Mental health statement of rights and responsibilities

Part I: Inherent dignity and equal protection

Page last updated: 2012

  1. All people have inherent dignity and worth and are entitled to the equal protection of their human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination of any kind.

  2. This statement aims to ensure that:
    1. members of society recognise their responsibility to respect the human worth and dignity of mental health consumers
    2. mental health consumers are aware of their rights and responsibilities and are able to exercise them
    3. mental health consumers with reduced capacity, including through intellectual disability and cognitive impairment, are supported to understand and exercise their rights
    4. mental health consumers, families, carers, support persons and service providers are aware of each other's rights and responsibilities, and support each other to realise them
    5. culturally and linguistically diverse communities receive culturally and linguistically appropriate services
    6. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities have their distinctive rights respected in relation to status, culture and the land.