HaDSCO Connect: December 2014
Direct from the Director
Disability focus groups – Breaking down the barriers in making complaints
Community outreach
HaDSCO's first Health Provider Consultative Group
Annual Report 2013-14
Disability case study
Need advice?
Direct from the Director
Looking at the projects and initiatives that have come to fruition during 2014, I am proud of the work undertaken at HaDSCO. All of which was made possible due to the commitment and contribution of not only HaDSCO staff, but you, our stakeholders.
As well as providing a comprehensive complaints resolution service, there has been great progress with a number of key initiatives. We continue to work alongside users and providers to collaboratively make a contribution to the improvement of health, disability and mental health services.
Our collaborative working has enabled us to progress key projects such as launching our online engagement platform – Collaborate and Learn. If you have not already done so I encourage you to visit the site at: www.collaborateandlearn.hadsco.wa.gov.au.
Working with counterparts on a national level saw me attend the National Disability and Health Commissioners Conference in October. This provided a welcome opportunity to talk through some of the most pressing issues and look at where to from here in the scope of these sectors.
Our focus on system improvement has seen us collaborate with providers through the establishment of the Health Provider Consultative Group with representatives from both the public and private health providers. The group will provide feedback to HaDSCO and focus on systemic issues identified from complaints trends in the health sectors.
Additionally, the work of the Consumer and Carer Reference Group (CCRG) continues to provide input into our service delivery from the consumer perspective. This, alongside the work we are undertaking with providers, enables us to promote a fully inclusive approach to complaints management and system improvement by ensuring both perspectives are represented.
I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to various projects and initiatives we have developed during the course of this year. We acknowledge the valuable contribution you each make and thank you for taking the time to provide input into our services.
Looking ahead, we will continue to develop a bank of useful tools and resources to enable effective complaints handling across the health, disability and mental health sectors. This will include delivering effective complaints handling modules and producing case study educational resources to work through the various perspectives involved in a complaint.
There are many initiatives we have planned for 2015 and I look forward to the opportunity of working with a number of you on these agendas. We will continue to seek your feedback and input on our work program and processes and we look forward to receiving your ideas and suggestions into enabling system wide improvements.
As we prepare for the seasons festivities I would like to wish you a merry Christmas and all the very best for the year ahead.
Disability focus groups – Breaking down the barriers in making complaints
Here at HaDSCO we have been busy hosting a series of one off focus groups to better understand the barriers people with disability face when making complaints.
Developed in response to the fact that we currently do not receive many disability specific complaints, we wanted to further explore this issue. The focus groups provide a valuable opportunity to talk through consumer experiences and share insight into how the complaints system is perceived in the disability sector. Following this we are then able to work through ideas and suggestions as to how system improvements can be made to help improve processes overall, by looking at the themes idenified.
To date three focus groups have been held, all of which generated interesting themes and topics of discussion. We would like to thank everyone that has taken the time to attend and for sharing their experiences and suggestions for improvement.
Given the overwhelming response from individuals wanting to attend the sessions, we have scheduled five further focus groups for January to further explore experiences of making a complaint about a disability service. Additionally we are hosting a number of sessions in the regions to ensure regional consumer perspectives are included.
If you are interested in attending one of the January sessions please contact Katy Lawton, Strategic Communications and Engagement Officer at HaDSCO on (08) 6551 7623 or mail@hadsco.wa.gov.au.
Places are strictly limited and available on a first come first served basis, so please register your attendance early to avoid missing out.
Moving forward, following the conclusion of the focus groups, we will be producing a report and sharing this with both consumers and providers, as well as developing an educational resource for use in the disability sector. We look forward to sharing this with you.
Community outreach
Since our last update, staff members from across the Office have taken part in various events in celebration of mental health, carers and disability awareness weeks’ respectively.
In October HaDSCO took part in events for both Mental Health Week and Carers Week to help raise awareness in both of these areas and also promote the role of our Office. This included ‘Turn Blue 4 a Day’ in Murray Street Mall hosted by WAAMH for World Mental Health Day and Carers Week activities hosted by Carers WA. Both events provided a welcomed opportunity to engage with consumers and raise the HaDSCO profile, alongside promoting various support services.
More recently HaDSCO attended an event led by the Ethnic Disability Advocacy Centre (EDAC) in celebration of International Day of People with Disability on Wednesday 3 December. Forming part of the wider Disability Awareness Week 2014 events that ran from 1 – 7 December, this included a number of activities and events to raise awareness and promote disability to the community.
HaDSCO's first Health Provider Consultative Group
In November, HaDSCO hosted the first Health Provider Consultative Group meeting with key representatives from private and public health providers.
The group committed to work collaboratively to address systemic issues identified from complaints. This will include sharing of resource materials and complaints data, as well as strategies to improve service delivery and consumer experiences. The group also outlined a commitment to provide guidance on where HaDSCO can add value to complement existing quality improvement strategies across the health sector.
Along with this group, the establishment of HaDSCO’s Consumer and Carer Reference Group (CCRG) in March marked an important transition for our Office as we continually look at ways to bring about system change for the benefit of both consumers and providers, and as such we welcome further discussions.
With our focus on increasing collaboration with consumers and providers, both the CCRG and Health Provider Consultative Group help to ensure that both consumer and provider perspectives are incorporated in our service delivery and educational resources.
Both groups are planned to meet in early 2015 and we will continue to share the work of the groups and the outcomes achieved with our stakeholders.
Annual Report 2013-14
HaDSCO’s Annual Report 2013-14 was tabled in Parliament on Friday 26 September.
The report provides a comprehensive overview of the work undertaken by our Office over the 2013-14 financial year period, and has been designed in an easy-to-read format.
Currently the report is available in full on the HaDSCO website, with the interactive version including the individual sections set to be available in the coming weeks. To support the report, a short video resource has been created to highlights key areas that we feel may be of interest, with the video soon to be made available on HaDSCO’s Collaborate & Learn website and our YouTube channel.
Disability case study
Having recently celebrated National Disability Awareness Week, we have provided an overview of the type of compliant we might receive at HaDSCO, specifically related to this sector.
Julie and Grace’s story
Julie’s sister, Grace, is a person with disability and is non-verbal. She is housed in a residential service that provides shared care 24 hours per day, seven days a week.
Upon checking Grace one morning, a day shift staff member found Grace crying on the floor, appearing to be injured. However, no injury had been reported when Grace was checked the evening before, indicating there was potentially a substantial period of time between the injury occurring and it being reported. Grace was taken to hospital and was diagnosed with a broken leg, which required surgery.
Julie raised concerns with staff about the incident. She believed that Grace’s injury was a result of something that happened during the night shift, yet it was not reported until the following morning.
Julie alleged that Grace has been left in considerable pain and distress and had not received the appropriate level of care, despite being accommodated in a 24 hour care unit. Julie further alleged this was because night duty staff were allowed to sleep during their shift. She added that she felt measures had also been taken to ensure that staff members’ sleep was not disturbed during this period; suggesting that Grace was unable to get the attention of a staff member.
Julie was also concerned that no explanation could be provided about the cause of Grace’s injuries.
Julie contacted HaDSCO about her complaint.
Julie’s objectives
- To receive a consistent and suitable level of service, responsive to Grace’s needs.
- To have the provider clearly define company policy for staff on night shift in regard to sleep and levels of care.
- To be provided with an explanation as to why Grace’s injuries occurred, and why they were not acted upon sooner.
- To receive an explanation as to why Grace was unable to contact a member of staff during the night for assistance.
- To take the steps necessary to ensure this never happens again.
Outcomes from the complaint
We undertook an inquiry into this complaint and as a result we proposed a number of recommendations to the service provider to improve service delivery and reduce areas of concern.
The service provider complied with all the recommendations we proposed and implemented a number of changes. These included:
- Working with Julie to better understand Grace’s needs and requirements in terms of her care plan. This included looking at alternative support services where it was identified that service provision was outside of the providers’ remit.
- Clarification of staff procedures in regard to the supervision of residents through the night. Clear and precise documentation is now available for all residents, highlighting their care needs and the type of supervision required by staff at all times.
- Documentation and information for prospective and current clients has been made clearer, to ensure service users are aware of the level of service they can expect. This is especially acknowledged in the funding plan each client receives.
- An update was made to the in-house Occupational Health and Safety Policy with staff re-educated in the prevention of injuries.
- Sleeping facilities for staff were revised to better meet the demands of service users.
Need advice?
Complaints are often perceived in a negative light, but we see them differently.
At HaDSCO we view complaints as an opportunity to improve. As an independent statutory body our remit of work is vast and our goal huge. We seek to empower users and providers to collaboratively improve health, including mental health, and disability services.
We offer a free, impartial and confidential complaints resolution service to people across WA and the Indian Ocean Territories, working with both service users, including carers and family members, and providers. Through our various complaint resolution processes we are able to assist service users and providers to reach agreed outcomes, leading to the continued improvement of health and disability services overall.
If you, or someone you know has a complaint about a health or disability service and would like advice or guidance, please contact HaDSCO on (08) 6551 7600 Monday to Friday 8.30am – 4.30pm or email mail@hadsco.wa.gov.au.
