Patient Rights Advisor

**Healthy Minds Cooperative (HMC)**

We are a community-based, mental health charity offering free services to the public, no referral required. All our staff have first-hand, lived experience in mental health (including addiction) and our passion is to help those working on their mental health challenges by offering them a supportive and safe space to connect, grow, and learn. We offer drop-in mental health support groups, wellness workshops and events, peer navigation, and deliver the Patient’s Rights Advisory Service for involuntary psychiatric patients on behalf of the Province of Nova Scotia.

**Position Overview**

In 2005 Nova Scotia passed the Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Act (IPTA). This act established that an involuntary psychiatric patient can access a Patient Rights Advisor (PRA) whose job is to advise them of their rights under the Act. Since October 2020, HMC has held the contract with the Nova Scotia Department of Health & Wellness for delivery of the Patient’s Rights Advisor Service (PRAS).

Advisors are part-time, on-call employees who live within 15 kilometres of the hospitals in the service area of the community. PRAs may be required to deliver rights during the daytime and in the evenings.

Advisors work within a team of PRAs across the province and report to the Operations Manager and the PRAS team within HMC. The PRAs are required to deliver Patient’ Rights within 72 hours of the rights request being received and therefore work on an on-call basis. Currently, the position works from home with PRAS delivering rights via the telephone. It is anticipated that PRAs will be returning to in-person delivery later in 2022.

Proof of up-to-date vaccination for COVID-19 is required as a condition of employment as Advisors will be entering and working in public hospitals.

Advisors must complete a Criminal Records Check and Vulnerable Sector Check. Advisors are also required to successfully complete a training program and must have access to a reliable source of transportation.

For more information about PRAS, please visit the NovaScotia.ca Patient Rights Advisor Services page.

*Current employees of the IWK and NS Health are not able to work as Patient’s Rights Advisors in accordance with IPTA.

**Functions & Responsibilities for the Advisor Role**
- meet promptly with the involuntary patient and substitute decision maker (SDM) - unless they object
- explain to patient the significance of their situation
- identify available options including the right to have involuntary status reviewed by review board, if there is disagreement with the physician's decision
- communicate in a neutral, non-judgmental manner
- assist patient to obtain legal counsel via Nova Scotia Legal Aid for their hearing, if requested
- maintain confidentiality
- assist patient in carrying out decisions under IPTA, but shall not make decisions for them
- attend the patient’s review board hearings
- notify IPTA administrators of patient and SDM decisions
- complete reports and administrative duties in a timely manner as designated by the Operations Manager and PRAS team
- attend monthly virtual team meetings with the PRAS team
- participate in training opportunities either in-person or virtually as determined by the Operations Manager
- reporting to the Operations Manager, while receiving direction from the PRAS team

Advisors will be trained on the following in line with the requirements of the Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Act:

- knowledge of mental health and illness as well as the range services available to those with mental illnesses
- knowledge of the review board, including role and function
- knowledge in obtaining legal services
- must complete a training course

**Qualifications & Experience**

Advisors are required to have:

- Criminal and Child Abuse Registry clearance
- Access to a personal computer for work
- Knowledge and experience with Microsoft Office 365 including Outlook, Word, & Excel
- Experience and/or capacity to work with confidentiality as a top priority
- Flexible availability and capacity to work under tight deadlines with short notice
- Live within 15 kilometers of the hospital in the community
- Access to reliable transportation

**Desirable knowledge, values, skills, & characteristics**
- available and prompt in responding to requests
- organized and detailed
- excellent and supportive communicators who can provide complex messaging in a neutral and non-judgemental manner
- experienced, knowledgeable, and skilled in working with people with mental illness
- must have necessary communications skills to perform designated functions effectively;
- previous experience in dealing with individuals with mental illnesses and those who face barriers to accessing services.

Advisors with lived experience of mental illness or professional experience working with those who have mental illness are prioritized in the recruitment process.

**Travel**

Advisors are required to have access to a relia