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The Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) (DDA) and equivalent state and territory laws make it unlawful to discriminate against, harass or victimise people with disabilities or their associates – including in employment.

The following information provides a brief overview of mental illness. It is important to have an understanding of what mental illness is and its possible effects on a worker as this helps you to be more effective in handling issues that may arise. However, you do not need to become an expert in mental health nor are you required to assess whether a worker has a mental illness.

First and foremost people with mental illness are people and therefore it is important to use 'people first' language when referring to a person with a mental illness.

I recently had the opportunity to address participants in the ALGA National Local Roads and Transport Congress on the role of local government in responding to the mobility and access needs of people with a disability.

Michael Small Senior Policy Officer in the Disability Rights Unit at the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission michaelsmall@humanrights.gov.au

The ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ recently (May 2004) met with representatives from a number of small business organisations to discuss the draft Premises Standards. The purpose of the meetings was to provide additional information on a number of specific concerns that had been raised. The Commission followed up the meetings with a letter which is reproduced below.

NOTE: This document is issued by the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department. The ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ has put it here on its World Wide Web site for your convenience.

Yes. The difference in judgment and perception of life and events from when one is well to when one is psychotic is quite extreme, so anything that can be done to make this passage, and the return to wellness, a little easier is to be recommended.

Our response to the Key Issues for Comment contained in your Discussion Paper follows. You will note that throughout this document we have referred to "Advance Directives" as we feel strongly that this is a preferable term, for the reasons stated below.

In South Australia, the general terms 'advance directive', or 'living will', usually refer to any written statement that expresses a person's wishes and/or directions whilst of sound mind (ie not mentally incapacitated*), in advance of any possible loss of decision making ability that may occur in the future. Of the advance directives made by South Australians, only the following are legally…

The Public Advocate of Western Australia supports the concept of people with mental illnesses having significant and formalised input into the treatment of their illness. A pre-planning instrument such as a living will is a useful tool for people with fluctuating illnesses to contribute to their management while they are unwell.

The Public Guardian of New South Wales is the legal guardian of over 1300 people with decision making disabilities. Of these approximately 150 have a diagnosed mental illness. The arrival of the commission's discussion paper on living wills is therefore a welcome opportunity to consider the issue of living wills and people with an incapacity to make decisions.

There is a need for Living Wills in the area of mental health, and they must carry weight ie. Mental Health professionals must listen to and be bound by them.

At the age of four, I was taken away from my family and placed in Sister Kate's Home - Western Australia where I was kept as a ward of the state until I was eighteen years old. I was forbidden to see any of my family or know of their whereabouts. Five of us D. children were all taken and placed in different institutions in WA. The Protector of Aborigines and the Child Welfare Department in their …

1936 it was. I would have been five. We went visiting Ernabella the day the police came. Our great-uncle Sid was leasing Ernabella from the government at that time so we went there.

My grandmother was taken from up Tennant Creek. What gave them the right to just go and take them? They brought her down to The Bungalow [at Alice Springs]. Then she had Uncle Billy and my Mum to an Aboriginal Protection Officer. She had no say in that from what I can gather. And then from there they sent her out to Hermannsburg - because you know, she was only 14 when she had Uncle Billy, 15…

John was removed from his family as an infant in the 1940s. He spent his first years in Bomaderry ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ's Home at Nowra. At 10 he was transferred to Kinchela.

We always lived by ourselves. Not that we thought we were better than any other Koori family. It's just that the white welfare, if they seen a group of Koori families together, they would step in and take their children away never to be seen again.

When I accessed my file, I found out that the police and the station people at B... Station felt that my mother was looking after me. And they were unsure of why I was being taken away. They actually asked if I could stay there. But because I was light-skinned with a white father, their policy was that I had to be taken away. I was then the third child in a family of, as it turned out to be, 13…

I am a part Aboriginal woman, who was adopted out at birth. I was adopted by a white Australian family and came to live in New Zealand at the age of 6 months. I grew up not knowing about my natural Mother and Father. The only information my adoptive parents had about my birth, was the surname of my birth Mother.