Home > Privacy and Confidentiality
Privacy and Confidentiality
Patient privacy and confidentiality is very important to the Mental Health Review Tribunal. The Tribunal strives to protect any personal information it receives at a hearing or that it holds as part of a record.
Patients are sometimes reluctant to attend a Tribunal hearing or to provide information to the Tribunal for fear that this information may be disclosed to other people. The Mental Health Act 2000 imposes a strict duty of confidentiality upon Tribunal members, employees and people providing services to the Tribunal. This means that your personal information cannot be disclosed to anyone else unless you approve the disclosure in writing or the law requires the disclosure.
The Tribunal's obligation to protect a person's privacy is also based on Information Standard 42A. The Tribunal's Privacy Plan outlines the personal information held by the Tribunal and how privacy is maintained.
Download the MHRT Privacy Plan
Tribunal Hearings
Tribunal hearings are held in private at Authorised Mental Health Services. On rare occasions an observer may attend a hearing to observe the Tribunal but this only happens when the patient gives their consent to the observer being in the room.
Tribunal hearings are not recorded electronically. Sometimes the Tribunal may use video or teleconferencing to hold a hearing when a patient is located in a remote area or when there isn't enough time or resources to have an "in-person" hearing. No tapes or electronic records are kept when hearings are held by videoconferencing or teleconferencing.
Forensic Patient Information Orders
A Forensic Patient Information Order displaces a patient's right to confidentiality to a small degree.
Forensic Patient Information Orders (FPIOs) provide that victims, relatives of victims or other concerned persons may receive information about a patient#39;s hearing. Information that may be disclosed under a FPIO includes:
- When a review of a patient is to be carried out;
- The decision of the Tribunal at the hearing, including conditions of limited community treatment;
- Any approval for the patient to move out of Queensland;
- The transfer of the patient from one authorised mental health service to another;
- When a patient is absent from the authorised mental health service without approval;
- When a patient ceases to be a forensic patient and the reasons for the cessation.
FPIOs are made by the President of the Tribunal and usually the President will send the reasons for his decision about the FPIO to the patient and the person who applied for the order. The President can impose conditions on the person for whom the order is made.
The person receiving information under a FPIO is not to publicise this information. A person who publishes such information is liable for 2 years imprisonment or a maximum fine of $15,000.
