2. Make a complaint

The law says that each developmental service agency must make rules about how it provides services and supports. These rules are supposed to cover many things, including how to:

• prevent abuse
• report abuse if it happens

If staff or other service users abuse you, there are things you can do to report the abuse to the service agency.

If you aren't treated well by a worker or agency that gives you services and supports, you may be able to complain. All developmental service agencies are supposed to have written information about:

• how to complain about their services
• what will happen after you complain
• how long it will take to get an answer to your complaint
• who will be involved in the complaint
• what the agency will do to deal with the complaint fairly

The information about complaints must be written so that it is easy to understand. And people who make complaints should continue to get their services and supports.

You can ask people you trust to support you to complain. If your complaint is against your support worker, get help from a different person.

You'll need to decide what you want to complain about. You may have more than one problem. Dealing with several problems at once can be overwhelming and make it difficult to solve anything.

It might be easiest to deal with each problem separately. Other times you might need to decide what the main problem is. Once you have dealt with the main problem, the other problems may also be resolved.

It may help to write down your complaint. You can get help to do this. Include information like:

• how you were treated unfairly
• how it affected you
• what you want to happen

Get legal help

ARCH Disability Law Centre can help for some kinds of complaints. They can talk to you about making a complaint to your service agency and give you suggestions about ways to resolve the problem. ARCH might also be able to help you deal with the service agency, or take further legal steps.