The Commission can take complaints about mental health and wellbeing services that are provided by a mental health and wellbeing service provider.
These terms are defined in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022 and are explained below.
A mental health and wellbeing service is a service that is performed for the main purpose of:
- improving or supporting a person’s mental health and wellbeing or
- assessing, or providing treatment, care, or support to a person for mental illness or psychological distress, or
- providing care or support to a family member, carer, or supporter of a person with mental illness or psychological distress.
Regulations can also be made that specify whether a particular service or type of service is or is not a mental health and wellbeing service.
The Act states that non-legal mental health advocacy services (e.g., Independent Mental Health Advocacy) are not mental health and wellbeing services. Regulations have also been made to say that mental health and wellbeing advocacy services (e.g., those provided by Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council or Tandem) are also not mental health and wellbeing services.
A service provider is a mental health and wellbeing service provider if it:
- receives funding from the Victorian Government for one of the primary purposes described above, and
- employs or engages a mental health and wellbeing professional in connection with providing the services.
A mental health and wellbeing professional is someone who performs duties in connection with a mental health and wellbeing service and is:
- a registered doctor, psychologist, nurse, paramedic, or occupational therapist
- a social worker in Victoria who has a qualification that makes them eligible to be a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers
a counsellor who has completed a Bachelor or Master of Counselling and is a member of the Australian Counselling Association or the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia.
The Act allows for the lived and living experience workforce, peer workforce and allied health workforce to be prescribed (stated in regulations) as mental health and wellbeing professionals; however, so far this has not happened.
If a service provider meets both of these conditions, it is a mental health and wellbeing service provider unless it has been prescribed (stated in regulations) not to be one. Services that have been prescribed not to be a mental health and wellbeing service provider include schools, education providers, children’s services, courts and tribunals, and workplace mental health and wellbeing supports.
Service providers we take complaints about include public hospitals that are also designated mental health services*, where they are providing mental health and wellbeing services. They include:
- acute mental health inpatient units
- secure extended care units
- community care units
- prevention and recovery care (PARC) units
- community-based mental health and wellbeing services
- aged persons mental health nursing homes
- emergency departments (ED) of designated mental health services if the complaint is about accessing a mental health and wellbeing service. For complaints about events that occurred before 1 April 2024, the Commission can only deal with complaints about experiences in an ED of a DMHS if the person was on a compulsory treatment order or was brought to the ED by an authorised person for a MH assessment (s 232).
- hospital in the home services if provided by a mental health and wellbeing service provider to mental health consumers
- outreach services provided by designated mental health and wellbeing services
- peer support services provided by designated mental health services if a mental health and wellbeing professional is engaged or employed in connection with the services (for example, if a registered nurse is employed to manage the program, the service is likely in the Commission’s jurisdiction even if otherwise entirely staffed by peer support workers).
- general health areas of a hospital that is a designated mental health service, if the person is receiving a mental health and wellbeing service (for example, if a person is receiving treatment for an eating disorder in a non-mental health acute inpatient unit).
- publicly funded beds in private hospitals (e.g. Women’s Recovery Network)
- mental health and wellbeing services provided in custodial settings if provided by a designated mental health service (e.g. Forensicare)
- mental health and wellbeing Locals
- mental health and wellbeing Carer Connects
- alcohol and drug services that are part of an integrated service that supports people with mental illness (e.g. the Hamilton Centre)
- non-government organisations that provide mental health and wellbeing services as part of a range of services, as long as the complaint is about a mental health and wellbeing service. These are also known as mental health community support services e.g. ACSO, Cohealth, EACH, ERMA365, MIND, NEAMI, Wellways.
- private hospitals (unless the private hospital is receiving funding to provide some beds for the public mental health and wellbeing system), and private psychiatrists, psychologists and general practitioners (GPs). These complaints can be made to the Health Complaints Commissioner
- public hospitals that are not designated mental health services (including their emergency departments).
- emergency departments of a designated mental health service where the events of the complaint occurred before 1 April 2024, if the person was a voluntary patient
- Ambulance Victoria
- Victoria Police (e.g. complaints about treatment in police cells)
- mental health and wellbeing services provided in prisons unless provided by a designated mental health service
- exclusively peer-run mental health and wellbeing services
- telephone support lines if staffed by volunteers (e.g. Lifeline)
- mental health and wellbeing advocacy services (including those provided by Independent Mental Health Advocacy, Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council and Tandem)
- alcohol and drug services that are provided to the general public (not integrated with mental health and wellbeing services)
- medically supervised injecting rooms
- schools and education providers
- children’s services - for example, a for-fee care service provided by a sports or leisure facility
- courts and tribunals
- workplace mental health and wellbeing supports.
Headspace services may or may not be in the Commission’s jurisdiction, depending on the provider, and we assess complaints about headspace individually.
This is not a full list of services we can take complaints about. If you are unsure whether your complaint is about a public mental health and wellbeing service, please contact us.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) can also deal with complaints about the practice or behaviour of practitioners registered by it (such as doctors, nurses and psychologists). See: Ahpra complaints.
The Commission and Ahpra have different roles. The Commission will usually be the appropriate body to seek to resolve a complaint about a publicly funded mental health and wellbeing service. Ahpra's role is to protect the public by ensuring only clinical staff who have the appropriate skills and conduct can work as registered health practitioners.
We are required by law to notify Ahpra if we receive a complaint about a registered health practitioner and to share a copy of that complaint with Ahpra. The Commission and Ahpra then decide which organisation is best suited to deal with those concerns. In some cases, both organisations may investigate different aspects of the same complaint
Designated mental health services are:
Albury Wodonga Health
Alfred Health
Austin Health
Barwon Health
Bendigo Health Care Group
Eastern Health
Goulburn Valley Health
Grampians Health
Latrobe Regional Hospital
Melbourne Health
Mercy Public Hospitals Incorporated
Mildura Base Public Hospital
Monash Health
Northern Health
Parkville Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Service
Peninsula Health
South West Healthcare
St Vincent's Hospital (Melbourne) Limited
The Royal Children's Hospital
Western Health
Updated