This page explains how The Talk Shop manages and keeps private the confidential data of our clients.
Why we collect personal information
We collect, hold and use your personal information for the purpose of providing you with psychological services.
Personal information we collect
The types of personal information we may collect include:
- Personally identifying details (your name, date of birth, gender, Medicare/Health Care/Pensioner card number, as on the Client Details form)
- Your contact information (such as your home address, email, phone number/s, as on the Client Details form)
- The name of and contact details of your medical practitioner
- Your consent for what may and not be shared (where not excluded by legislation), as provided by you via:
– our Consent Form
– our Consent for Release of Information form
– your written consent to provide information to an external party - Health information provided by you or on your behalf by other health practitioners (such as referrals, discharge summaries, medical history, reports, and other communications)
- Clinical notes made during therapy sessions
- Communications to your other health practitioners (such as letters to the referring medical practitioner)
- Reports prepared for you or on your behalf by your Clinician at The Talk Shop
- Call recordings
- Billing information for services provided to you
How we collect personal information
We collect information shared by you via:
- Phone calls and email with TTS staff
- Intake form
- Consent form(s)
- Therapy sessions
We collect information about you provided by other parties:
- Referrals (referral letters from you GP or other health providers)
- Forwarded letters (e.g. discharge summaries)
Storage and security of personal information
We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we hold is secure and may only be accessed by authorised persons.
We use a combination of in-house and third-party commercially hosted systems, all Australian based, with appropriate data and physical access controls.
Medicare requires that TTS retain Client records for a minimum of 7 years (for adults) or for children until they turn 25 years of age.
Disclosure of personal information to other parties
We may disclose your personal information (or parts thereof ) to other parties under the following circumstances:
- as consented by you via written or verbal consent
- as required as part of the external party providing funding for the psychological services we provide to you (such as Medicare, insurer)
- as required by law and cannot be excluded by your wishes (for example if a valid subpoena is received)
- other circumstances as may arise from time-to-time are carefully assessed before any disclosure
Overseas disclosure
In addition to our local Australian staff, some of our support staff are located in the Philippines, and are subject to the same or stronger privacy obligations, and whom we train in the proper handling of personal information and use of our processes and systems.
We do not otherwise send personal information overseas nor share such information with any overseas party.
Accessing and correcting your personal information
You can ask us to access your personal information or to change it.
To seek access to your personal information, please contact the Privacy Officer as below.
Questions and complaints
If you have any questions with how we handle personal information or wish to lodge a complaint about our management of personal information or a request for access to or correction of your personal information, please contact us by one of:
Email
privacy.officer@thetalkshop.com.au
Mail
The Talk Shop
Attn: The Privacy Officer
PO Box 400
Diamond Creek, VIC 3089
Updates to this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy will be reviewed and updated from time to time. The current version of this Privacy Policy is available at www.thetalkshop.com.au/PrivacyPolicy
This Privacy Policy has been written in good faith as a plain-English description of how we manage Clients’ personal information. E&OE.