Better Access limits, when assessment and treatment powers apply, what you can share and with whom. Ask Mandy in plain English and get an answer from the Mental Health Act, the MBS and the Privacy Act, with every source listed.
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Information only, not legal advice. Every answer cited.
Sources 3 cited
Mental Health Act 2016MBS Better AccessPrivacy Act 1988
Checking legislation
Current rules onlyRe-checked as they change
Legislation alert New
Better Access items indexedSession cap and review unchanged
The rules keep changing for community services teamsMandy keeps up, so you do not have to
MBS items indexedBetter Access rebates updated; the 10 session cap and GP review remain.
NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27Psychosocial support item codes updated.
SCHADS Award rates increasedNew minimum rates for community services workers.
How Ask Mandy works for community services teams
Ask. Check. Act.
Ask the question the way your team asks it in supervision. Mandy checks the Mental Health Act, the MBS, the Privacy Act and the domestic and family violence law, then answers in plain English with every source listed, ready to save to the case note.
Better Accesssession caps, GP reviews and gap fees explained to clients
Powers and rightsexamination and treatment authorities, and the client's rights under them
Sharingconfidentiality limits, duty to warn and information sharing between services
The legislation community services teams rely on, answered from the source.
Mandy does not search the open internet. She answers from the Acts and schedules that govern mental health and community work, embedded in full and kept current, and names the source in every answer.
Queensland
Mental health
Mental Health Act 2016
Treatment authorities, examination orders, rights of patients and the obligations of authorised services.
What must happen before a treatment authority is made?
Commonwealth
Health
Medicare Benefits Schedule
Better Access, Chronic Disease Management and the item rules that decide what Medicare rebates and how often.
How many sessions are left this calendar year?
Commonwealth
Privacy
Privacy Act 1988
The Australian Privacy Principles, health information handling and when information can be shared without consent.
Can we tell a family member what a client disclosed?
Queensland
Domestic and family violence
Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012
Protection orders, who can apply, police protection notices and information sharing between services.
Can we share a client's details with another service?
Commonwealth
Disability
NDIS Act 2013
Reasonable and necessary supports, provider obligations, and the Pricing Schedule, Practice Standards and Code of Conduct made under it.
Can we claim a short notice cancellation?
Commonwealth
Workforce
SCHADS Award
Classifications, minimum rates, penalties, broken shifts, sleepovers and minimum engagements for social and community services workers.
What rate applies to a sleepover shift?
Also draws onBetter Access guidanceQueensland health records lawNDIS psychosocial recovery guidanceInformation sharing guidelines
Coverage grows with our customers. If your work relies on an Act or a state we do not list yet, tell us and we will add it to the roadmap. Every answer shows exactly which instrument it relied on, so you always know what was and was not checked.
What can community services teams ask?
The questions community services teams ask every week.
Pick a topic to see the kind of thing Mandy answers, then click any question to ask it yourself.
Hundreds more answered in our guides, each one cited to the legislation.
Security and privacy
Confidential information, handled properly.
Care and community services run on sensitive information. Ask Mandy is built so it stays that way: stored in Australia, secured to the standard government agencies expect, and never used to train AI, while your team gets the most capable AI available.
Where your information goes, start to finishThree stops. Each one accounted for.
Stop 1 · Your office
Your team
You sign in with multi factor authentication. Team permissions decide who can open which clients and records.
Multi factor sign in
Role based access
Encrypted in transit
Stop 2 · Australia
Ask Mandy
Your account, conversations, case notes and exports are stored encrypted on servers in Australia and are not moved offshore. Every action is logged.
Stored in Australia
Encrypted at rest
Audit trail on every record
Encrypted in transit
Stop 3 · AI processing
The AI model
Only the text needed to answer is processed, under enterprise terms that prohibit using it to train or improve any model. Nothing about your organisation is kept.
Never used for training
Not retained by the model
The model only ever sees the question and the legislation it needs to answer it. Your client records, notes and files stay at stop 2, in Australia.
What we commit to
In plain words, and in our terms.
Your data lives in Australia
Account, records, case notes, uploads and backups are stored on Australian infrastructure under Australian law. We do not move stored data offshore.
Security to the standard government agencies expect
Encryption in transit and at rest, multi factor authentication, role based access control and a full audit trail. Our security documentation is available to customers on request.
Never used to train AI
Your questions, notes and documents are not used to train or improve AI models, by us or by our AI providers. That is written into our terms with them.
Confidential by default
Client information is visible only to the people your administrators allow. Every view, change and export is recorded, so you can always answer who saw what.
Designed around the Privacy Act
Built to the Australian Privacy Principles: collect only what is needed, keep it secure, be transparent, and give you control over correction, export and deletion.
The most capable AI, kept on a short leash
Frontier AI models, allowed to answer only from the current legislation and required to cite it. You get the intelligence without the guessing, and your team gets hours back.
Plans
One flat price for the whole team.
Unlimited questions on every monthly plan, priced by how many people use it. Start with a free two day trial and cancel any time.
How many people will use Ask Mandy?Slide to your team size. We will point you to the plan that fits.
All prices include GST and are in Australian dollars. Every plan includes cited answers, Australian hosting and the same security. Information only, not legal advice.
Who is behind Ask Mandy
Built by a provider who still runs the houses.
Amar started as a support worker and now runs a disability support organisation with more than 16 SIL houses and a team of over 200. He built Mandy after watching his own staff paste client questions into public AI tools, because the sector had nothing that was safe, Australian and grounded in the legislation.
Straight answers to the things that decide whether a tool like this belongs in your organisation.
Which state mental health Act does Mandy cover?
Queensland's Mental Health Act 2016 is embedded today. The Commonwealth instruments, Better Access and the Privacy Act, apply nationally. Other states' Acts are on the roadmap, and Mandy tells you when a question turns on one she does not yet hold.
Can Mandy be used in a crisis?
No. Mandy is a legislation and funding reference for staff, not a clinical or crisis tool. In an emergency, follow your service's crisis procedures.
Is this legal advice?
No. Ask Mandy gives you information from the legislation, rules and official guidance, in plain English and with every source listed. Decisions about a person's care, rights or claims stay with the professionals responsible for them.
How current is the legislation?
Mandy answers from the current versions of the Acts, rules, standards and price guides she covers, and they are re-checked as they change. Every answer names the instrument and the date it was checked, so you can confirm the version yourself.
Is my client's information safe?
Your account, conversations and case notes are stored encrypted on servers in Australia and are never used to train AI models. Team permissions decide who sees what, and every view, change and export is logged. See the security section above.
What happens after the free trial?
Two days of unlimited questions, then choose a plan or walk away. Nothing is charged until you choose, and you can cancel any time.
Talk to us
Want a walkthrough for your team, or an integration?
Tell us a little about your organisation and we will come back to you to arrange a call. Larger organisations can also see our enterprise and integrations page.
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