Gladiss Warda Psychology Privacy Policy

Gladiss Warda (“your treating psychologist”) and Changes Psychology (the admin service “provider”) take your privacy seriously. As part of providing a psychological service to you, Gladiss Warda will need to collect and record personal information from you that is relevant to you and/or your family’s current situation. This information will be a necessary part of the psychological assessment and treatment that is conducted. Treatment may involve participation in individual, family, couple, or group therapy.

This document describes the management of the information you disclose to your treating psychologist in relation to yourself or the person under 18 that you are bringing to therapy. Therapy addresses issues of a highly personal nature and it is important that you understand your rights with regard to your records and personal information collected.

1. We work like a virtual clinic office, collecting and managing personal and medical information provided by you and your psychologist, which naturally includes sensitive health information.
2. We collect, use and (where appropriate) share this information, which includes health information, in order to facilitate appointments with psychologists; manage payment, medicare and insurance claims; and manage records regarding your appointments. Handling of personal information involves storage and processing of some data overseas via offshore data centres.
3. Your treating psychologist will store: confidential casenotes and information that is not accessible by the provider’s admin team. Your information will be kept in a file that will be seen only by the treating psychologist and will be retained as a record of what happens during
   sessions. As required by law, your file will be securely stored for 7 years (or if you are under 18 years old, your file must be kept until you turn 25). After this time it will be destroyed in a confidential manner.
4. Confidentiality – All personal information gathered by your treating psychologist during the provision of service, including what is said in our sessions will remain confidential, except in the following circumstances when we are legally required to do so:
   1. It is subpoenaed by a court or required by law; or
   2. Failure to disclose the information would place you, and/or others at risk of harm;
   3. Your prior approval has been given to: provide a written report to another professional or agency. eg. (GP or lawyer) or to discuss the material with another person as part of the assessment and therapy progress, it may be helpful for your psychologist to liaise with other people or agencies that are relevant to their therapy goals.
   4. If you are claiming Medicare rebates or having sessions paid for by another organisation, then your psychologist may be required to provide summary reports to external agencies regarding your treatment progress. Under the Medicare scheme these summary progress reports are mandatory if you want to claim a Medicare rebate and will normally be sent to your referring GP, paediatrician or psychiatrist.
5. Confidentiality – All personal information gathered by Gladiss Warda during the provision of the psychological service will remain strictly confidential and secure except when:
   1. It is subpoenaed by a court or required by law; or
   2. Failure to disclose the information would place you, and/or others at risk of harm;
   3. Your prior approval has been obtained to provide a written report to another professional or agency (eg. a GP or school counsellor); or
   4. Discuss the material with another person (eg a relative, GP, or other therapist).
6. Please be aware that to be eligible for rebates from Medicare, Gladiss Warda will have to provide a written report to your doctor with an outline of any treatment and recommendations at the end of each block of sessions, as required by Medicare. When attending treatment with a Mental Health Care Plan, after 6 sessions, you and/or your child will be required to visit your GP or the provider of your plan to obtain eligibility for a further 4 sessions to occur.
7. In some instances, Gladiss Warda may obtain clinical consultation with other professionals about aspects of treatment in order to provide the best clinical service to clients. However, in any of these consultations, you and your family would not be personally identified.
8. Neither your treating Psychologist, or admin provider, will provide information, reports or documentation for medico-legal or family court related purposes unless we are required to by law, under a subpoena or by a court order.
9. Access to your or a child’s information – You may access the material recorded in your file upon request, subject to the exceptions in the Australian Privacy Principles or clause 5 above. You must provide a written request to access your information and your request will be processed within 21 days and an hourly fee is payable to collate and provide this information to you. If the information request is in relation to a person under 18, and you are not the person who initiated and paid for their therapy sessions, we would also require confirmation from the parent or guardian that initiated their treatment before releasing the information to ensure we meet the requirements of the National Privacy Policies.