Seek the help you need: a health issue rarely needs a mandatory notification

We know many treating practitioners and organisations are already doing great work to help registered health practitioners access health and wellbeing support when they need it. We also know that a practitioner seeking health support may be worried about being the subject of a mandatory notification.

Encouraging all registered health practitioners to seek health advice if they need it is important. We are committed to working with practitioners, professional organisations and agencies to meet this shared challenge.

We encourage practitioners to seek professional advice for their health — a treating practitioner is only required to make a mandatory notification in very specific circumstances, when there is a substantial risk of harm to the public (a very high threshold for reporting risk of harm to the public) or in cases of sexual misconduct. Several National Boards fund independent health support services for practitioners and there are other profession-specific and general health and wellbeing support services available to help you.