Mental Health and Human Rights: 33 Years of Reports

Thirty-three years after the landmark Burdekin Report exposed serious human rights failures in Australia's mental health system, how much has really changed?

On 20 October, ASoP CEO Dr Pramudie Gunaratne joined a panel discussion on mental health and human rights at NSW Parliament House. Hosted by BEING and Greens MP Jenny Leong, Our Care, Our Rights brought together Jemima Isbester (Neami National), Sharon Grocott (WayAhead) and Tim Roberts (NSW Council for Civil Liberties), with NSW Minister for Mental Health Rose Jackson also in attendance.

The discussion returned to a frustrating reality: Australia is not short of reports telling us what's wrong with mental health care. We're short of action to fix it.

From the Richmond and Burdekin Reports to the Productivity Commission's inquiry and successive parliamentary inquiries, the same problems have been documented for decades. People still struggle to access timely care, families are left navigating fragmented services, and clinicians often lack the resources to deliver the care they know is needed.

Dr Gunaratne highlighted the estimated $700 million funding gap in NSW mental health services and argued that rights cannot be delivered through legislation and policy alone.

Human rights in mental health must mean more than freedom from unsafe or coercive care. They must also mean the right to access high-quality treatment and support when it's needed.

Australia prides itself on having one of the world's leading healthcare systems. People living with mental illness deserve the same standard of care we expect for physical illness.

We don't need another report telling us what needs to change. We need the investment and determination to make those changes a reality.