Can child protection be called in South Australia because I have a prescription?

What the law actually says

Section 31 imposes the duty. A person to whom Part 1 of Chapter 5 applies must report if they suspect on reasonable grounds that a child or young person is, or may be, at risk, and that suspicion was formed in the course of the person's employment. The report must be made as soon as reasonably practicable. Maximum penalty: $10,000.

Section 30(3) lists who that binds: prescribed health practitioners, police officers, community corrections officers, social workers, ministers of religion, employees and volunteers of religious or spiritual organisations, teachers in schools, pre-schools and kindergartens, and employees and volunteers of organisations providing health, welfare, education, sporting, recreational, child care or residential services to children — either delivering those services directly or holding a management position with direct responsibility for them.

This is where South Australia differs from the states already checked. Western Australia's duty is confined to sexual abuse. Victoria's and Queensland's run to physical injury and sexual abuse. South Australia's is not framed by abuse category at all. Under s 18 a child is at risk if they have suffered harm of a kind against which a child is ordinarily protected, or are likely to; or if their parents or guardians are unable or unwilling to care for them. Under s 17, harm means physical or psychological harm, whether by act or omission, including harm caused by sexual, physical, mental or emotional abuse or neglect — but psychological harm expressly excludes distress, grief, fear or anger that is a response to the ordinary vicissitudes of life.

Section 18(3) matters for anyone with a history in the system: in assessing likelihood of harm, regard must be had not only to current circumstances but to the history of the child's care and its likely cumulative effect.

Nothing in any of it makes lawful use of a prescribed medicine a ground. What a broad threshold means in practice is that the question asked will be about your capacity to care, and a prescription is one fact in that assessment rather than the assessment itself.

What happens if it goes wrong

A report is made to the Child Abuse Report Line by telephone or by the electronic reporting system, and must include the child's name and address if known and the grounds for the suspicion (s 31(4)).

A mandated notifier need not report if they believe on reasonable grounds that someone else already has, or if their suspicion came solely from being told the circumstances by a police officer or child protection officer acting officially (s 31(2)). Both exceptions are narrow, and a clinician who is unsure will usually report — which is worth knowing before you conclude that a report means somebody has decided something about you.