Consultation open on digital mental health standards

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) is developing National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health (NSQDMH) Standards on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health, collaborating with consumers, carers, clinicians, service providers and technical experts to address key safety and quality risks for those using digital mental health services.

Digital mental health services include mental health, suicide prevention or alcohol and other drugs services that use technology to facilitate engagement and the delivery of care. This includes information, digital counselling, treatment and peer-to-peer support services delivered via telephone, videoconference, websites, SMS, web chat and mobile applications.

The NSQDMH Standards will be a step towards providing safety and quality assurance for digital mental health service users and best practice guidance for service providers and developers.

The commission is calling on consumers, carers, clinicians, service providers and interested stakeholders to provide feedback on the draft standards via an online survey or email.

A series of webinars and public forums is being held in March and April 2020 to give stakeholders a chance to discuss the draft NSQDMH Standards, provide feedback and ask questions of the project team.

Download the draft NSQDMH Standards here.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/dizain