4. Report problems. Legal and ethical
4. Conflict of interest
Sometimes decisions are made that appear to conflict with the consumer's choices, interest and preferences.
There is sometimes a conflict for service providers between performing their legal duty to act for and in the interests of the organisation, with honouring individual participants' choices, interests and preferences.
NOTE: If you become aware of a conflict of interest you must discuss the issue with your supervising Allied Health Professional (AHP).
One way service providers can address this tension is to proactively enable and support their participants to have independent support with decision-making in all aspects of their plans, supports and services. This is referred to as a supported decision-making approach. This ensures participants have control over their lives while reducing the possibility for a conflict of interest to occur.
4.1. Reporting conflict of interest
If ever you think that a private interest could be influencing a decision or action of yours, it is important to discuss this with your supervisor or manager immediately. If you do not discuss conflicts of interest with your supervisor and decide on appropriate action yourself, your supervisor may not understand your decision. It is important to think about potential conflicts of interest you might encounter.
Think about ways that your actions or decisions may be influenced by your personal values that are in conflict with organisational expectations. As an AHA, you should avoid providing support to someone you know or are connected to in your personal life. This can be a challenge in rural, remote and regional areas where you tend to be more identifiable as a member of the community.
If you are asked to provide advice or support to someone you know, you need to advise your AHP supervisor of this and together work out a suitable approach to the problem.
A good first step to protect against conflicts of interest is to have a verbal conversation with your AHP supervisor or manager. Then, you should follow this up with a written account (e.g. an email or letter) of the solutions you both agreed to.