Monash Health employees can now request or share information to help keep people safe.
Changes to the Family Violence Protection Act (2008) and Child Wellbeing and Safety Act (2005) were enacted on 21 April 2021. These legislation changes mean that public services, such as hospitals and police, general practitioners, and family violence organisations now can share information with each other.
It should be noted that this change doesn’t interfere with the existing information sharing legislation, such as privacy or child protection legislation.
Updates to information sharing
The information sharing updates now mean:
- A clinician can request or share information to keep people safe. For example, a clinician may obtain a copy of an intervention order from the magistrate’s court or from the police.
- There may be circumstances where a clinician decides it is important to share information with an authorised agency. For example, an inpatient is overheard threatening to harm their ex-partner. In this circumstance, the clinician may contact The Orange Door and/or Police (an authorised agency) and share their concerns about the ex-partner’s safety.
- Authorised external organisations can request information about our patients. There are protocols in place to ensure that only relevant and necessary information is released.
If you receive a request for information, you will need to ask the employee to complete our information sharing form. This is available on our website. Once the form has been completed, it can be emailed to: ISS@monashhealth.org
Monash Health’s family violence team will action your request in line with our legislative requirements.
For more information
Family violence and child information procedures can be found on Prompt and training is available on Latte.
You can also contact the Family Violence Team on 0484 674 894 or email ISS@monashhealth.org for more information.
MARAM and Information Sharing Week
The inaugural MARAM and Information Sharing Week will be held from 26 to 29 April. The purpose of the week is to promote understanding of family violence and information sharing and align and embed the MARAM Framework and Information Sharing Schemes in practice.
For more information or to register your attendance at the virtual sessions, visit: MARAM and Information Sharing Week