Client Rights

At VERA Mental Health Clinic, every Client has the right to receive care in a professional environment founded on dignity, respect, privacy, autonomy, and appropriate clinical standards.

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We recognise that each Client’s circumstances, history, preferences, and treatment needs are individual. Clients are therefore entitled to be treated respectfully and without discrimination, and to have their personal boundaries and privacy appropriately respected throughout their engagement with the Clinic.

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Clients have the right to:

• receive clear and relevant information about the services being provided;

• participate in decisions relating to their care;

• give, withhold, or withdraw consent where applicable, subject to any legal or clinical limitations;

• ask questions regarding their assessment, treatment, medication, or care pathway;

• receive explanations regarding clinical recommendations and proposed treatment;

• express preferences regarding the clinician providing their care, subject to clinician availability, professional suitability, and the requirements of the relevant service;

• raise concerns or make a complaint without being disadvantaged for doing so;

• expect their personal and clinical information to be handled confidentially and in accordance with applicable legal, professional, ethical, safeguarding, and data-protection requirements;

• access applicable information about their personal data and clinical records in accordance with their legal rights; and

• seek independent advice, a second opinion, or alternative healthcare where they choose to do so.

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Confidentiality is respected throughout the clinical relationship but is subject to the lawful and professional limits explained in the Clinic’s confidentiality and privacy policies, including circumstances involving safeguarding, serious risk, or legal obligations.

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Clinical recommendations, diagnoses, treatment decisions, and prescribing decisions remain based on the independent professional judgment of the appropriately qualified clinician and on what is considered clinically appropriate and safe.

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At VERA Mental Health Clinic, we aim to ensure that Clients are appropriately informed, involved in their care, and treated with professionalism and respect throughout every stage of their clinical pathway.​​

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Client Feedback, Concerns and Complaints

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VERA Mental Health Clinic welcomes feedback regarding the quality and experience of the services we provide.

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Clients who wish to raise a concern or complaint are strongly encouraged to contact the Clinic directly in the first instance through the Clinic’s designated communication channel so that the matter can be appropriately documented, reviewed, and addressed.

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Where a concern cannot be resolved informally, the Client may be asked to submit a formal written complaint in order to allow the Clinic to review the matter fairly and appropriately.

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The Clinic will make reasonable efforts to investigate and respond to formal complaints in a professional, proportionate, and appropriate manner.

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Where a Client remains dissatisfied following the Clinic’s internal complaints process, they remain entitled to seek independent advice, contact an appropriate professional, regulatory, statutory, or consumer body, or exercise any other legal right available to them.

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Clients remain entitled to provide genuine feedback, express honestly held opinions, and raise lawful complaints regarding their experience.

The Clinic also expects all communication with clinicians and staff, whether private or public, to remain lawful and respectful. Harassment, threats, intimidation, abusive conduct, targeted harassment, knowingly false or malicious statements, unlawful disclosure of information relating to others, or other unlawful conduct may result in appropriate action being taken by the Clinic.

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Depending on the nature and seriousness of the conduct, the Clinic may review the continuation of the professional relationship and may take reasonable steps to protect its Clients, clinicians, staff, and lawful interests, including seeking independent legal advice where appropriate.

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Nothing in this section is intended to prevent or discourage a Client from making a genuine complaint, providing truthful feedback, contacting an appropriate authority, seeking legal advice, or exercising any statutory or legal right.