NSW Health respects an individual’s right to privacy and takes the protection of health privacy and personal information seriously.
The YES and CES survey process adheres to the NSW Health privacy framework and all relevant state and federal laws. This includes the Health Records Information Privacy Act 2002 and its Health Privacy Principles, and the Privacy and Personal Information Act 1998 and its Information Protection Principles. These Acts regulate the collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information held by government agencies.
Further details on how NSW Health manages the health information of patients can be found in the NSW Health Privacy Leaflet for Patients.
YES and CES are offered state-wide to consumers and carers of NSW public mental health services. A service code is used to link the survey to the specific service, so that the individual providing feedback cannot be identified.
Local health districts and specialty health networks may use different methods of offering the surveys to ensure that all consumers and carers have an opportunity to provide feedback about their experience. These methods of offering may be automated and can result in the survey being offered to people who had brief contact with the service but may not have received any support. The surveys are voluntary, and individuals can skip any questions, including the demographic section, if they wish.
Completed survey responses are securely stored and analysed by the NSW Ministry of Health. Feedback is provided to services where there are 10 or more surveys completed for that service or group to ensure that individuals cannot be identified based on their responses.
As they are anonymous, YES and CES are not part of the NSW Health complaints process. However, you can provide feedback or make a complaint via the NSW Health website.
