Risk management

Effective risk management means the psychologist: (a) applies Principles 2 and 3 on cultural safety and culturally reflective practice; (b) understands governance and their own obligations in the work setting (the ACSQHC Australian Open Disclosure Framework is noted for accredited organisations); (c) joins in any available systems for quality assurance and improvement; (d) where no local systems exist, develops and runs processes to identify and reduce risk of harm to clients and to respond to harmful events; (e) takes part, where required, in surveillance and monitoring of harmful events, reporting them to the appropriate authority where suitable; (f) when in a leadership or management role, makes sure there are ways for people to voice concerns about risks to clients or anyone else; (g) works to reduce error and improve safety for clients and others in the work setting and the wider system; (h) backs colleagues and practitioners who raise safety concerns that are objectively valid; (i) takes reasonable steps to deal with any reason to think client safety may be compromised; and (j) considers whether a client seriously threatens other people and, on a reasonable belief that they do, takes reasonable steps to deal with it consistently with the Privacy Act and any other applicable law.

• Practice risk register and risk management procedure (for sole practitioners without organisational systems)
• Client risk assessments and safety plans, reviewed at set intervals
• Incident and near-miss log with reporting to the relevant authority where required
• Record of the reasoning and steps taken when a client was judged a serious threat to others, including any disclosure made under the Privacy Act
• Participation in audits or quality improvement activities

• Sole practice with no risk or incident process at all
• Threat to a third party recorded with no action taken or reasoning given
• Risk assessments done at intake only