The Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022 came into effect on Friday 1 September 2023. It replaces the Mental Health Act 2014 and is a key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

The new legislation aims to achieve the highest possible standard of mental health and wellbeing for all Victorians, setting the foundation for the reformed mental health and wellbeing system envisioned by the Royal Commission.

The Act also establishes new roles and entities to strengthen system governance and oversight. This includes the new Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, which has a key role in system-wide oversight of quality and safety. The new statutory authority incorporates the existing complaints function of the Mental Health Complaints Commissioner.

Information and resources

• Read the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022 and the objectives of the Act.
• The Mental Health and Wellbeing Act Handbook provides information about key features of the Act.
• Read the Factsheet for mental health providers.
• Learn more about Mental Health and Wellbeing Locals.
• Resources and events available from Mental Health Victoria.
• Find out about the VHA’s Mental Health Mentoring Program.

Information for designated mental health and wellbeing services

Alongside the above resources, the Department of Health has developed the following resources to support clinical mental health services to understand and meet their obligations under the new Act:

• Two sets of regulations have been made under the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022:
  • Download the Mental Health and Wellbeing Regulations 2023
  • Download the Mental Health and Wellbeing Transitional Regulations 2023
• Mental Health and Wellbeing Act forms have been published on the Health.Vic website
• The Chief Psychiatrist’s refreshed website contains information about the Act’s principles, directives and reporting obligations.
• Revised statements of rights have been published on Health.Vic. They are available in English and in a number of community languages.
• An e-learn training package has been shared with all designated mental health and wellbeing services, as well as additional training materials to support the ongoing training needs of the workforce. Four e-learn modules are available and while these have been developed for service providers, they are publicly available via the Mental Health Professional Online Development (MHPOD) portal (you will need to create an account before accessing the modules).
• An online form has been developed for designated services to submit complex but non-urgent Act queries. The form has been shared directly with services.