The following is a summary of information contained in a treatment agreement that will be given to a potential client for their consideration prior to the commencement of treatment. It may read slightly differently based upon updates. The document provided to potential clients should be considered rather than the below in the case of any differences, no warranty is made to the accuracy or sameness of the below when compared to provided treatment agreements.
Consultations between the psychologist and clients are strictly confidential. Psychologists are bound by the APS Code of Ethics. Your retained personal information may be:
- ‘Confidential client record’ (or ‘practitioner notes’); and/or
- ‘Client service record’ (or ‘client/patient record’).
Psychologists are not permitted to provide confidential client record information to other persons, unless you give permission to do so, with some exceptions. It is unethical for psychologists to maintain confidentiality where it may result in serious danger to yourself or others. Relevant laws in your location and the location of the psychologist impact the legality of maintaining confidentiality in some circumstances. Client service records are made available to others for the purposes of conducting business. Protecting your privacy is important and our privacy policy endorses the Privacy Act 2000, and the Health Records Act 2001. You are invited to review these Acts for understanding of the circumstances in which we are obligated and can disclose your confidential client record and other information. It is necessary to collect personal information to meet your needs and manage your care. Your psychologist is required to keep a secure record of your consultations, it will be removed from our system when it is no longer required by law, which is 7 years except for children and young people where it must be kept until their 25th birthday. Some information retained, such as clinical notes, may be kept or requested by some funders. By signing this agreement you agree to and affirm your understanding of confidentiality and privacy in this agreement.
Confidential client record information may be disclosed when it is subpoenaed by a court, failure to disclose the information would place a client or another person at risk, under obligations agreed to as part of this agreement (such as writing progress reports to your GP), and at your request. Further, it may also be disclosed if necessitated by relevant laws, in limited instances this may occur without your knowledge if required by law (for example if your psychologist is called before the Victorian Office of the Chief Examiner as a witness. Confidential information is also disclosed for the purposes of training, providing education, and in clinical supervision. Your confidentiality may also in limited circumstances be impacted by requirements in providing the service. For example, metadata retention laws may show that you have had a telehealth session by way of call logging, our administrative staff and agencies, in managing your psychologists calendar and practice software, may be privy to confidential information in the course of business. In addition, other examples are your name appearing on an invoice or Medicare audit by an accountant, or by providing a response to an AHPRA complaint or in the psychologist and/or organisation defending itself through its insurer and/or legal channels as appropriate. While confidential information disclosure instances is not limited to these examples, this information seeks to provide an overview of the most common situations in which disclosure of confidential information may occur. Where possible and appropriate these disclosures will be limited to your client service record where reasonable and necessary. By signing this agreement you are stating that you recognise, agree to and understand these matters and limits to confidentiality. If you do not agree to these terms please do not sign this document in agreement. We welcome any questions about confidentiality please do not hesitate to get in contact with us if you have any questions.
Privacy Policy regarding use of website
This following document sets forth the Privacy Policy for the Psych Point Pty Ltd website, https://psychpoint.com.au.
Psych Point Pty Ltd is committed to providing you with the best possible customer service experience. Psych Point Pty Ltd is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), which sets out a number of principles concerning the privacy of individuals.
Collection of your personal information
There are many aspects of the site which can be viewed without providing personal information, however, for access to future Psych Point Pty Ltd customer support features you are required to submit personally identifiable information. This may include but not limited to a unique username and password, or provide sensitive information in the recovery of your lost password.
Sharing of your personal information
We may occasionally hire other companies to provide services on our behalf, including but not limited to handling customer support enquiries, processing transactions or customer freight shipping. Those companies will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to deliver the service. Psych Point Pty Ltd takes reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by confidentiality and privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information.
Use of your personal information
For each visitor to reach the site, we expressively collect the following non-personally identifiable information, including but not limited to browser type, version and language, operating system, pages viewed while browsing the Site, page access times and referring website address. This collected information is used solely internally for the purpose of gauging visitor traffic, trends and delivering personalized content to you while you are at this Site.
From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at some time in the future we will use for these new purposes only, data collected from the time of the policy change forward will adhere to our updated practices.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Psych Point Pty Ltd reserves the right to make amendments to this Privacy Policy at any time. If you have objections to the Privacy Policy, you should not access or use the site.
Accessing Your Personal Information
You have a right to access your personal information, subject to exceptions allowed by law. If you would like to do so, please let us know. You may be required to put your request in writing for security reasons. Psych Point Pty Ltd reserves the right to charge a fee for searching for, and providing access to, your information on a per request basis.
Contacting us
Psych Point Pty Ltd welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy and would like further information, please contact us by any of the following means during business hours Monday to Friday.
E-mail: admin@psychpoint.com.au