Accreditation

The mental health sector’s governing bodies have developed standards that health and community organisations like Stride must meet. Stride is periodically audited to ensure these standards are upheld.

These standards also recognise Stride’s commitment to best practice, robust systems and processes, as well as our dedication to continuous improvement. At Stride, we take pride in our service delivery standards and strive to meet, and even exceed, the expectations of the communities and individual mental health consumers and carers we support.

Developed by the Australian Department of Health, the NSMHS outlines standards aimed at helping mental health service providers to continually improve and better support consumers through:

• The delivery of mental health services
• Compliance with legislation
• Standards of communication and consent
• Policies and procedures, particularly to address risks to consumers

The NSMHS embraces principles of recovery-oriented mental health practices and ensures Stride has:

• A framework for consumer and carer participation
• Service monitoring and continuous quality improvement
• Respect and trust between different parts of the service system
• Transparency and accountability
• Strategic information at a sector and service system level

These standards are specific to registered NDIS providers and the supports and services they provide to consumers. Together with the NDIS Code of Conduct, the NDIS Practice Standards form the framework of what NDIS participants should expect from Stride.
The core features of these standards include:

• Rights and responsibilities of NDIS participants
• The delivery of supports
• Governance and operational management
• The environment in which supports are delivered

The SPA Standards support organisations like Stride to implement safe, high-quality, and effective suicide prevention programs.

Suicide Prevention Australia partnered with people with lived experience, consumers, clinicians, service providers, and accreditation experts to develop these standards, which cover:

• Needs assessment
• Alignment (of the service with organisational values and vision)
• Lived experience of suicide
• Stakeholder engagement
• Program plan
• Workforce

Stride’s Safe Space, Safe Haven and The Way Back – Penrith services are currently certified against these standards.

At Stride, we are committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people who engage with our services. Guided by the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, we maintain policies and practices designed to provide safe environments and to prevent, identify and respond to harm and abuse.

We uphold the Universal Principle of cultural safety and are committed to ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people feel culturally safe, respected and heard. We recognise and value their cultural identities, voices and lived experiences, and the importance of connection to family, community, culture and Country.

Our staff, contractors and volunteers are supported to understand their child safeguarding responsibilities, and we regularly review and improve our practices to strengthen child safety and cultural safety across our services. We remain dedicated to upholding the highest standards of child safety and continuing to enhance our efforts in this critical area.

The headspace Model Integrity Framework (hMIF) sets out the requirements that all headspace centres must meet in order to deliver services in line with the headspace model. The framework covers a broad range of areas, including youth participation, family and friends participation, and evidence-based practice.

All Stride headspace centres are subject to regular audits against the hMIF to ensure compliance and service quality.

Currently, Stride leads 11 headspace centres across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.