HaDSCO Connect: January 2014
Direct from the Director
Mental health service complaints
Case study
Need advice?
HaDSCO Consumer and Carer Reference Group
Online engagement tool – Let's Collaborate & Learn
Tailored health provider presentations
Section 48A Disability Complaints Data Collection Project
Indian Ocean Territories School Based Project
Direct from the Director
To all our HaDSCO Connect subscribers - Happy New Year! The festive season now feels like a distant memory and as we near the end of January I can confidently say this year has got off to a flying start.
Welcome to our first newsletter of 2014. This edition provides an update on some of the key activities and projects we have been working on which I hope you will find informative and interesting. In our commitment to keeping all our stakeholders well informed we will be branching out through 2014 to develop additional tools and resources including the development of our online engagement site.
I am set to host the National Disability and Health Commissioners Meetings here in Perth during April where I, along with the other Commissioners from each of the states and territories, will be working through important issues and top priorities for the Health and Disability Complaints Commissioners across Australia. The last meeting held in November was incredibly insightful and allowed everyone in attendance to share information and discuss issues of common concern. Health Complaints Commissioners from across Australia strongly supported the implementation of open disclosure in all jurisdictions. As a means by which patients and their families are treated with respect after an adverse event, effective open disclosure will increase public confidence in the health system and may help reduce complaints.
Work continues on our internal early resolution project which will see us streamline complaint management processes, to reduce lengthy delays and resolve complaints more efficiently and effectively in relation to time and resources. The work undertaken by HaDSCO’s early resolution group to date has enabled us to examine the ways in which we handle complaints, by looking at the first point of contact and suggesting ways in which complaints can be resolved effectively in the early stages.
At the end of last year we had a strong focus on mental health given the timeliness of the Mental Health Bill 2013 being tabled in Parliament, and this has continued into this year. The HaDSCO Mental Health Complaints Forum for consumers, carers and family held during November 2013 was an extremely worthwhile and valuable event and I extend a huge thank-you to everyone who made it possible. The forum allowed us to better understand consumer, carer, advocate and family members’ perspectives of making complaints within the mental health sector, and at a time when the new bill emphasises the role of HaDSCO in dealing with mental health complaints, this session was invaluable.
If you would like further information on any of the projects listed please do not hesitate to contact my office. Additionally, we are open to suggestions and feedback to help improve our services, which can be sent via email to mail@hadsco.wa.gov.au.
Anne Donaldson
Director
Mental health service complaints
As we kick-start our work for the year, mental health service complaints remain a key focus for HaDSCO and as such we continue to progress with a number of projects.
Mental Health Consumer Complaints Forum
As detailed in our last update, HaDSCO hosted a Mental Health Consumer Complaints Forum on 20 November 2013 to better understand the lived experiences of mental health consumers in making complaints.
The forum participants included 30 individuals, representing mental health consumers, carers, family members and advocates and proved to be an extremely informative and insightful session. As an additional option HaDSCO arranged a series of one-to-one interviews to capture the stories from those consumers that felt they had more to share.
Feedback from the day highlighted the willingness of participants to share their experiences and help contribute towards making a difference.
Mental Health Consumer Complaints Forum: The Consumer Perspective
We have since been busy collating all the feedback from the forum to provide an inclusive and representative reflection of how complaints about mental health service providers are currently perceived by consumers. The findings from the forum will allow us to put forward recommendations to improve complaints handling practises for both HaDSCO and service providers. The report is being finalised and will be circulated to participants during February. As well a dedicated page will be created on our new online engagement site, allowing for feedback and comments.
Sharing the report with providers
HaDSCO will also be presenting the report to a range of providers at a morning tea event, to talk through some of the key issues and themes generated. The morning tea will provide an opportunity to share findings from the consumer forum and generate conversations centred on improving complaints management processes across the board.
Trends in mental health complaints
In keeping with the mental health focus, we recently prepared a report to assist us in identifying trends in complaints received about mental health issues.
The report provides a snapshot of complaints received by our office from 2008 to 2013, covering a five year period.
The key points to take away from the report include that:
- HaDSCO received a record number of mental health complaints in 2012-13 totalling 294, compared to 249 the year previously;
- the proportion of mental health complaints received, relative to the total number of complaints received has remained relatively stable between 2008-09 and 2012-13 (in 2008-09 the figure was 11 percent, reducing slightly to 9 percent in 2010-11 before rising to 13 percent in 2012-13);
- issues about ‘Treatment’ and ‘Communication and Information’ are frequently identified as top issues in mental health complaints, with ‘Access’, ‘Consent’ and ‘Medication’ closely following; and
- the proportion of mental health complaints that progress through to a complaint resolution pathway has remained stable between 2008-09 and 2012-13.
Case study
With our focus on mental health we thought it would be useful to include a mental health specific case study to illustrate the type of complaints we receive.
Mr T contacted HaDSCO as he wished to make a complaint about his psychiatrist, Dr A. Mr T’s complaint centred around the issue of Dr A ceasing to supply his medication and subsequently stopping seeing him. Mr T was confused as to why this decision was made and felt that Dr A ‘did the wrong thing by him’, having not taken the time to explain his decision.
This complaint was managed through Conciliation and provided an opportunity for both Mr T and
Dr A to discuss their differing perspectives. As a result of this complaint, Dr A agreed to review the practice of prescribing Dexamphetamine and is now more cautious in initiating treatment
with dexamphetamine.
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 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.
HaDSCO Consumer and Carer Reference Group
HaDSCO will shortly be inviting a selection of consumers to be considered as members of the first ever HaDSCO Consumer and Carer Reference Group.
The creation of the group will see consumers consulted with on key projects, in order to provide us with their feedback and perspectives.
The first task for the group will be to provide input and suggestions to the Publications and Review Group, who are currently undertaking a comprehensive review of all HaDSCO educational and promotional literature, to better promote our services. This will help to ensure our brochures and information sheets are fit for purpose, clear, consistent and relative to the everyday consumer.
Online engagement tool – Let's Collaborate & Learn
Since our last update we have been working hard to get our online engagement tool up and running.
The site, aptly named ‘Collaborate & Learn’, is set to launch in the coming weeks. It will allow us to create a one-stop-shop for complaint data for health providers, providing an online platform for HaDSCO to share and review not only de-identified complaints data, but recommendations, examples of best practice and useful tools and resources on how to effectively handle complaints. Information on how to access the site will be sent to our prescribed health providers shortly.
The platform also provides HaDSCO with the option of establishing dedicated project or area pages where reports, information and topical discussions can be shared, with people able to post comments and suggestions and provide their feedback. This will be trialled with the launch of the dedicated mental health page, which will coincide with the report release.
Tailored health provider presentations
As part of our ongoing commitment to system improvement HaDSCO has been working with regional providers to deliver a series of tailored presentations on effective complaints management; including informed consent, as part of a pilot program.
The presentations help to share useful complaints handling techniques and tips with targeted provider groups such as management, liaison officers and patient service assistants, to provide each group with training relative to their experiences of dealing with complaints.
It is hoped the success of the pilot program will lead the way for HaDSCO to work with a range of providers as part of an ongoing program.
Section 48A Disability Complaints Data Collection Project
HaDSCO welcomed eight new potential prescribers to the Section 48a Project, which upon formalisation will take the total number of prescribed providers to date to 21.
The addition of eight new members is an indication of the projects success, with the group working to establish a comprehensive data collection process that will be beneficial to all. It is envisaged this will facilitate information sharing amongst disability service providers and assist with the identification of complaint trends, working towards broader system improvements.
Indian Ocean Territories School Based Project
During 2013 a number of HaDSCO representatives took part in a school based project on the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean Territories.
With HaDSCO providing services to the whole of Western Australia and the Indian Ocean Territories, this provided a valuable opportunity to engage with both the Cocos Home and West Islands populations, who are a particularly hard to reach group given the geographical and cultural barriers.
We worked with the Island Administrator and school principal to co-ordinate a number of visits whilst on the Islands, one of which was at the Cocos Island District High School. Whilst there, HaDSCO worked with a number of students to produce sketches of what they perceived the various stages in making a complaint to be. As a result we received an abundance of colourful, animated and sometime far-out drawings, of which five final designs were chosen to feature on our pictorial leaflet, to be distributed throughout the Islands. The five winning designs are included in the final leaflet below – thank you once again to everyone involved.
