Our Care, Our Rights: Mental Health and Human Rights in NSW

If you have been held in hospital against your will, turned away when you asked for help, or met by police when you needed care, you already know that mental health is a human rights issue.

This Mental Health Month, BEING – Mental Health Consumers and Jenny Leong MP invite you to NSW Parliament House to discuss progress on mental health as a human right: how far we have come and how far we still have to go.

Why now

On 20 October 1993, Human Rights Commissioner Brian Burdekin stood in Sydney and released a national report. It found that people living with mental illness were being denied their basic rights. Our event falls 33 years later to the day.

A lot has changed since then. A lot has stayed the same. NSW still has no Human Rights Act. A Bill before Parliament would write 31 rights into NSW law, including the right to mental health care and the right to housing.

We want those MPs to hear from people who live with the system every day.

What will happen

• 11:00am: Panel. People with lived experience, Wayahead, psychiatrists and civil liberties advocates talk about what rights mean in real life: in hospital, in a crisis, at home. MPs from across Parliament have been invited to respond. You can ask questions.

• 12:00pm: Lunch. Eat, meet other members, and talk with speakers and MPs.

• 1:00pm: Brian Burdekin, live on screen. Stay and watch a national interview with the man who wrote the 1993 report.

Who it is for

People with lived experience of mental health challenges. Families, carers and kin. Peer workers and people who work in services. Anyone who wants care that treats people with dignity.

You do not need to know anything about law or politics. Your experience is the expertise.

Good to know

• The event is free and lunch is provided. Tell us about dietary needs when you register.

• Allow 15 minutes to get through security at the Macquarie Street entrance.

• Parliament House is wheelchair accessible. Tell us what you need to take part and we will arrange it.

• Some of the conversation may be hard to hear. You can step out at any time, and BEING staff will be there if you want to talk.