National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health Standards

IHCA Certification is committed to working closely with organisations providing digital mental health services to plan their assessment and achieve accreditation.

 The National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health (NSQDMH) Standards accreditation program operates over a three-year cycle with providers required to undergo a self-assessment prior to assessment taking place.

Assessment is conducted in two stages prior to accreditation being awarded. Providers are to continue their monitoring and quality improvement processes over the three-year cycle.

human services quality standards

ACCREDITATION ASSESSMENT PROCESS

Formal accreditation decision and registration

IHCA Certification will provide a written report to your organisation and confirm your accreditation. Upon the award of accreditation, your organisation will be issued with a certificate confirming your organisation’s conformance to the standards with the outcome of Accredited or Working Towards Accreditation.

Your organisation will also have the right to use IHCA Certification’s distinctive symbol in promotional activities.

The outcomes of your assessment are provided to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission). 

Other Standards

NSQDMH Standards assessments are not to be conducted at the same time as an assessment to another standard e.g. National Standards for Mental Health Services. Other assessments may be conducted immediately following your NSQDMH assessment.

 More Information

For more information about the NSQDMH Standards, please visit the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare website.

Self-Assessment

In this optional process you complete a self-assessment against the National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health Standards (NSQDMH) in advance of your on-site assessment.

The self-assessment will guide you in preparing the evidence necessary to satisfy all of the requirements of the NSQDMH Standards. Your IHCA Certification assessor will review your completed self-assessment and development plans and provide you with feedback about your preparedness, prior to commencing the accreditation assessment.

Not Applicable Actions

Where relevant, your organisation may apply for relevant actions to be rated ‘not applicable’ at assessment.

Accreditation Assessment

The assessment is conducted in two stages:

  1. Desktop review – A review of evidence submitted by the service provider to demonstrate conformance to the NSQDMH Standards. This review is informed by your completed Self-Assessment.
  2. Verification – An assessment, either on-site or virtually, to verify the safety and quality of the systems described by the service provider.

At the conclusion of the assessment, the findings will be presented to your organisation’s management and other interested parties in relation to conformity with the Standard’s requirements.

Remediation Period and Final Assessment

The Lead Assessor will explain what follow-up action is required to remediate any actions that are found to be not met during the assessment. You will have 60 business days to resolve these which is the Remediation Period. Actions that were not met or met with recommendations during the accreditation assessment will need to be assessed during a Final Assessment.

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