Clinician Quality: Management & Supervision 

A key focus at Converge is investing in the supervision, management and development of our clinicians. We recognise that the quality of our clinicians is a key part of treatment effectiveness. All of Converge’s clinicians, both directly employed and subcontracted, are subject to auditable compliance processes under our ISO Quality system. This means that clinician’s qualifications, registrations, police checks, working with children checks and service in relation to quality, efficiency and outcomes are managed subject to regular and rigorous internal and external audits.

Keeping up-to-date with research and best-practice in the mental health industry means we continually invest in training and development for our clinicians. We are committed to ensuring their skills and experience evolve to meet the ever-changing mental health patterns and trends of individuals and organisations. The ultimate outcome is that our attention to quality improves the wellbeing of your employees and organisation.

Employee Clinicians 
We have quality metrics that each clinician is measured against. Please note that alone these data points don’t guarantee standardised quality, but when taken together they represent an indication of quality of clinician and their service delivery:

• Session conversion rate: this measures how many sessions the clinician has converted a client’s 1st session to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th sessions where relevant. This is an indicator that the clinician is able to empathetically engage and work with the client over a period of time to achieve treatment improvement across multiple sessions.
• Client satisfaction: all clinicians are measured against two questions from the client satisfaction survey:
• Establishment of positive relationship with Clinician
• Clinician’s level of understanding

These results are reported back to clinicians quarterly, including any client comments of feedback.

• Productivity: this measures how many sessions a clinician has during each week and is reported back to clinicians quarterly.
• Supervision attendance: we track 90% compliance.
• Completion of case notes: we track 100% compliance.
• Subcontracted Clinicians

For our contracted clinicians we monitor and audit:

• client satisfaction
• complaints
• case note compliance
• Supervision compliance
• Registration with industry association such as APS, AASW
• Legislative and ethical compliance (in line with Converge’s Reportable Behaviours/EAP guidelines/clinical governance policies).

In addition to the above metrics, we use the following quality assurance tools for all clinicians:

• An independently validated measurement tool for client wellbeing based on the Feedback Informed Treatment model. The Wellbeing Survey involves a 30 second questionnaire measuring client wellbeing across each counselling session and enables us to provide aggregated outcome data to each client. This allows clinician and client to track and observe client progress across sessions. Additionally we provide de-identified wellbeing survey data to organisations, which reports employee wellbeing across individual, social and vocational domains. This informs our client organisations about employee mental health and provides insights into how employee wellbeing can best be supported.
• Complaint Management Process: We have a rigorous complaint policy with all client feedback, reviews, outcomes and continuous improvement actions registered in Intelligence Bank. This allows us to monitor number of substantiated complaints received for each clinician. When there is more than one substantiated complaint, we look at additional remedial actions including training, supervision, and performance management.
• Professional Development and Supervision: Converge leads the industry in the way in which we continually develop our clinicians. We have an extensive professional development calendar with monthly events (available upon request) and are the only EAP provider who provides supervision for both staff and contractor clinicians. Our professional development and supervision is a key differentiator, and includes: 
• Clinician induction and training program: All Converge clinicians, both employees and contractors, undergo a mandatory induction and training in Converge clinical policies and processes. This ensures consistency of service with all Converge clinicians working to the same excellent standard of care. The result is that over 90% of our clinicians are rated 8/10 or higher by employees accessing support.
• Professional Development: We prepare a calendar of professional development opportunities each quarter and tailor it to cover emerging needs, such as supporting clients through cost of living pressures. Our annual calendar of professional development includes training in expected standards for high-risk clients, suicide prevention, cultural sensitivity, LGBTQI+, First Nations, working with children, domestic & family violence, Converge standards of clinical governance and mandatory reporting.
• Supervision: All our employee clinicians are required to attend group supervision once a month. In addition, we require one on one supervision during probation and periods when there is potential for employee performance and self-care to be compromised. Our contractors are required to attend monthly supervision as per their professional requirements. We provide ad hoc reactive supervision for all clinicians and strongly encourage this following critical incidents, high risk clients, and complex clinical presentations. Our clinical governance polices require escalation of all cases involving mandatory reporting to our clinical leadership team.
• Active Leadership: We invest in our leadership structure to ensure we have the capacity for one on one support to all our clinicians. Clinician engagement and wellbeing are central to ensuring quality service provision to clients and we are committed to creating a culture of psychological care, high performance, collaboration and resilience. Our clinical leaders are recruited for their skills, experience and commitment to collaborative, supportive leadership balanced with accountability.