Professor Eilion?ir Flynn:

It is really valuable to see inter-agency co-operation in the task force and in other processes to try to resolve some of the fundamental structural barriers to how our criminal justice system and mental health services are currently operating. The one thing I would encourage us to do more of in future processes, including in the resourcing, prioritisation, implementation and monitoring of the task force recommendations, is ensure we listen to the voices of people who have experienced the system at first hand, particularly those who have had various mental health labels applied to them. It is important not to undermine the views of family members, but we should note that they may have a different perspective on what happened to the person from the perspective the person has, having lived through the system. There were opportunities for people to be consulted in that process, and they were consulted, but in terms of having an equal seat at the table and equal partnership, we are still a long way from that in most of our processes. We must continue to strive to achieve it in all the future implementation of the planned reforms that are ongoing within the criminal justice and mental health services. It would be remiss of me not to make that point, emphasising particularly the importance of the voice of people with experience of the system and the need to make their voice central to decision-making. That is an area in which we need to make a lot more progress.