Your procedures

Your organization should have a set of policies and standard procedures for assessment, referral and review, and you are required to follow them. You should also have a defined role and set of responsibilities, and you are required to work within them.

You need a set of clear procedure to follow, which will include a way of keeping written case records. It should include:

• records of interviews
• a list of actions you are taking
• a schedule of times for regular review
• a list of related costs, if you are responsible for cost-efficiency
• case conference outcomes
• outcomes and evaluations

Your network of services

You need an up-to-date list of all the community services that your organization normally works with and refers people. (Sounds obvious, but you still need to do it.)

Make sure it is somewhere where you can easily get the information. You will need to easily get a full range of options on what you can do.

Your list needs to be complete with contact details and any particular rules for accessing the service. You'd want to consider:

• Are the services open to anybody in the general public, or only certain groups of people? (e.g. Aboriginal, unemployed, etc.)
• Are appointments necessary? If so, how far in advance?
• What can each one do? What can't they do?
• How are their services paid for?

Legislation compliance

Your organization should maintain a register of all the legislation with which it must comply. This will help you stay legal when things become more complicated. However you'll be able to comply with most laws simply by following your organization's procedures.

You will need to understand the legislation that affects you, which will vary according to your industry, organization, and state/territory.

If you work in a private program, your legal requirements might be quite simple, but many requirements are subject to different legislation in different states and territories.

Duty of care is normally the main one and is fairly uniform across Australia.

Administering medication varies in different states. For example, nursing assistants can administer prescription medication in some states, in others they can't.

Privacy laws are clear about what you can and can't do. A good policy and privacy form will enable you to do what you need while safeguarding clients' privacy.

Legal advice is touchy. In some situations, you may be required to advise clients of their legal rights but in others it is illegal to do so unless you are a lawyer. The ideal answer is to have a simple written statement on each topic of recurring need that is either issued by the relevant government department or is approved by your management.

Relevant international conventions, for example, the Ottowa Charter on health promotion.

Legal requirements may be more complex if you work in a government program or a program that is subject to government funding, you work in an industry that is specifically regulated by law, or if your organization has contractual commitments.

When you develop your procedures and forms, you will be able to use the legal requirements as a basis. These means that anybody who follows your organizations procedures is assured of complying with all relevant laws. However, the case management units in the Australian training sector requires students to understand both. That is, students need to know not just what their organization expects, but also their legal obligations.