The OCP Sexual Safety Committee

Carol and Julie represent the Network on The OCP Sexual Safety Committee, a state-wide committee delivering outcomes for safety by the Mental Health Branch, DHHS.

The committee is deliberating on ways to further improve women’s safety based on feedback from the Mental Health Complaints Commission Safety Report . Stakeholders will be meeting regularly to review their progress.

The inaugural meeting was held in January; a report was delivered on disaggregated data collected by the mental health branch.

This duplication of effort seems to have only further reinforced that the data collected and analysed by the Network and other organisations such as VMIAC over the previous 15 years is indeed correct – safety issues persist.

WMHNV hope that policy makers make inpatient safety in private and public mental health wards the highest priority for hospital administrators.

Compliance with guidelines for reporting sexual & physical assaults as well as consistent trauma- informed care training for all staff the Network views as ways policy makers at a local level can support systems change in this area. Accountability needs to track from the top down at all layers of governance and management.

The Network will continue to collaborate with government committees & working groups to ensure this issue is kept a priority for policy agenda.

Update:

The next focused piece of work incorporating a participatory model approach will be the  revamp of the Chief Psychiatrist Promoting Sexual Safety Guideline and the Service Guideline for Gender-Sensitivity and Safety.

The Sexual Safety Committee will oversee this work which will facilitate extensive consumer and staff input.