Recommendation 13

What the Royal Commission said

The Royal Commission recommends that the Victorian Government:

1. ensure that all new mental health inpatient facilities:
   a. are built and designed with the necessary scale and flexible infrastructure to enable gender-based separation in all bedrooms and bathrooms; and
   b. provide separate communal spaces as required.
2. by mid-2022, ensure that existing high dependency units in inpatient facilities allow for gender-based separation.
3. review and retrofit existing inpatient facilities on a case-by-case basis to:
   a. achieve gender-based separation where possible; and
   b. as a matter of priority, ensure that each facility meets the minimum standards for gender safety set out in the Chief Psychiatrist’s guideline: Promoting sexual safety, responding to sexual activity and managing allegations of sexual assault in adult acute inpatient units.
4. ensure that the Mental Health and Wellbeing Division supports mental health and wellbeing services to eliminate sexual and gender-based violence in bed-based service settings.

Update

Information about this recommendation is being updated.

Please check back here for information updates.

The Victorian Government has committed to implementing all recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Rebuilding Victoria’s mental health system a 10-year reform plan, with implementation being done in a staged and sequential way. The 2021-22 Victorian State Budget invested $3.8 billion in mental health and wellbeing services and responding to the Royal Commission’s recommendations.

All work is focused on ensuring Victorians get the mental health treatment, care, and support they deserve.