Privacy policy.
PURPOSE
Child Led Therapies is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information collected. Child Led Therapies complies with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) under the Privacy Act 1988, other privacy laws that govern how private sector health service providers handle your personal information (including your health information), and Occupational Therapy Australia’s Code of Ethics.
In order to provide clients with Occupational Therapy services that is requested, Child Led Therapies will need to use and collect personal information. Child Led Therapies relies on clients to provide accurate personal information. Should clients decide to withhold or provide inaccurate personal information from Child Led Therapies they need to be aware that this could impact the ability of Child Led Therapies to provide the service they request or require.
Framed by the NPPs, the Child Led Therapies Privacy Policy outlines the obligations which Child Led Therapies has in managing the personal information it holds about its clients (parents and children), potential clients, employees, suppliers, contractors and others. Any information provided, including identification of individuals, will be used only for the purpose/s intended and where the intention includes confidentiality, information will be treated as such unless otherwise required by law.
DEFINITIONS
Personal Information included a broad range of information, or an opinion, that could identify an individual. What is personal information will vary depending on whether a person can be identifies or is reasonably identifiable in the circumstance.
For example, personal information may include:
an individual’s name, signature, address, phone number or date of birth
sensitive information
employee record information
photographs
Sensitive information is also personal information, however special protection applies to this type of information.
For example, sensitive information may include
racial or ethnic origin
political opinions or associations
religious or philosophical beliefs
trade union membership or associations
sexual orientation or practices
criminal record
health and genetic information
POLICY
At Child Led Therapies, we take the privacy and personal information of the parents and children who visit us, our employees and our suppliers very seriously. We won’t discuss your child or give you or your child’s personal information to any individual, company or organisation outside of Child Led Therapies unless you’ve provided us with your written consent or we are legally obliged to under a Court Order.
Importantly, in the case of divorced or separated parents, we will only deal with the fee-paying party who engaged our services in the first instance. We will only share information relating to the assessment and treatment of the child with the other parent and/or carers if we have the consent of the initial party or are legally obliged to disclose specified information under Court Order.
We’ll never sell or trade your personal data to third party list brokers or direct marketing companies. We’ll do our very best to ensure that your personal data is kept safe and secure for as long as your details are in our care. Once our relationship has been concluded, Child Led Therapies will destroy or de-identify personal information due to redundancy, after our legal obligations to retain the information have expired.
When will Child Led Therapies collect personal information?
Child Led Therapies will usually gather personal information about children and families:
When a parent or carer books a child in for an assessment/therapy
During the course of providing services
When a child, parent or family uses the Child Led Therapies website (e.g. when they fill out an online form, enter a competition or subscribe to an online newsletter).
Why does Child Led Therapies collect personal information?
Child Led Therapies collects personal information in order to conduct its business, to provide and market its services and to meet its legal obligations. We won’t use your personal data for any purpose that you have not agreed to, without first letting you know how and why we’d like to use your details. And, of course, we’ll make sure that we have your verbal and/or written permission first.
Information is used for
Setting up client profiles on our Practice Management Software
Billing either direct or through a third-party agency
When a handover is required between therapists within our clinic
Communicating with other Health Care Professionals or others involved in the child’s care (after third party consent has been received)
Audit purposes
To liaise with NDIA, NDIS, Health Funds and/or Medicare
About whom does Child Led Therapies collect personal information?
The type of information Child Led Therapies may collect and hold includes (but is not limited to) personal information about:
Clients (parents and children) and potential clients
Employees, prospective employees and contractors
Business associates
Suppliers and their employees, and
Other people who come into contact with a member of the Child Led Therapies
What kinds of personal information does Child Led Therapies collect?
In general, the type of personal information Child Led Therapies collects and holds includes (but is not limited to):
Parents’ names, marital status, occupation(s), child’s/children’s names and dates of birth, parent and child’s home and postal address(es), parent’s email address(es), mobile number(s), home telephone number(s), work number(s) and facsimile number(s).
General practitioner and referring doctor
Any information relating to Federal Government Healthcare Programs (i.e. Medicare Programs for Children, NDIS, FaHCSIA and BetterStart)
Transaction details associated with services we have provided to you
Any additional information provided to us by you
Any information you provided to us through client surveys
Other information which assists us in conducting our business, providing and marketing our services and meeting our legal obligations.
How does Child Led Therapies collect personal information?
Child Led Therapies will generally collect personal information with your agreement by way of telephone conversations, forms filled out either in hard copy or on-line, in face-to-face meetings, assessments, interviews, business cards and from third parties.
In some circumstances Child Led Therapies may be provided with personal information about an individual from a third party – for example, a report provided by a medical professional or a referral from another professional.
Website collection
Child Led Therapies collects personal information from the web site www.childledtherapies.com through receiving subscription applications and emails. They also use third parties to analyse traffic at that web site, which may involve the use of cookies. Child Led Therapies may create links to third party websites and is not responsible for the content or privacy practices employed by websites that are linked from Child Led Therapies website.
How might Child Led Therapies use and disclose your personal information?
Child Led Therapies may use and disclose your personal information for the primary purpose for which it is collected, for reasonably expected secondary purposes which are related to the primary purpose and in other circumstances authorised by the Privacy Act.
In general, Child Led Therapies uses and discloses your personal information for the following purposes:
To conduct its business
To provide and market its services
To communicate with you
To provide treatment and care to your child
To assist your treating health professionals to provide treatment and care to you – e.g. speech patholigists, psychologist, councellors
To assist us to provide you with information about your care, if required
To assist with our internal administrative requirements
To process Medicare, FaHCSIA, Better Start, NDIS and private health fund claims
To supply information to medical practitioners and other allied health professionals who provide necessary follow up treatment and ongoing care
To conduct research and development
To conduct service planning
To communicate offers and special events
For general marketing purposes
To help us manage and enhance our services
To comply with our legal obligations.
To whom might Child Led Therapies disclose your personal information?
Child Led Therapies may disclose your personal information to:
Other members of the Child Led Therapies Team
Legal practitioners, courts, tribunals and regulatory authorities, and
Anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose it as per the Privacy Permission Form
Child Led Therapies also collects personal information from these organisations and individuals, and will deal with that information in accordance with this Policy.
How does Child Led Therapies keep personal information accurate and up-to-date?
Child Led Therapies endeavours to ensure that the personal information we hold is accurate, complete and up-to-date. We encourage you to contact our admin team in order to update any personal information we hold about you.
Child Led Therapies works in partnership with a range of government departments and health services and is required by law to pass on certain information about clients. We must also adhere to the laws of Mandatory Notification, and therefore must notify relevant authorities about certain issues (e.g. child protection).
External and internal quality auditors may view a small amount of personal information to check that Child Led Therapies is meeting its obligations for Quality Accreditation. Auditors are bound by their own and/or Child Led Therapies’ confidentiality requirements. Volunteers and students on placement at Child Led Therapies are also bound by Child Led Therapies’ confidentiality requirements.
In some cases, we share stories about Child Led Therapies families through newsletters, publications, media stories and fundraising activities. We will always seek your permission to do this, and will tell you exactly where and when your story will appear.
Sending information overseas
Child Led Therapies will not send your personal information to recipients outside of Australia without:
Obtaining your consent (in some cases this consent will be implied), or
Otherwise complying with the NPPs.
Access to information
Clients may request access to their personal information held by Child Led Therapies by writing to the Director of Operations (i.e. specifically fee-paying parents of children to whom we are providing/have provided service).
Child Led Therapies will require you to verify your identity and to specify what information you require. In some instances, a fee may be charged for providing access. We will advise you of the likely cost in advance.
Where we hold information that clients are entitled to access, we will endeavour to provide you with a suitable range of choices as to how you may collect (e.g. post or collection).
If you believe that personal information that we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request amendments. We will consider if the information requires amendment and if we do not agree, we will add a note to the personal information stating your disagreement with the information.
Management of personal information
The NPPs require Child Led Therapies to take reasonable steps to protect the security of personal information. Child Led Therapies personnel are required to respect the confidentiality of personal information and the privacy of individuals. As such, all staff sign a confidentiality agreement upon employment with any Child Led Therapies company or business.
Child Led Therapies takes reasonable steps to protect personal information held from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, for example by use of physical security and restricted access to electronic records.
Where Child Led Therapies no longer require your personal information for a permitted purpose under the NPPs, they will take reasonable steps to destroy it.
If a breach occurs Child Led Therapies will follow our ‘Breach of Personal Information Policy and Procedure’.
UPDATES TO POLICY
This Policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and practices and the changing business environment.
ENQUIRIES AND CONCERNS
If you have any questions about privacy-related issues please contact the Director on 0403 357 618 or via email on admin@childledtherapies.com.au