Mental Health Services

Programs and coverage

Mental health services

Our Experience

HDAA is approved to provide assessments to the National Standards in Mental Health Services.

In 2010 a revised set of mental health service standards were released. These standards can be applied to all mental health services, including government, non-government and private sectors across Australia.

These National Standards for Mental Health Services focus on:

  • how services are delivered
  • whether they comply with policy directions
  • whether they meet expected standards of communication and consent
  • whether they have procedures and practices in place to monitor and govern particular areas—especially those which may be associated with risk to the consumer, or which involve coercive interventions.

They are not intended to apply to services where mental health is not the main focus of care, such as generic community services which support people with a range of disabilities, or generic aged care services.

Since 2010 HDAA has provided assessment to Mental Health services seeking accreditation to the National Standards in Mental Health Services.

Program Details

To inform the implementation of the Standards, a series of implementation guides that more clearly outline the expectations for different sectors and service settings will be developed.

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-n-servst10

There are three guideline documents are aimed at the following service sector groups:

  • public mental health services and private hospitals

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-i-public

  • community (non government) organisations

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-i-nongov

  • private office based mental health services

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-i-private

Assessment Preparation

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has released a work book designed for service preparing for assessment to the National Standards in Mental Health Services:

https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/publications/accreditation-workbook-mental-health-services/

HDAA can provide an excel based “Self-Assessment” to the National Standards in Mental Health Services. This self-assessment system creates an improvement action plan which can then be used to plan and monitor your progress with preparation for assessment.

Contact us for a copy of the self-assessment system.

To prepare for an assessment to the National Standards in Mental Health Services we will provide a Service Description form to start to learn about you, what type of mental health service your organisation provides, how and where and to confirm the scope of your assessment.

Assessment Details

All of the Standards, except the consumer standard, are designed to be assessed. In contrast, the consumer standard is designed to inform consumers about their rights and responsibilities and the key elements underpinning the provision of quality service that consumers can expect to receive from mental health service providers throughout the continuum of care. The consumer standard is therefore not intended to be assessed, as it contains criteria that are all assessable within the other standards.

The initial assessment will consist of a Stage 1 (documents review) and then a Stage 2 (full assessment). These two stages are usually held around 3 or 4 months apart to enable you to progress any areas of improvement identified at the Stage 1 before we attend for the Stage 2.

Once you have achieved accreditation your certificate is issued with a four-year accreditation cycle. During that period, you will have one mid-term maintenance assessment (i.e. at 2 years). On the basis you are still meeting the Standards, your accreditation will then remain in place until a Recertification assessment becomes due towards the end of the four year accreditation cycle.

Contact us for further information or for a Service Description.

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