Privacy Policy

This website westlandpsychology.com.au is owned and operated by Hobart Consulting Services Pty Ltd trading as Westland Psychology (ACN: 680448560, ABN: 36680448560). If you continue to browse and use this website you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following terms of this privacy policy. 

The terms “Us”, “Our”, “I” and “We” refer to Hobart Consulting Services Pty Ltd trading as Westland Psychology, as well as the website westlandpsychology.com.au and “You” and “Your” refers to you or any person using our website.

Amendment of Terms

We reserve the right to alter these terms and any part of the website at any time in our sole discretion without notice. All alterations will be effective immediately upon our posting here. 

Privacy

We endeavour to comply with all relevant legislation that governs how we handle your personal information to protect your privacy, including the Privacy Act (1988), and the Australian Privacy Principles.

Collection of Personal Information

In order to provide you with appropriate Clinical Psychology services, we will need to collect and use your personal information. The information we collect includes but is not limited to your: name, date of birth, contact details, emergency contact details, other demographic information, health history, developmental, employment, and family history. Typically, we will collect this information directly from you in person during appointments, via email, or via our website, but we may also collect information from authorised third parties. If you provide inaccurate information or withhold relevant information from us, it may restrict the service we can provide you. 

Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

In order to provide you with services, we may use or disclose your information where necessary:

  • directly in the provision of Clinical Psychology treatment services; 
  • for administrative purposes, including but not limited to: scheduling of appointments, billing and account management, quality assurance and accreditation, audits, risk and insurance claims management, seeking of pertinent legal advice, debt-recovery processes, client satisfaction surveys, staff training, provision of administrative and reception services; 
  • in a de-identifiable manner for clinical supervision;
  • for communicating with you (e.g., about appointments or accounts)
  • to liaise with third-party funding sources and referring agencies regarding billing, attendance, and clinical progress (e.g., referring doctors, insurers, DVA, etc.); 
  • with your explicit consent, to exchange information with any other relevant party.

Additional consent will be requested if information collected from you is to be used in any ways other than that outlined, and you can withdraw your consent at any time in writing. 

There are certain circumstances where your information may need to be released without your consent. Where appropriate to, reasonable efforts will be made to discuss this with you prior; circumstances where this may occur include where: 

  • Failure to disclose information would place you, or another person at serious risk of harm to life, health, or safety
  • Failure to disclose information would place a person under the age of 18 at risk of harm through exposure to abuse or neglect (including witnessing of family violence)
  • A health professional registered with AHPRA is engaging in malpractice or has a health condition which affects their ability to practice safely 
  • Information is legitimately subpoenaed by a court or otherwise required by law

Data Quality, Security, & Retention

We take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, and we expect that you will notify us of any changes in information to ensure this. We take reasonable steps to store your information securely, and protect it from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access. 

In accordance with legislative requirements, your records will be retained for a minimum period of seven years from last engagement (or in the case of records collected when a client is less than 18-years-old, until the client attains the age of 25 years). Subsequent to this minimum retention period, your records will be securely and permanently destroyed. The only records retained indefinitely will be of your: name, date of birth, dates of first and last appointment, and date of file destruction. 

At times, appointments may be conducted by tele-health (i.e., remotely by phone or video). Telehealth services are not appropriate for all client presentations, and we reserve the right to insist that you attend in person. The privacy of any form of communication via the internet or a mobile device is potentially vulnerable and limited by the security of the technology, and any other precautions you may take. Any video-call provider we use will have end-to-end encryption for all data that is transferred between you and your practitioner. At no stage is your call (including audio, video, and data) saved or recorded by us and we insist that you refrain from this also. 

Accessing and Correcting Your Information

You have the right to access the information that we hold about you, and can also request an amendment to this information if you believe that it is inaccurate. If we do not agree to change your personal information, we will permit you to make a statement of the requested changes and we will enclose this with your record. Please note that we may recover reasonable costs associated with supplying this information to you, and may require that you attend an appointment to do so.

Credit Card Information

Credit card information will never be stored directly by us, and will instead be processed securely through our payment gateway provider. Our provider communicates directly with your financial institution and we do not have access to, and do not store your credit card details at any stage.

Cookies

In accordance with standard practice, our website uses cookies to help improve the speed and performance of your browsing experience. A cookie is a small file placed in your web browser that collects information about your web browsing behaviour. Cookies do not access information stored on your computer or any personal information. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but you can choose to reject cookies by changing your browser settings if you wish. 

Feedback And Questions

If you have feedback and/or questions you can contact us directly. Please let us know what you would like to happen as a result of your feedback and whether you would like to be contacted about it. If you provide feedback anonymously, we will not be able to contact you. 

If you are not satisfied with our response, and you feel the matter remains unresolved, or you do not wish to raise the matter directly, you can contact the Health Complaints Commissioner Tasmania (health.complaints@ombudsman.tas.gov.au, (GPO Box 960, Hobart, 7001), 1800 001 170, or if the complaint relates to a perceived breach of privacy principles, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner enquiries@oaic.gov.au (GPO Box 5288, Sydney, NSW, 2001), 1300 363 992.