Dr. Liz Brosnan:

This is a very good question. I agree with everything that has been said. It is very important that independent funding and independent sources be provided to build up the capacity of a group that can actually step up as an independent advocate. It should be people with lived experience but people with lived experience need an awful lot of help to overcome many of the barriers faced by marginalised groups such as ours. Creating places and mechanisms to train people in human rights and in the values and principles of the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities and ensuring we can translate them into the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill is important. It is only when we get the resources and supports needed to build a strong independent user movement in this country that things will begin to change and that people will be able to step in and step up as peer advocates and peer support workers with the ability to resist capture by the mental health service and the whole ethos of coercive control I mentioned before. We need supports to build the strength of a movement that can help people. We are one of the last marginalised groups of people in this country. We are not recognised and not helped to step out of the chains that many of us are in. We want to believe the mental health services are doing things in our best interest but, in fact, they are actually keeping us captive.

As Ms Lillis said, independent peer advocacy at the time can help and support people not to need involuntary treatment. Every one of us wants to keep people out of the services and for those who go into the services to get the best support and help possible, but we also want to help people to step beyond the cognitive capture that happens within services. I echo everything. It is very important we build in strong supports. I thank the Deputy for the question.