Dr Sam Boyle1
1Australian Centre for Health Law Research, QUT, Brisbane, Australia
Biography:
Dr Sam Boyle is a senior lecturer in the School of Law at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and a member of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research. He teaches and researches in the areas of medical law and mental health law. His research looks at how compulsory mental health law is operated, and options for its improvement. He recently spent a year studying the system of compulsory mental health treatment in Ontario, Canada.
Abstract:
Compulsory treatment for mental illness in the civil system remains a subject of significant debate and a strong push for reform. This symposium brings together the latest thinking on the topic, spanning human rights, international perspectives, and specific reform options.
The panel unites four experts with extensive experience in compulsory civil mental health law.
Dr Neeraj Gill, Professor of Psychiatry at Griffith University, is a world leader in human rights and civil mental health law. He will discuss Australia's obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and concrete options for promoting non-coercive practices that respect people's rights, dignity, and choice.
Dr Rosiel Elwyn, a postdoctoral researcher and Lived Experience Academic at UniSC's Thompson Institute, offers a dual perspective as both researcher and a person with lived experience of civil involuntary treatment for severe, longstanding anorexia nervosa. They will discuss needed reform to the mental health system.
Dr Katrine Del Villar, Senior Lecturer at the QUT School of Law and a member of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research (ACHLR). Her paper examines mental health advance directives (MHADs) from a legal perspective, considering whether legislation in Australia is appropriately tailored to directives concerning mental illness and how this could be improved.
Dr Sam Boyle, Senior Lecturer at the QUT School of Law and ACHLR member. He will discuss Australia's system of compulsory mental health treatment in an international context, and the case for legal reform.