Safeguarding and Preventing Abuse and Neglect

This Policy was written July 2017 by the Business Manager and will be reviewed and updated July 2019 by the Business Manager

Purpose

• To minimise risk to young people and families accessing AIM Occupational Therapy’s services
• To ensure all incidents are reported in an appropriate and timely manner and that the physical and psychological wellbeing of the client involved is addressed and that the appropriate supports and treatment have been given.

Scope

All staff members and consumers of AIM Occupational Therapy

Statement

It is a priority of AIM Occupational Therapy to minimise the risk to young people and families and to support the appropriate and timely reporting of incidents.

Procedural

The model below called “Basic Model of Risk Management” was obtained from the Occupational Therapy Australia Code of Conduct and shows the model of Risk Management AIM Occupational Therapy adopts.

AIM Occupational Therapy adopts the good practice policy in relation to risk management as stipulated in the Occupational Therapy Australia Code of Conduct involving:

a) being aware of the principles of open disclosure and a non-punitive approach to incident management
b) participating in systems of quality assurance and improvement
i. All staff members actively participate in risk identification each day
c) participating in systems for surveillance and monitoring of adverse events including reporting such events to Disability Services and other relevant government agencies
i. All staff members are encouraged to report adverse events and hazards relating to young people and families to the Clinical Services Manager and Business Manager
ii. “Child Incident Report Form” attached
d) if a practitioner has management responsibilities, making sure that systems are in place for raising concerns about risks to patients or clients
i. See below for “AIM OT’s Client Accident Incident Reporting and Investigation Including Serious Incident Policy and Procedure”
ii. The reporting of serious incidents to the Disability Services within seven days of the incident occurring is mandatory under the Disability Services Act (1993) and the Service Agreement between AIM Occupational Therapy and Disability Services, and this procedure also ensures that this occurs.
e) working in practice and within systems to reduce error and improve the safety of patients or clients and supporting colleagues who raise concerns about the safety of patients or clients, and
f) taking all reasonable steps to address the issue if there is reason to think that the safety of patients or clients may be compromised.

Definitions

• Accident: an unplanned or unforeseen event that results in a loss (i.e. personal injury, property damage, productivity loss or environmental damage).
• Incident: an unplanned or unforeseen event that had the potential to cause injury or damage to property.
• Serious incident: A serious incident means one or more of the following:
  a) the death of a person with a disability who is a current service user
  b) serious physical injury of a person with disability who is a current service user
  c) serious avoidable illness of a person with disability who is a current service user
  d) abuse or neglect of a person with disability who is a current service user
  e) the person is judged as posing a serious risk to the health, safety or welfare of themselves or others
  f) exploitation or unauthorised restrictive practices used with a person with disability who is a current service user; and
  g) an assault on employee or a visitor to the service by a person with disability who is a current service user.

Procedure of the first employee on the scene of an accident or incident

• Seek and apply first aid as required. Depending upon the circumstances call “000” for assistance.
• Immediately report the accident/incident to supervisor.
• First employee on the scene is to Complete Incident Report Form as soon as practicable, upload copy of form into Power Diary,
• Assist with the investigation of the accident/incident and document the circumstances.
• Secure the accident/incident scene, if appropriate, for investigation purposes.
• After the needs of the client involved in the accident/incident have been appropriately addressed the Clinical Services Manager or Business Manager (whoever is available) is to conduct the investigation in the following manner:

  1. Secure the scene
  Take immediate steps to ensure that the accident site is safe and normal business can resume.

  2. Gather information and establish the facts
  It is important that the person who sighted or to whom the incident was reported is involved in this process. Interview employee and witnesses concerned, inspect the accident/incident scene, take photographs or make a sketch, examine equipment and work methods used.

  3. Identify contributing factors to the accident /incident
  All statements in the report should be clear, factual and non-judgmental. Consider all possible contributing factors and document those factors which were most likely to have contributed  to the accident/incident occurrence.

  4. Determine and implement preventative actions
  Having taken immediate action to secure and make safe the site, the Clinical Services Manager is to consider and document recommendations to prevent a reoccurrence.

  5. Issues for immediate local attention

• Continually review actions taken and ensure that they are working.
• Confirm employee involved has signed report
• Ensure this accident/incident is included in monthly statistics.
• Ensure all employees on site are informed of the matters
• If no further action required the original report is filed in client file in Power Diary.
• Ensure that families or others that are required to be notified have been.
• Check all sections of the Incident Report Form are complete

Procedure for Serious incident reporting

In addition to the actions which must occur in relation to all accidents and incidents in accordance with this procedure, serious incidents have additional reporting requirements as follows.

• All serious incidents must be reported to the Clinical Services and Business Manager and to the Disability Services Commission (DSC) in accordance with this procedure (once AIM Occupational Therapy is a registered service provider we can use the reporting system. Whenever an event or set of circumstances arise which could be described as a serious incident under this procedure, employee must immediately report the incident to the Clinical Services Manager and complete an Incident Report Form.
• The Clinical Services Manager is required to determine the facts if possible and report the matter immediately to the Business Manager.
• The Business Manager must prepare a report within three days of the incident for DSC, using the DSC Serious Incident Report Form with the following details (once AIM Occupational Therapy has access to the system)
  o Details of the client
  o Details of the incident
  o Details of the employee involved
  o Date, time and location of incident
  o Alleged perpetrator of the abuse or incident
  o Action/response plan

Reference to National Standards

This policy supports all Standards 1 to 6.

• Standard 1: Rights
• Standard 4: Feedback and complaints
• Standard 5: Service Access
• Standard 6: Service Management