Martin Hood Psychology Pty Ltd and I, Martin Hood, am committed 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 summary sets out the key points about how I handle personal information, including sensitive information, about clients.

When used in this Policy, “personal information” has the meaning given in the Privacy Act. Generally, 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, criminal record, sexual orientation, religious or philosophical beliefs, and racial or ethnic origin.

At all times, I try only to collect the personal information I need for the particular function or activity I am carrying out. When you enquire about my services, I may collect your full name, date of birth, email address, phone number, and other personal information, including sensitive information, to help me assess whether I am an appropriate service for you and send you information or resources. I collect additional personal information about you, including sensitive information, when you book an appointment and during the course of treatment, for example, your address, emergency contact person, government-related identifiers such as Medicare or DVA numbers, social and medical history. I 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.

I will where practicable, collect information directly from you. I collect your personal information mainly when you deal with me over the phone, have contact with me in person, give or send me a letter or document or when you interact with me online via the website www.brisbanecitypsychologist.com.au, email, SMS, and social media channels (please note that social media channels will handle your personal information for their own purposes and have their own Privacy Policy). I 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 permission from the individual and let them know about my Privacy Policy.

I use Brisbane City Psychologists’ website (https://www.brisbanecitypsychologist.com.au) for administration, marketing and informational purposes. The way they handle your personal information collected through their website is available at https://www.brisbanecitypsychologist.com.au/privacy/.

I collect and hold your personal information in electronic form. I hold your personal information securely on servers and computer systems. Some information may be collected in paper-based documents which may be converted to electronic form and the original paper copy destroyed in a secure manner when I no longer need it. I am legally required to hold clients’ personal information for a minimum of 7 years from the date of last entry in your record or if you are a minor until you attain or would have attained 25 years of age.

Your personal information is maintained in a secure environment, which can be accessed only by authorised personnel. I take reasonable steps to protect the security of the personal information I hold, by:

• ensuring physical security over my paper and electronic data stores, such as locks and security systems, is maintained and enhanced where possible
• maintaining security systems, for example, by using a firewall, using passcodes to control access to electronic devices, and using two-factor authentication when available to access electronic systems
• taking reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your personal information once I no longer need it
• conducting regular privacy and data security audits to assess whether I have adequately complied with and implemented these measures.

However, no data transmission over the internet or information stored on servers accessible through the internet can be guaranteed to be fully secure. Additionally, I am unable to ensure the security of personal information that is left with you or provided to you, for example, a paper-based report or email sent to you.

I collect your personal information to carry out functions or activities such as:

• assessing whether I am an appropriate service for you
• providing you with psychological services such as assessing, diagnosing, and treating psychological issues or preparing reports
• sending you communications via SMS or email to, for example, remind you about your future appointments, provide you with treatment resources and questionnaires and send you a copy of your invoices
• enabling you to receive the correct entitlements to benefits and funding for my services from third-party payers and to comply with their requirements
• responding to your enquiries, requests or feedback
• updating my records and keeping your information up to date.

Providing accurate and complete information is important for the safety, quality and effectiveness of the services I provide. If the personal information you provide to me is incomplete or inaccurate, I may be unable to provide you with the services you are seeking. If you have any concerns about the personal information I have asked you to provide please let me know.

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

1. you have consented to the disclosure; or
2. I 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
3. 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 (see Why I collect your personal information), for example, to a GP or medical specialist involved in your care, a hospital for higher levels of care, the ambulance service, government agencies and other third-party payers administering subsidies and benefits to which you may be entitled such as Medicare and Department of Veterans Affairs; or
4. it is required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order.

If you are attending or have attended couples counselling sessions and I receive a subpoena or legal request for the information I hold about the person you attended with, the information released may contain information about both, the person you attended with and you.

I may use and disclose your personal information to Brisbane City Psychologists’ administration staff, management and psychologists other than your treating psychologist for a range of administrative, management and operational purposes, for example, managing your appointments, administering billing and rebates. Brisbane City Psychologists’ Privacy Policy is available at https://www.brisbanecitypsychologist.com.au/privacy/.

I engage external service providers to me for the purposes of providing services to you and managing my business. Your personal information may be disclosed to them to facilitate these arrangements, for example, providers of facilities and administration services such as Brisbane City Psychologists, providers of software, payment systems operators, IT and data security service providers, insurers, professional advisors such as accountants, bookkeepers and lawyers.

Your personal information will not be used, sold, rented or disclosed for any other purpose. Where I have collected a government related identifier, such as your Medicare or DVA number, I will only use or disclose that identifier as required or permitted by law. Some of the information collected may be stored in systems that utilise data hosting facilities outside of Australia.

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

You can ask for access or correction of your personal information, if you believe it to be inaccurate, in writing and I must respond within 30 days. I may ask you to verify your identity before I give you access to your information or correct it, and I will try to make the process as simple as possible.

Access to your personal information may be declined in accordance with privacy laws, for example, where giving you access would put you or another person at risk of harm. In this circumstance, I must notify you in writing setting out the reasons. If you are a client, access to personal information may only be provided to you by arranging an appointment to discuss the information with me/us. These appointments are billed at the current private sessional rates and payable by you at the time of the appointment. I do not provide copies of any file information without a court subpoena as clinical records contain sensitive information relevant to your treatment and may be harmful if read without a psychologist present to explain the information appropriately. Where a person requesting access to your personal information is an authorised representative of yours, such as a lawyer or guardian, I will ask the representative to provide evidence of their authority. I may also ask you to provide current and informed consent to me before releasing your personal information.

I take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information I hold about you is accurate, up-to-date and complete. If you believe it to be incorrect or out of date you can ask that I correct it. If it is not possible for me to correct it, you can ask me to associate with it, for example, attach or link a statement that you believe the information is incorrect and why. If I make a correction and I have disclosed the incorrect information to others, you can ask me to tell them about the correction. I must do so unless there is a valid reason not to.

You may contact me at any time if you have any questions or concerns about my Privacy Policy or how your personal information has been handled. If you have a complaint about how I have handled your personal information, please contact me in writing. I will tell you promptly that I have received your complaint and then investigate and respond to the complaint within 30 days. I will determine what (if any) steps I should take to resolve the complaint. If you are not satisfied with my response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Full contact details for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner can be found online at www.oaic.gov.au.

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.

I will update my Privacy Policy when my information handling practices change. Any information I hold about you will be governed by my current Privacy Policy. I recommend that you periodically review my Privacy Policy for any changes. The current version of my Privacy Policy is available at https://www.brisbanecitypsychologist.com.au/privacy-policy-martin-hood-psychology/

Queries, complaints, requests for access or correction should be made in writing and sent to:

Martin Hood Psychology Pty Ltd

Brisbane City Psychologists, Level 18, 141 Queen Street, Brisbane QLD 4000

References to “I”, “Martin Hood”, “Martin Hood Psychology Pty Ltd”, and “We” are references to Martin Hood Psychology Pty Ltd, ABN 73 642 437 456. References to “you” and “your” are references to any individual about whom I collect personal information.

Last updated in September 2020.