Patients, Family and Carers

Mental Health and Wellbeing Services at Bendigo Health welcome consumers (patients), families and carers who are engaged with our services. We recognise that every consumer, carer and family’s personal experience is different.

We recognise the invaluable benefits of working together with consumers, families and carers, and we welcome your participation.

We support consumers, families and carers by providing relevant information about our service and Victoria’s Mental Health and Wellbeing System.

We strive to provide the best possible services for our consumers, families and carers. We appreciate your feedback and any suggestions you may have to help us to continue to provide the best possible services. You can provide feedback to us at any time by talking and by asking staff for a feedback form. You will also be offered a survey at the point of your or the person you are supporting’s discharge or transfer to another team within the service.

This page has resources and programs specific to patients, family and carers that you may find helpful.

If you require support at any stage or have questions or would like paper copies of any information or the survey, please ask staff for assistance.

Mental Health & Wellbeing Act 2022

Victoria’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022 has certain requirements for state-funded mental health and wellbeing service providers, like Bendigo Health. The Act promotes good mental health and wellbeing for all Victorians.

You can access the Act and helpful resources here: Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022

The Act has principles that require mental health and wellbeing service providers to:

support the dignity and autonomy of people living with mental illness or psychological distress
ensure people are involved in decisions about their treatment, care and support
recognise the role of families, carers and supporters
ensure the service system responds to the diverse needs and preferences of Victorians.

The principles apply to all mental health wellbeing service providers.

The Act uses terms and language that have specific meanings. These terms might mean different things outside of the Act.

You can access the definitions of the terms here: Terms and Definitions in the MHWA2022

Consumer Rights and Options

Consumers receiving mental health and wellbeing services have rights that are set out in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022.

You can access information about your rights here: Your Rights as a Consumer

Even if you are receiving compulsory treatment, you have the right to be involved in decisions about your assessment, treatment and recovery. You should also be supported in making and participating in these decisions.

Your views and preferences should be respected at every stage of your care.

Consumer Self-Advocacy Tool

Independent Mental Health Advocacy have made a tool to help you to know more about your rights and options if you are receiving compulsory treatment. The tool will help you to make a self-advocacy plan to speak up about your views and preferences.

After you make your plan, you can print it and email it to yourself so that you can refer to it if you need to. You can ask staff for support with printing or emailing it to yourself, or you can ask for a paper copy to fill out.

You can assess the tool here: Consumer Self-Advocacy Tool

Family, Carer and Supporters Rights and Support Options

Families, carers and supporters of people with mental health challenges also have rights in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022. This includes dependent children of people with mental health challenges.

It is important that you know your rights and options in The Act as a family member, carer or supporter. It is also important that you know the rights and options of the person you are supporting.

Tandem is the peak body for mental health carers in Victoria. Tandem have made a helpful information kit for families, carers and supports to help you to understand your rights and options while supporting a person with mental health challenges. The information kit has information in written and video content.

You can access the information kit here: Tandem Information Kit for Families, Carers and Supporters

Children and Your People Affected by Family Mental Health Challenges

We have a dedicated, specialist team to support and advocate for children and young people, from birth to age 25 years, who are affected by a family member with mental health challenges. We recognise that the rights and needs of children and young people are different to adult family members, carers and supports. We want to ensure that children and young people feel safe and their wellbeing is considered at every stage of their family member’s mental health journey.

The FaPMI team includes a coordinator and two child and young person development workers, who provide individual and group supports to children, young people and their families. The FaPMI team also support the clinical teams to include children and young people’s needs and opinions, when decisions about treatment and recovery are being made.

You can ask staff to refer you or a child to the FaPMI team for supports, or you can reach out by phone or email.

The phone number is (03) 5454 7612 and the email is [email protected]

Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission were created to make sure mental health and wellbeing services are safe for everyone and providing good quality services.

Consumers, families, carers and supporters can contact the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission if you think a provider is not following the principles of The Act. You can also contact the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission if you want to make a complaint about a mental health and wellbeing service.