Balancing safety and freedom

Ensuring safety is generally uppermost in the minds of clinicians caring for people with mental illness. Similarly, supporting autonomy and self-determination throughout illness and recovery is widely viewed as an essential component of compassionate, respectful healthcare.

Inevitably, dilemmas arise in mental health practice when these two aspirations cannot be held concurrently in their entirety, rendering clinical decision-making particularly complex.

In our June 2017 Expert Insights evening we discuss the interface between mental health practice and the law, including times that necessitate involuntary assessment and treatment as well as occasions when the limits of confidentiality may need reconsidering.

Panel members:
His Honour Judge Richard Cogswell SC – President of Mental Health Review Tribunal
Dr Chris Ryan – Clinical Associate Professor | Consultation-Liaison Psychiatrist University of Sydney | Westmead Hospital | Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine
Kathryn and Joanne – Lived Experience Representative

Facilitated by: Dr Vered Gordon, Black Dog Institute GP Consultant
Recording and sound production: James Stewart, audioPost
Voiceover: Cameron Banks, Black Dog Institute