Privacy Policy

Publication date: Version 1.1 August 2021

About this Policy

We are dedicated to protecting your privacy and complying with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and other relevant state laws about the management of personal information. This Privacy Policy applies to the personal information we handle about clients and prospective clients of a psychologist or psychology practice that uses or has used our services and facilities, visitors to our website www.trueanxietypsychology.com.au, users of services we provide and members of the public. By accessing our website or using our services, you agree to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Meanings

References to “True Anxiety Psychology”, “TAP”, “we”, “us” and “our” are references to ABN 75 629 562 974. References to “you” and “your” are references to any individual about whom we collect personal information. References to “psychologist” and “psychology practice” are references to any independent psychologist or psychology practice that bases or based their own independent psychology practice at True Anxiety Psychology and whom we provide or provided services and facilities.

Personal Information

When referred to in this Policy, “personal information” shares the meaning stated in the Privacy Act. In general, it means any information or an opinion that could be used to identify you. Sensitive information is personal information that includes information or an opinion about, for example, your health, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, racial or ethnic origin, and political views.

Personal Information Collected

We always attempt to only to collect the personal information we need for the particular function or activity we are carrying out. When you enquire about services provided by psychologists, we may collect your full name, date of birth, phone number, email address, and other personal information, including sensitive information, to help us assess whether any psychologist or psychology practice based at True Anxiety Psychology is an appropriate service for you and send you information or resources. We collect additional personal information about you, including sensitive information, when you book an appointment with a psychologist or psychology practice based at TAP and during the course of treatment with them, for example, your address, emergency contact person, government-related identifiers such as Medicare or DVA numbers, social and medical history. We may also collect your bank account details and details of third parties involved in the management or funding of your appointments, for the purposes of administering your appointments payment arrangements.

We may collect personal information about you if you interact with us on a commercial basis, for example, service providers and contractors to TAP, or as a member of the public. The type of personal information we collect will depend on the nature of the work with us. Generally, it would include your name, contact details, and information regarding our interactions and transactions with you and details such as professional registration numbers, insurance certificates, among others.

Information Collection Methods

We collect your personal information in multiple ways, including via the website, thorough email, online forms, phone, letters, documents, SMS, and social media. We may also collect personal information about you, including sensitive information, indirectly from other sources such as your GP or other healthcare professionals, government agencies administering your entitlements and benefits, a carer, a legal professional or a person responsible for your healthcare decisions. If you want to share information that includes another person’s information in which that person will be identifiable, you must seek consent from the individual and let them know about our Privacy Policy.

Storage of Personal Information

True Anxiety Psychology collects and holds your personal information in electronic form. The information collected is stored in the corresponding psychologist or psychology practice’s secure online system. If you complete any paper forms, these will be immediately scanned to the online system and then destroyed. We are legally required to hold clients’ personal information for 7 years minimum from the date of last entry in your electronic record, or if you are a minor, until you attain or would have attained 25 years of age.

Where necessary, we will communicate with you by email, telephone, or text message. However, no data transmission over the internet or information stored on servers accessible through the internet can be guaranteed to be fully secure. In addition, we are unable to ensure the security of personal information that is left with you or provided to you, for example, a paper-based letter or email sent to you.

Your personal information gathered or held by a psychologist or psychology practice based at TAP will be managed by them in accordance with their own privacy policy.

If you have any concerns about the personal information we have asked you to provide, please let us know.

Disclosure of your personal information

There are circumstances where we may be permitted or required by law to disclose your personal information to third parties. Common situations in which we may disclose your personal information to third parties are when:

you have consented to the disclosure; or
we reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or safety; or
you would reasonably expect your personal information to be disclosed and disclosure to that third party is for a purpose directly related to the primary purpose for which your personal information was collected, for example, to the ambulance service, government agencies and other third-party payers administering subsidies and benefits to which you may be entitled such as NDIS, Medicare and Work Cover; or
it is required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order.

We use external service providers to assist in providing services to you and your psychologist, and managing our business. This includes software providers, website hosting service providers, payment systems, IT and data security service providers, insurance providers, and accountants, bookkeepers and lawyers. Your personal information may be used and disclosed to them to facilitate these arrangements.

Where we have collected a government related identifier, such as your Medicare number, we will only use or disclose that identifier as required or permitted by law, such as submitting your claims. Some of the information collected by True Anxiety Psychology may be stored in systems that utilise data hosting facilities outside of Australia.

During the Coronavirus outbreak, if you or one of our staff or any of the psychologists based at our practice have tested positive for COVID-19, we may be required to inform local health authorities that you have been in the practice. If required, we will only provide the minimum information necessary and required by the health authorities for contact tracing purposes.

Website Information Collection

Our website, www.trueanxietypsychology.com.au, is hosted in Australia. Our website uses Google Analytics to track website data. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate individual IP addresses with any other data held by Google. By using our website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner described in Google’s Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy. You can opt-out of Google Analytics if you disable or refuse cookies, disable JavaScript, or use the opt-out service provided by Google.

Access and Correction of Information

If you believe your personal information may be inaccurate, you can ask for access or correction of your personal information through written request, and we must respond within 30 days. You will need to verify your identity before we give you access to your information or correct it.

You may be denied access to your personal information in accordance with privacy laws, for example, when providing access may put you or another person at risk of harm. We would provide you with written reasons for this decision. We do not provide copies of information records without a court subpoena if we determine it would be harmful to provide the information without a psychologist present to explain the information. If someone is requesting access to your information, such as an authorised representative (e.g., lawyer), we will ask them to provide your written consent, or will approach you to attain your written consent.

Privacy Concerns

You may contact True Anxiety Psychology by writing if you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or how your personal information has been handled. We will then investigate your concern or complaint and respond to it within 30 days, and will them determine if steps need to be taken to remedy it. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme

In the event of any unauthorised access or unauthorised disclosure or loss of your personal information that is likely to result in serious harm to you or other individuals, we will investigate and notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in accordance with the Privacy Act.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy will be updated when our information handling practices change. Information we hold about you will be governed by our current Privacy Policy. We recommend that you periodically review this Privacy Policy for any changes.

Contacting Us

Queries, complaints, or correction should be made in writing and sent to our postal address:

Privacy Officer
True Anxiety Psychology
The Barracks Offices, 3/7 Apollo Rd, Bulimba, 4171

By email:
info@trueanxietypsychology.com.au