Alice Springs man appeals Mental Health Review Tribunal order to compel antipsychotic injections

An Indigenous man did not have access to a translator as a tribunal stripped him of his ‘liberty’ over his own medical treatment.

A Luritja man was not provided an interpreter during a Mental Health Tribunal Hearing which ordered him to take medication against his will.

An Alice Springs man is fighting for a say in his own medical treatment after being denied access to an interpreter during his Mental Health Tribunal hearing.

The 30-year-old man who suffers from schizophrenia and epilepsy has launched a stay application ahead of his Supreme Court appeal against a six-month community management order.

The Mental Health Tribunal ruled in February that the 30-year-old could be forced to take paliperidone injections, an antipsychotic medication, as he “lacked capacity to make decisions around his treatment” or that if he did make choices they were “unreasonable” and this posed a risk to himself and others.

On Thursday Justice Meredith Huntingford heard the order was placed on the Indigenous man, currently imprisoned in Alice Springs Correctional Centre, in anticipation of his parole eligibility.

His barrister Tim Noonan argued his client was denied procedural fairness due to the absence of a translator as legal and medical experts engaged in debates over his right to medical autonomy.

“This order that substantially deprives him of liberty, the liberty to refuse medical treatment to which he does not consent,” Mr Noonan said.

He said English was his client’s third or fourth language and his native tongue was a Western Desert language.

An Alice Springs man is fighting for a say in his own medical treatment after being denied access to an interpreter during his Mental Health Tribunal hearing. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Mr Noonan said the 30-year-old was not able to instruct his solicitor on the “nuance” of the complexities of the Mental Health Act.

“There are questions of understanding … there is a lack of clarity around what (he) thinks,” he said.

Mr Noonan said one of the doctors at the Tribunal meeting raised this exact issue, however it was dismissed as it would require an adjournment and a new hearing date for the interim management order.

“It was put to the tribunal that there was a real and live question of whether (his) perceived lack of insight or ability to give informed consent for decision making did not arise from his mental illness or injury … but possibly due to education and the need to receive education in language he can understand,” he said.

NT government barrister Monica Thompson argued the order was necessary given the risks the 30-year-old posed to himself and others when off his medication.

“(He) told the doctor that he doesn’t wish to receive any medication and doesn’t believe that he needs medication,” Ms Thompson said.

Ms Thompson said the 30-year-old — who was first diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 21 — had a history of violent and destructive episodes when off his medication.

The 30-year-old was sentenced for endangering serious harm after throwing a three-year-old girl head first into the pavement near an Alice Springs taxi rank.

Most recently he was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment for endangering serious harm after throwing a three-year-old girl head first into the pavement near an Alice Springs taxi rank.

Court documents obtained by the NT News said the “spontaneous” and “random” act of violence against the young child was a symptom of a mental health “relapse” after not taking his medication and using cannabis.

Shortly after his arrest, he was detained for eight days as an inpatient in the Alice Springs mental health ward.

Before this incident he had no prior record of violent offending, but had stealing, dishonesty and driving convictions as well as bail, parole and court order breaches.

Ms Thompson said the tribunal acted urgently to impose the order as he was eligible for parole and due for release in August, and antipsychotic medication requires a loading dose to build up in the body to become effective.

Justice Huntingford adjourned her decision on the stay application to April 2, the very same day he is set for his next injection.

According to the NTCAT annual report only four of the 240 community management orders considered by the Mental Health Review in 2022-23 were declined — a rate of just 1.6 per cent.