Exclusive: reports from state’s mental health regulator show some services don’t hand over complaint outcome data
After receiving more than 12,000 complaints about Victorian mental health services, the state’s regulator has not taken compliance action against a single mental healthcare provider in seven years.
The MHCC’s service provider complaint reports, obtained under freedom of information, show that some mental health services do not hand over data on the outcomes of complaints, in breach of the state’s MentalSimon Katterl, a human rights and mental health consultant who obtained the reports, said it was “simply unbelievable” that more than 12,000 complaints did not warrant a compliance notice.
Katterl said while complaints data alone could not always give a clear picture of what is occurring in a service – forensic mental health services, for example, have higher numbers of complaints due to the complexity of their care – it was nonetheless data the public had a right to access. “Services have cooperated with our processes and to date a compliance notice has not been required to achieve this outcome,” the spokesperson said.
“For a lot of people, a lack of transparency reinforces the view that they’re sitting at the bottom of the pile in terms of priority even when seeking information about their own care,” she said. “Treatment was the most common issue raised in complaints,” one of the reports said. “Responsiveness of staff was frequently raised … and included inadequate consideration of the views of consumers, family and carers, as well as lack of care and attention.”
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