Privacy Policy

Nature & Purpose of Services at Maple Leaf Psychology & Allied Health (MLPAH) 

As part of providing a therapeutic service, including assessments and counselling, your clinician will need to collect and record personal information pertaining to you. This information is a necessary part of the psychological assessment and treatment.  

 

Mental health services vary depending on the personalities of the clinician and client and the particular reasons you are seeing a mental health practitioner. Your clinician may use many different methods to deal with the problems that you hope to address. Psychology and psychotherapy require a very active effort on your part. For the therapy to be most successful, you will have to work on things we talk about both during our sessions and at home.  

 

Our first few sessions will involve evaluating your needs. By the end of the evaluation, your clinician will be able to offer you some first impressions of what our work will include and a treatment plan to follow. If you have questions about the procedures, you and your clinician should discuss them when they arise. You can cease therapy with your clinician at any time. If you feel uncomfortable with what is happening in a session, you may request that the session cease at any time.  

 

This workplace is committed to respecting and incorporating cultural safety into practice. Please inform your clinician about any cultural considerations that are important to you in the way services are provided and who you would like involved in your care.  Please also inform your clinician if you have specific access support needs (ramps, accessible parking, resources provided in specific formats), communication support needs such as interpreting, the use of assistive technology, or resources provided in different languages, or any other support needs in order to assist your participation.  

 

Access to your information 

Relevant personal information about the current situation will be collected and recorded as part of providing therapeutic services. The information will assist in providing appropriate and thorough service. The information will be stored in a secure location. Clinicians are required to keep your file for a minimum of 7 years or, if clients are under the age of 18 at the time of treatment, until they are 25 years of age.  

 

Files of clients are held on the clinic’s practice management software, Halaxy. You may access the information in your file on request, subject to the exceptions in the Privacy Act 1988 (https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A03712/latest/text).  

 

Confidentiality & Privacy   

If information about you is required from another person, such as a parent or partner, this will be discussed with you beforehand, and your permission will be sought. Please note that we will not engage with you in public or online in a way that will identify you as a client. This is to protect your privacy and due to the requirements to uphold professional boundaries. Please personally contact your clinician to engage with them rather than approach them on social media or in public forums. 

 

All personal information gathered by the clinician during the provision of mental health service will remain confidential and secure except when:  

  • A court subpoena or other disclosure is required or authorised by law

  • Your consent cannot be gained due to a requirement to get you emergency services during a medical crisis 

  • If there is unauthorised access to data held by the clinic some limited information may need to be shared with the Office of the Information Ombudsman.   

  • Failure to disclose the information would place you or another person at risk of harm 

  • Given your prior approval or consent of a parent or guardian who is legally authorised to act on your behalf to provide a written report to another professional or agency or discuss information with another person, e.g., parent or employer 

  • You have provided your consent to share your information for a specific reason and purpose. 

  • You would reasonably expect your personal information to be disclosed to another professional or agency, and disclosure is directly related to the primary purpose for which it was collected, such as to inform your GP of treatment and progress, to claim Medicare rebates on your behalf etc. 

  • Clinical consultation with another professional is required to provide better services. If this occurs, identifying details will remain confidential.  

  • If, during your treatment, the clinician becomes aware of a risk to someone’s life, health, or well-being, the clinician is required to report the matter to the appropriate agencies.  

  • Please see our Privacy Policy for the Management of Personal Information for further information. 

Acknowledgement of country:

In the spirit of reconciliation, Maple Leaf Psychology & Allied Health acknowledges the Wurundjeri People as the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.