Complaints Procedure

Complaints

Any person may make a complaint. You have the right to make a complaint and to have your concerns heard. Complaints and feedback help to improve our service to not only you, but others accessing our services as well.

Your complaint will be handled with fairness and efficiency. We will maintain impartiality, confidentiality and transparency when we manage any complaints.

Efficiency

To enable the timely consideration of a complaint, specific details of the incident, conduct or behaviour giving rise to the complaint should be provided.

We are committed to respond to any complaints within two business days of receipt. We are committed to resolve any complaints within 21 days where possible. If a complaint takes longer than this to resolve, we will communicate this with you and let you know of our progress as we work to resolve the issue.

Accessibility

If you need assistance with English to lodge a complaint, you can telephone 131 450 for Translating and Interpreting Service National, which offers 24/7 support for over 120 languages and dialects.

How To Make a Complaint

Step 1

In the first instance, if you are making a complaint about your psychologist, consider bringing the issue up directly with your psychologist. This may help to resolve your concerns and clarify any misunderstandings or to allow any grievances to be heard.

If you are wanting to make a complaint about any aspect of our intake process or administration service, please see step 2 below.

Step 2

If you do not feel comfortable raising the issue with your psychologist, are not satisfied with the response you receive, or are wanting to make a complaint about our administration services, you can lodge a complaint to our Director, Natasha Ascenzo.

Complaints can be made over the phone or via email. We encourage complaints, where possible, to be submitted in writing via email.

You can contact Natasha Ascenzo via our main administration:

Telephone: 1300 019 230

Step 3

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint internally, or our internal process presents a conflict of interest, you are entitled to pursue an external method of review. These methods include:

Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA):

AHPRA online complaints form: www.ahpra.gov.au/About-AHPRA/Complaints.aspx

Telephone: 1300 419 495

Website: www.ahpra.gov.au

National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner

The Ombudsman deals with complaints about the bodies responsible for implementing Australia’s national health practitioner regulation scheme. They ask that you first raise your concerns with the body that is the subject of your complaint (for example, AHPRA) in order to provide them with an opportunity to resolve your concerns.

Telephone: 1300 795 265

Email: complaints@nhpopc.gov.au

Mailing Address:

National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner
Level 22, 50 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne, Victoria, 3000

While we are committed to resolving complaints within 21 days whenever possible, external reviews will have their own time frames.

NDIS Participants

The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (NDIS Commission) is an independent Commonwealth agency established to improve the quality and safety of NDIS supports and services.

The NDIS Commission can take complaints from anyone about:

  • NDIS services or supports that were not provided in a safe and respectful way

  • NDIS services and supports that were not delivered to an appropriate standard

  • how an NDIS provider has managed a complaint about services or supports provided to an NDIS participant.

You can make a complaint to the NDIS Commission by:

For information about making a complaint, visit the NDIS Commission website .

Complainants or their advocates may lodge an appeal if they disagree with a decision made by the organisation. An appeal should be made in writing and submitted to the Management team within 7 days of the decision notification. If the complaint continues to be unresolved to the satisfaction of all parties, the Management team will refer the matter to the Director, accompanied by a full report of the situation. Sometimes we cannot resolve a complaint despite our best efforts. When the complaint is serious and the complainant’s demands continue to impact on the time and resources of team member, the complainant should be referred to an appropriate external source for review or appeal.

Complainants should be made aware that they may wish to contact the (especially in cases where they did not feel a satisfactory resolution was achieved) NDIS Commissioner.

The NDIS Commission can take complaints about services or supports that were not provided in a safe and respectful way OR services and supports that were not delivered to an appropriate standard.