In episode 216 of Australian True Crime, we heard from Dr Danny Sullivan,

who's the Executive Director of Clinical Services at Thomas Emeling Hospital in Melbourne.

Thomas Emeling is a secure psychiatric facility.

It's nestled in a leafy bend of the Yarra River,

on the same spot where the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum was established in 1848, when the area was still part of the colony of New South Wales.

There are only two ways to be admitted to Thomas Embling, either under the Mental Health Act,

or under the Crimes, Mental Impairment and Unfitness to Be Tried Act. Under the Mental Health Act or under the Crimes, Mental Impairment and Unfitness to

be tried act. Under the Mental Health Act, a person with a severe mental illness who poses

a threat to themselves or to others can be admitted for psychiatric treatment compulsorily.

At Thomas Embling, you'll find only the most challenging of people in that category, including

those already in prison who develop severe mental illness or whose existing conditions

escalate in that environment.

But as the people admitted under the Crimes, Mental Impairment and Unfitness to Be Tried Act,

also known as the forensic patients, for whom Thomas

Embling receives most attention. These are the people who've been sent to the hospital

by the court because it's decided they were either mentally impaired at the time they

committed an offence or that they have a mental impairment that means they can't stand trial

for an offence. The offences in question are generally violent.

Offenders aren't sentenced to set periods of incarceration under the Mental Health Act.

They receive treatment under custodial supervision orders.

Ideally, with the benefit of treatment and medication, their conditions improve, and they can apply

for leave from the hospital. Some patients have jobs outside and return every night. And if and when

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