Complaints Policy

Any person has the right to make a complaint and to have their concerns heard. This policy describes how you can have your concerns heard and how we will address them in a timely and efficient manner.

Our Commitment

We are committed to delivering high quality psychological services. We handle any complaint with fairness and efficiency, and aim to maintain impartiality, confidentiality, and transparency when listening and addressing your concerns. Your feedback is important to us for our evaluation and improvement of our services. We will review our Complaints Policy and services regularly to ensure they meet our high quality standards.

Fair and Reasonable Treatment

Anyone making a complaint will be treated fairly, with courtesy, consideration and respect. We will maintain impartiality, confidentiality and transparency when we manage complaints.

Efficiency and Responsiveness

To enable the timely consideration of a complaint, specific details of the incident, conduct or behaviour giving rise to the complaint should be provided to us. If you need assistance with English, you can telephone 131 450 for Translating and Interpreting Service National, which offers support for over 150 languages and dialects at any time of the day or night.

We implement flexible complaints handling methods that help us resolve issues as quickly and efficiently as possible.

We are committed to respond to any complaints within two business days of receipt. We are committed to resolve any complaints within 30 days of receipt whenever possible. If a complaint takes longer than this to resolve, for example if it is a very sensitive or complex matter, we will communicate this with you and let you know of our progress as we work to resolve the issue.

Accountability and Reporting

The Clinic Director will be given regular reports on complaints received.

Unless a complaint is a simple one which can be resolved the first time we are contacted, we will fully document all complaints and maintain details of decisions and actions taken on an official file. All records of complaints will be stored in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988.

  • We will acknowledge your complaint and tell you the process we will follow. We will also give you the contact details of the person who will be handling your complaint.

  • We will determine the nature of your complaint and the best way to handle it.

  • Simple or straightforward complaints can often be resolved on first contact. If this isn't possible and the complaint is referred to the Clinic Director, we will investigate to make sure that we have all the relevant information.

    This could include interviewing you and the staff member(s) involved and clearing up any misunderstandings, and/or seeking any legal advice.

  • Once we have finished any investigation and made a decision or findings we will tell you what the outcome is and explain how it came about. We will also tell you what your options are to have our findings reviewed, or to pursue your complaint externally.

  • If we receive a complaint that highlights a systemic problem that we have, we will use the feedback we receive to review our policies and procedures and will make some changes if we think we can improve.

Complaint Resolution Process

Complaint Lodgement

STEP 1: Local Resolution

Is the complaint about the Psychologist or the treatment?

Complaints at this level usually involve simple misunderstandings and/or provide an opportunity for a grievance to be heard. In the first instance that you have this type of concern, you should first discuss these concerns informally with your treating Psychologist.

Is the complaint about administrative matters?

Complaints at this level should be lodged directly to the administrative team via telephone or email, who hold such administrative responsibilities.

STEP 2: Organisational Review

Step 2 actions will be followed if actions taken in Step 1 did not resolve the issue, or if you felt uncomfortable to directly approach the person you had a complaint regarding.

In Step 2, your matter will be referred to the Clinic Director, or a designated Practice Manger, who will be able to help with:

  • helping you and staff during the complaints-handling process

  • maintaining a register of complaints received

  • maintaining and reviewing our complaints-handling framework

To directly contact the Clinic Director, email andrea@amazeinminds.com.au

STEP 3: Organisational Review

If you are dissatisfied with our handling of a complaint, which is not a privacy complaint, at any stage you are entitled to pursue an external method of review. Below is a non-exhaustive list of potential external reviewers that may assist you:

  • Australian Psychological Society

  • Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA)

  • the Commonwealth Ombudsman

  • mediation and arbitration

While you are free to use these methods at any time, we strongly recommend you use our internal review before seeking independent assistance. External reviewers will have their own complaint resolution timeframes that may differ from ours.

For any questions and notices, please contact us at: info@amazeinminds.com.au

Last update: 26 September 2022