3. Licensing arrangements and permitted use

PHNs and their commissioned Provider Organisations can use the OMSSS to collect the mandated measures free of charge when the service provided to the client has been commissioned by the relevant PHN.

At this stage, no other use of the OMSSS is permitted. A wider application of OMSSS in primary mental health care may be considered in the future.

3.1. K10+ and K5

Both the K10+ and K5 measures are in the public domain and may be used freely as long as the author is properly referenced. Each of these measures is used widely throughout Australia with no restrictions on their incorporation in electronic data collection systems.

3.2. SDQ

The SDQ measures, authored by Dr Robert Goodman, are copyright protected with the UK-based Youthinmind organisation (https://youthinmind.com/). Specific conditions are attached to use of the SDQ measures, detailed at https://sdqinfo.org/. These include the requirement that no modifications are made to the content in any way. Paper versions may be downloaded and copied without charge, subject to adherence to this condition.

The Australian Government Department of Health has entered into a licence agreement with Youthinmind to enable inclusion of the SDQ measures within the OMSSS. This enables PHNs and commissioned providers to use the electronic data collection, scoring and upload arrangements but only in the context of delivery of mental health care to services that have been commissioned by PHNs. Further details in relation to licensed uses are described below.

The department is aware of a range of proprietary CIMS in use by private practising providers and organisations in Australia. Any licensing agreement for use of the SDQ within these systems for purposes other than PMHC MDS collection and reporting is a matter that must be separately negotiated between the software owners and Youthinmind. Additionally, the department is aware that many individual Australian mental health practitioners make use of the functionality offered by Youthinmind, including MySDQ, SDQPlus and SDQScore. Responsibility for ensuring compliance with Youthinmind requirements for each of these functions rests with the individual practitioners and their parent organisations.

3.3. YES PHN

The YES PHN survey has now been included into the PMHC MDS data model and into the OMSSS. YES PHN data is not linked to client or episode records to adhere with the protocol for use and implementation of the YES PHN survey outlined in the guidance (available at https://www.amhocn.org/your-experience-service-surveys). This includes assurance to the client that the results are anonymous and administering organisations will not be able to identify both if their client has completed a YES PHN survey, or their scores.