Support is available to people who have accepted an offer of redress and indicated they would like to access counselling and psychological care.
The Redress Counselling Team is located within the Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services, and supports all Queenslanders who accept an offer of Counselling and psychological care from the National Redress Scheme.
The Redress Counselling Team can help you:
understand how to access counselling and psychological care
find the right counsellor
access counselling and psychological care services
access support if you are not satisfied with a counsellor, and
connect with other services to meet other needs.
Accessing support is voluntary. The support to access counselling is independent from the practitioners that will provide counselling and psychological care under the Queensland arrangements.
The team will collect the following information about you, provided by the National Redress Scheme for verification purposes:
your name
your date of birth
your postcode, and
your unique Redress ID (found on your letter of offer)
the date you accepted your Redress offer.
The team also manage the billing and payment of counselling and psychological care and will hold information about:
which counselling and psychological care service practitioners you have accessed
how many hours you have accessed, and
the cost of the hours.
The Redress Counselling Team will not receive information from your counsellor about your treatment unless you give your counsellor permission.
If you seek assistance from the team for personal support or decision-making through the counselling and psychological care process then what information you provide to them, and who they provide it to, must be with your permission.
As a government agency the Redress Counselling Team must abide by the Information Privacy Act 2009. You can contact them if you have questions about their privacy policies and what information they hold about you.
If you are unhappy with your counselling provider's service or feel there may be a better provider or service type, you can change at any time. If you are uncertain about what type of counselling and psychological care service will meet your needs, including any special needs, contact the Redress Counselling Team who can help you to explore other options.
If you have a complaint about a counselling provider, you can make a formal complaint through the relevant professional body for that counsellor. All counselling and psychological care providers must be registered with their relevant professional body, such as the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Authority. Your counselling provider must provide you with this information.
The Redress Counselling Team can tell you who the relevant professional body is for the counselling and psychological care provider that you wish to make a complaint about.
Further information about how to register a complaint can be found here (word version).
You can continue to access counselling and psychological care in another state or territory for up to 20 hours, or more if needed.
You can use any counsellor on the Trauma Support Directory, regardless of where they are located. If you find a counsellor who is not registered on the Trauma Support Directory, they can choose to register with the Redress Counselling Team.
Contact the Redress Counselling Team for further information.
If you have received a lump sum payment for counselling and psychological care (separate to the Redress monetary payment), you will need to make contact with the practitioner of your choice and pay them directly.
If you accepted your Redress Offer in a state or territory that delivers counselling and psychological care (rather than a lump sum), you may be entitled to 20 hours of counselling through your original state or territory even if you move to Queensland.
Contact the counselling and psychological care provider in your original state or territory for further information about your specific situation.
