Restrictive Practices

The Disability Royal Commission held a public hearing on “Psychotropic medication, behaviour support and behaviours of concern” in Sydney from Tuesday 22 to Friday 25 September, 2020.

You can find a transcript, video with Auslan interpretation and various documents mentioned in the hearing on the DRC website. As of June 2021 there is now an official report.

You can check out our Twitter commentary here: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

VMIAC (the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council) also posted helpful summaries of each day of the hearing here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4.

If you’re not sure about some of the language being used, see if it’s in our Jargon Buster.

Our ongoing blog series, Our Voice, includes several related posts:

Bad medication, by Ashley Waite.

Visits to the hospital, by Pippin Latham.

I used to know, and love, my mind, by Heidi Everett.

Where we stand on restrictive practices

PWDA supports the position of the Convention on the Human rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) that restrictive practices, whether social, chemical, mechanical or physical, are a breach of our human rights, and should be eliminated as a method of managing people with disability of any kind.

Australia is a signatory to the CRPD, and the UN Committee on the Rights of People with Disabilities has repeatedly asked Australia to take action to eliminate the use of restrictive practices.

Find out more in this DPO Australia factsheet.