Case 25: Man with mental illness who is detained in a facility has restriction on calling his lawyers removed

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A man who was an inpatient at a mental health facility had his phone calls limited by order of his authorised psychiatrist. The psychiatrist thought that the man was making too many calls to government agencies including 000. The psychiatrist ordered that the man be limited to one phone call a day, including to his lawyers, and ordered that his calls be monitored to determine whether they were causing nuisance. Victoria Legal Aid advocated to the psychiatrist that this restriction unjustifiably limited the man’s freedom of expression. In response, the psychiatrist agreed to lift the ban on contacting his lawyers and put in place a review period after which the ban on calling other agencies would be reviewed.

Source: Human Rights Law Centre and Victoria Legal Aid, Protecting human rights for Victorians who have a mental illness using Victoria’s Human Rights Charter: Your advocacy guide, 2018