PRIVACY POLICY

PRIVACY STATEMENT for PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION

Any information collected is completely confidential and adheres to the privacy legislation stipulated by the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA, 2004). Information gathered is limited to what is needed to provide psychological services to clients. Individuals have the right to review and obtain copies of their own personal health information (a nominal fee may be charged for request).

Definition of “Personal Health Information”

Registered practitioners at this clinic are regulated under the provincial Regulated Health Professions Act (1991). As such, all identifiable information collected by a licenced clinician about an individual, in the course of practicing psychology and psychotherapy, is considered “personal health information” under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA). This includes your name and contact information, as well as any information collected and recorded in the course of providing services to you.

Collection of Your Personal Health Information

We collect your personal health information only directly from you, except:

a) when you have provided consent to obtain such information from others (e.g., reports from past medical assessments, tests, or services you’ve used elsewhere)

b) where the law requires or allows us to collect information without your consent (e.g., in an urgent situation, when information is needed to prevent potential harm).

We collect only information from you that we believe is required:

a) to provide you with the services you have requested and/or for which you have been referred.

b) to maintain contact with you for service-related or future consent purposes.

c) to prevent or offset harm (e.g., asking for an emergency contact).

Psychological services provided in the clinic may also be used for research purposes in order to further understand childhood development and to better inform the efficacy of subsequent programming. When data is used for research, anonymity of the client and family will be ensured by providing the client with an assigned research number with the client’s name and any identifying information excluded from analysis. It should be noted that declining participation in such research activities will have no impact on the quality of psychological services provided.

Retention And Destruction Of Personal Information

In accordance with privacy legislation, records will be stored for 10 years past the client’s 18th birthday. Personal health information will not be shared with others outside the clinic unless written consent is provided or in the circumstances listed below.

Use of Your Personal Health Information

In our office, the primary use of your personal health information is to provide services to you. This includes carrying out all of the functions reasonably necessary to provide those services (e.g., service planning and monitoring, maintaining your record, billing, etc.).

We may involve other individuals who may, in the course of their duties, have limited access to your personal information. These include interns, computer consultants, bookkeepers and accountants, and credit card companies/banks. All staff who come in contact with your personal information are trained in the need for privacy and confidentiality, as well as in our practice’s privacy policies and procedures, including prevention of record loss and unauthorized access. Staff members are allowed to access only that information they have a “need-to-know.” This means that staff members involved in billing, for example, are allowed to access only the information needed to carry out their billing function. They are not allowed to access other information. Personnel who know a client personally are required to declare this and to remove themselves from access to that client’s record unless the client has given express consent for access.

Paper information and electronic hardware are either under supervision or secured in a restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords are used or computers are in secure places.

Disclosure of Your Personal Health Information

With only a few exceptions, your personal health information will not be disclosed to persons outside this office without your knowledge and express consent. The exceptions are circumstances in which disclosure, without your consent, is allowed by law:

(i) When there is a clear and imminent risk of serious bodily harm to someone, including the possibility of self-harm.

(ii) When disclosure is needed to receive professional or legal consultation.

(iii) For mandatory reporting of a child who might be in need of protection.

(iv) For mandatory reporting of a regulated health professional who has sexually abused a client.

(v) In compliance with a court order to release information from a record.

(vi) To comply with professional regulations established by the College of Psychologists of Ontario, who may inspect records and interview staff as a part of their regulatory activities (e.g., quality assurance) in the public interest.

(vii) To comply with regulatory authorities under the terms of the Regulated Health Professions Act (RHPA) for the purposes of the College of Psychology of Ontario for fulfilling their respective mandates under the RHPA, as well as for a defence of a legal issue.

All persons involved in these activities are required by law to maintain the confidentiality of any accessed information. The above exceptions are called “limits of confidentiality.”

If there are other limits of confidentiality in your situation, we will identify and discuss them with you before proceeding with your service.

When consenting to the disclosure of your personal health information to another health professional, who is providing services to you, you may restrict us from sharing all or any part of your personal information. However, if in our opinion the information is reasonably necessary for another health service provider to provide appropriate service, We are required by law to inform the other provider that you have refused consent to provide some needed information.

Your Right of Access to your Personal Health Information Record

If you are the custodial parent or guardian of a child receiving service, you may not access (without the child’s consent) the personal health information of a child, who was deemed competent and who consented to the service on his/her own voilition. In addition, there are restrictions on custodial parents/guardians access to individual therapy notes regarding their children.

In gerenal, we reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests, including the cost of retrieving your file from storage and separating out your information from those of other affected parties. If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within 14 days and explain the delay.

If you would like more detailed information at any time, would like to access or ask for a correction of your record, have a concern about our privacy policies and procedures, or have a concern about the way your privacy has been handled, please do not hesitate to speak or write to us. This privacy policy has been developed in accordance with the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA, 2004) and professional regulations and ethical standards. There are some rare exceptions to the commitments set out above some of which are listed in our Consent To Provide Services Form.

Further details of the applicable laws, regulations, and standards may be found at the Websites of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (www.health.gov.on.ca), College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario (www.cpbao.on.ca), Canadian Psychological Association (www.cpa.ca), Ontario Psychological Association (www.opa.ca), and the Personal Health Information Protection Act for Ontario (www.ipc.on.ca).