Independent Patient Rights Adviser policy and guidelines

Chief Psychiatrist policy

This page includes information about the following Chief Psychiatrist policy.

This policy is mandatory for all authorised mental health services (AMHSs). An authorised doctor, authorised mental health practitioner, AMHS administrator, or other person performing a function or exercising a power under the Mental Health Act 2016 must comply with this policy.

You can also find additional fact sheets, forms and resources that are available for this policy under the relevant subtopics on this page.

Introduction

The Mental Health Act 2016 establishes the positions of Independent Patient Rights Advisers (IPRAs). A key function of these positions is to ensure patients and their nominated support persons, family, carers and other support persons are advised of their rights and responsibilities under the Act.

Read the Role of Independent Patient Rights Advisers fact sheet (PDF 611 kB) to learn more.

There are also fact sheets, brochures and videos clinicians can share with patients to help them understand their rights and responsibilities.

What is an Independent Patient Rights Adviser (IPRA)

IPRAs have an important role in liaising between clinical teams, patients and support persons and ensuring patients have been advised about their rights and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 2016. In addition, they also help:

• patients and support persons communicate their views, wishes and preferences about their treatment and care to clinicians
• work with community visitors under the Public Guardian Act 2014
• provide advice about patient rights in Mental Health Review Tribunal hearings.

Patients can ask to speak to an IPRA at any time. An IPRA will aim to see patients shortly after they are admitted to an AMHS.

Contact your local IPRA or the statewide IPRA coordinator

Independence and impartiality

To ensure the independence of the roles, IPRAs are not employed by the mental health service. They can either be an employee:

• of another area within the health service, or
• an entity that the health service has engaged such as a non-government organisation.

IPRAs act independently and impartially and cannot be told what advice to give to a patient or their support persons. The independence of an IPRA does not prevent them from working with a patient's treating team.

The statewide IPRA coordinator is based in the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist. The statewide coordinator provides support to the state network of IPRAs and reports to the Chief Psychiatrist on the activities and initiatives of the IPRA network.

Guidelines and role description

The Independent Patient Rights Advisers service model guideline (PDF 819 kB) sets out the purpose and functions of the IPRAs service model within Queensland Health.

The IPRA service model guideline describes the functions of the IPRA role, operation and governance of the service. It includes guidance on:

• access to patient information, privacy and confidentiality
• record keeping
• referral and escalation processes
• management of complaints
• staff training.

Health services can also use the IPRA role description (DOC 1531 kB) template when hiring staff as an IPRA.