Quality improvements
Client and family feedback
Areas that require improvement are primarily learned about through feedback provided by children and their families given in the following methods:
- children and families completing an experience of service questionnaire
- submitting feedback online on Patient Opinion
- providing a formal complaint or compliment.
Examples of how child and family feedback has improved the quality of service in Mental Health
Service |
You said |
We did |
| Mental Health inpatient ward (5A) | Parents need more information upon discharge from the unit. |
We have started to invite families to attend clinical reviews. We are also inviting the community team your child may be referred to. We hope this will improve involvement and communication about discharge and treatment plans. |
| Hillarys Community Mental Health clinic | We need more options for appointments in the evenings. |
We now have a late clinic on Thursdays where we can see families for therapy. |
| Paediatric Consultation Liaison | The appointments system needs to be improved to avoid people falling between the cracks. |
An online appointment system using is being trialled which will streamline the booking system. |
Some Mental Health teams have additional means for gathering feedback that are unique to their service. For example, the ward 5A at PCH holds daily ‘mutual help meetings’ where all staff, families and their children staying in 5A meet each morning to discuss ways of helping each other to make the day as positive as possible. The meetings also provide children and families with an opportunity to raise concerns and give feedback about their experience and stay in 5A.
Auditing
Mental Health carries out two types of audits on a regular basis to identify areas of low compliance and develop quality improvement plans to adjust and improve our processes:
- Documentation audits – documents are audited to ensure they are complete and accurate, and are stored correctly as per the requirements of Mental Health legislation and policy, the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards and the National Standards for Mental Health Services.
- Medication audits – psychotropic medication audits assess adherence to policies and procedures when psychotropic medication is, or has been, prescribed by Mental Health staff.
Incident evaluation
Occasionally incidents occur that may have been avoided if better care was provided. All incidents are recorded and Mental Health staff members are given incident summaries that provide an overview of lessons learned and the solutions implemented to avoid similar incidents occurring in the future.