks is a MIFA initiative and is supported by its members nationally.

Finding North

Another MIFA initiative is the Finding North website, a mental health education website inspiring people to find their North and help others to find theirs. It empowers individuals and their families, carers, friends and colleagues by giving them access to reliable, evidence-based information that clarifies what they or their loved ones are going through. It uses personal stories to show they’re not alone and gives them hope and the motivation to seek support.

Below are direct links to some of their resources.

Fact sheets  

Main page: https://findingnorth.org.au/mental-health-wellness/

Get help

You can call us on 1800 985 944.

Or use the Finding North database to find supports near you.

Helpful guides

Mental Health Treatment

Health & Wellness

Translated Fact Sheets

Mental health and illness is complex and diverse. It is even harder to understand when it’s not explained in your own language. These resources have been translated into a range of languages for those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to access.

Languages include:

Amharic, Arabic, Assyrian, Bengali, Burmese, Cantonese, Simplified Chinese, Croatian, Dari, Dinka, Farsi/Persian, Greek, Hazaragi, Italian, Khmer, Korean, Krio, Macedonian, Polish, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swahili, Traditional Chinese and Vietnamese

The fact sheets currently available include:

  • Depression
  • Mental Health and wellbeing
  • Trauma
  • What is schizophrenia?
  • What is a personality disorder?
  • Challenging behaviours

You can access the resources here.

‘Look after your mental health’ videos in different languages

The Embrace Project has developed videos of members speaking about how they look after their mental health.

The videos come in five languages: English, Arabic, Hindi, Bosnian and Japanese. Each video has another version with English subtitles.

You can check out the videos on the Embrace YouTube channel here.