VCAT affirmed the Mental Health Tribunal's community treatment order, finding all four compulsory treatment criteria under s 143 of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022 (Vic) were satisfied. The Tribunal accepted treating team evidence that HGN had a delusional disorder/psychosis constituting mental illness, that without treatment serious deterioration and serious harm would result, and that no less restrictive means were reasonably available given HGN's stated intention to cease all treatment if the order were revoked. Reports of medication side-effects were given some weight but were insufficient to displace the criteria in the absence of independent medical evidence. The decision illustrates that a patient's expressed willingness to pursue voluntary treatment with an independent psychiatrist will carry little weight where no concrete steps toward such treatment have been taken and the patient denies having a mental illness.
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