Referring individuals linked to the National Redress Scheme to a social worker 003-18061830

A referral to a social worker can be initiated by a staff member, DSS Redress Officer or by the individual presenting in an acute crisis.

Is the individual in acute crisis?

• Yes,

go to Step 2

go to Step 3

• No, refer person to the National Redress Scheme or National Redress Scheme support service. The Resources page has a link to the National Redress Scheme website

Tell the individual that their call is being transferred to a Services Australia social worker who may seek personal information about their circumstances. This is to enable the social worker to appropriately record the interaction and provide the most suitable support. If the individual does not want to provide personal information, a referral can still be made.

To refer the individual to a social worker:

• Warm transfer the individual using the Social Work Line for Redress phone number. Note: do not use the Social Work Line number
• Use the malicious call handling (MCH) process in Services Australia Workspace before the individual hangs up. Tell a team leader that MCH is being used. For more details, see the Responding to phone threats to harm staff or departmental property in Customer aggression – Response. See the Resources page for a link to the intranet - Services Australia Workspace page.

Has contact been made with a social worker?

• Yes, procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 4

Following local guidelines, contact the service centre social worker. If they are unavailable transfer the individual to the Social Work Line for Redress:

• Ask the individual if they would like to move to a private area to enable them to speak privately by telephone with the social worker
• Tell the individual the social worker may seek personal information about their circumstances. This is to enable the social worker to record the interaction and provide the most suitable support. If the individual does not want to provide personal information, a referral can still be made
• Warm transfer the individual to a social worker using the Social Work Line for Redress phone number. Note: do not use the Social Work Line number

Has contact been made with a social worker?

• Yes, procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 4

If the customer is at imminent risk, consider transferring to triple zero (000)

Ask the customer for consent to contact police or ambulance via triple zero (000).

Does the customer consent?

• Yes, ask them for their:
• location
• phone number, and
• consent to share this information with police or ambulance. When transferring the call to police or ambulance, give the customer’s location and phone number. See the Security incident reporting and staff getting support after a difficult situation table in the Customers talking about suicide or self-harm procedure
• No, escalate to Team Leader/Manager

Notify a Team Leader/Manager of any critical incident involving suicide or self-harm. Contact a Team Leader or Manager immediately to consider a release of information if:

• a customer terminates the call before they can be transferred to a social worker, or
• a customer declines a referral to police or ambulance (or withholds consent to release their location and phone number)

For incident follow-up:

See the Security incident reporting and staff getting support after a difficult situation table in the Customers talking about suicide or self-harm procedure.

Team Leaders and Managers:

See the Releasing information in the public interest table in the Customers talking about suicide or self-harm procedure.

Procedure ends here.