Advanced Neuropsychological Treatment Services: Privacy Policy

Purpose of this policy

Advanced Neuropsychological Treatment Services (hereafter referred to as ANTS) manages personal information in accordance with the law and ethical guidelines of the profession. This policy outlines how ANTS handles personal information, in accordance with Australian Privacy Principles, which are contained in the Privacy Act 1988. In this policy 'we' and 'us' refers to ANTS and 'you' refers to any individual about whom we collect personal information.

Relevant laws and other documents

Australian Psychological Society – Code of Ethics (2007)
Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988
NDIS Practice Standards and Quality Indicators 2018

What is personal information?

Personal information is any information that identifies you or could reasonably be used to identify you.

What personal information do we collect and why?

When you become a client of ANTS, an electronic record is made containing information about you such as your name, address, date of birth, contact details, emergency contacts, GP contact details, your medical history and test results, family medical history, investigations, medical images, treatment and advice you were given, and other information relevant to your care. Depending on the financial arrangements for your care, we may also collect information about your eligibility for Medicare (including your Medicare number), your private health insurance cover and eligibility for benefits or compensation from another source (such as the Department of Veterans Affairs or, for foreign visitors, insurers based overseas). ANTS also participates in teaching and other academic activities. In certain circumstances, we may ask if you would be willing to allow photographs or audio-visual recordings to be taken of you in a clinical context for teaching or training purposes. Your written consent to this will be separately obtained. If you have consented to clinical photography or audio-visual recording, personal information we collect about you will include those photographs and audio-visual recordings. Every time you attend ANTS, new information is added to your record. Please let ANTS staff know if your contact details or your local doctor's contact details have changed since your last visit, so we can ensure your personal information is up to date.

Other individuals
ANTS may collect personal information about individuals who are not clients of ANTS. This includes individuals making enquiries about services offered at ANTS. Information may also be collected about individuals who are not patients of ANTS when making a record about a client (for example, collecting emergency contact details or collecting a family medical history).

GPs, referring doctors and other healthcare professionals
We may collect personal information about individual health care practitioners who interact with ANTS (such as referring doctors or other healthcare practitioners involved in the care of our clients). This is typically information such as the health care practitioner’s name, contact details, professional details and information regarding interactions or transactions with ANTS. This information is collected for the purpose of providing the services we offer. We will always endeavour to keep clients reliably informed of the information collected and the source of that information, and where appropriate will seek and obtain written informed consent to contact and retrieve that information.

How do we collect personal information about you?

ANTS will, where reasonable and practicable to do so, collect personal information directly from you (for example, on a client registration or other administrative form, over the telephone or via ANTS websites). We may also collect information about you from another person such as your referring doctor, your support coordinator, other health care practitioners involved in your care, your private health insurer, your relatives or carers.

At, or prior to the first interview, participants will be notified of the type of information that is being collected about them, how their privacy will be protected, and their rights in relation to this data. It is the responsibility of the Administration staff to ensure that all new clients have signed the ANTS consent form or NDIS consent form ahead of their initial consultation. Information sharing is part of our legislative requirements. Participants must give consent to any information sharing between our organisation and government bodies. The participant is offered to opt-out of any NDIS information sharing during audits.

ANTS may collect your personal information from operators of third-party mobile software applications (‘apps’) when you expressly give permission via the app for that disclosure. You are responsible for the amount and type of information that is disclosed to ANTS. Once information is disclosed to ANTS it will be managed in accordance with this Privacy Policy. The apps are not under the control of ANTS and ANTS does not accept responsibility for the privacy practices of the app provider. Before using the apps we strongly advise that you review and satisfy yourself to the terms and conditions and privacy policies of the app provider.

Similarly, ANTS uses a third party messaging service to take messages when our staff are unable to answer phone calls. When the third party provider answers a phone call they make it clear that they are a third party provider so that clients and enquirers are informed that this is the case and can be discerning about the information they convey in their message.

Use and disclosure of personal information

We collect personal information in order to provide the services we offer. We also collect your personal information to administer and manage the services we provide.

We collect personal information in order to provide the services we offer. We also collect your personal information to administer and manage the services we provide.

In some circumstances Psychologists are required by law to disclose personal information without the consent of the client. Section A.4. of the Australian Psychological Society’s (APS’s) Code of Ethics (2007) relates to the appropriate collection of private information related to the provision of psychological services. Sections A.5. to A.7. of the Code relate to Confidentiality, the Release of Information to Clients, and the Collection of client information from associated parties. It is noted that under section A.5.2.(c) of the Code that psychologists disclose confidential information obtained in the course of their provision of psychological services, “if there is an immediate and specified risk of harm to an identifiable person or persons that can be averted only by disclosing information” (p.15).

How do we use and share your personal information?

Your personal information may be made available to the person who referred you to our service, usually in the form of a formal report or letter.

Your health information may be shared with individuals who are legally responsible for your health care decisions (eg. parents, guardians and attorneys) and individuals you have nominated as emergency contacts or 'next of kin', as long as you have not told us you do not wish us to share your personal information in this way.

ANTS may engage in research evaluation of assessment and treatment to improve the quality of the service we provide. In such cases, personal information of clients will be used, however, will be de-indentified in any datebases. In this context, the information will not be released to third parties, but will be retained within ANTS for the sole purpose of quality evaluation and improvement of services.

In addition, ANTS may engage in academic or scientific research. In any such cases, clients will be asked to sign a consent form allowing the use of their personal information for the purposes of a specific research project. Such research will be required to have obtained the prior approval of a Human Research Ethics Committee within the Department of Health or the relevant University. In these situations, all information will be de-identified in a database. Consent can at any time be revoked once obtained, and this will not affect your services at ANTS.

ANTS practitioners who have academic appointments or honorary appointments at a university may use personal information for education, student supervision and teaching purposes. Your consent to the collection and use of personal information, including through audio visual materials and photographs, will be sought for these purposes if it cannot be used in a de-identified form.

Students on placement at ANTS fulfilling the requirements of their post-graduate training may have access to your personal information for these training purposes.

Storage and security of personal information

All ANTS clinicians will take reasonable steps to protect the personal information of clients from misuse, interference or loss, and from unauthorised modification, access or disclosure. Paper documents containing personal information listed above will be stored under lock. Electronic information containing personal information listed above will be stored and backed up securely, in accordance with the APS Code of Ethics (2007).

We maintain strict policies regarding who has authority to access your personal information. All ANTS staff are bound by a code of conduct. Psychologists are also required to comply with professional codes of conduct regarding the confidentiality of patient information. We educate and supervise staff to ensure information is handled in accordance with this privacy policy and privacy laws, and with respect, care and dignity. ANTS has implemented security measures to protect access to its electronic client records including password protection and system monitoring.

Website Privacy

When you use the ANTS website (neurotreatment.com.au), our internet service provider will record and log non-personally identifiable information such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, pages viewed while browsing the ANTS website, date and times of the visit. This information is used internally for the purpose of gauging visitor traffic and trends and updating the website. Our website uses cookies. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your hard drive to store information about your browsing. The ANTS website does not use cookies to store personal information.

ANTS does not attempt to identify you as an individual user when you are using our website and we will not collect personal information about you unless you specifically provide this to us. However, if you make an enquiry or request that ANTS provides a service to you by completing and submitting an online form on the ANTS website or otherwise contact us via the website, you will be required to provide some personal information (for example, your name and contact information) so that we may respond to your enquiry or request for service. If you do provide us with personal information, we will collect, use and disclose that information in accordance with this privacy policy.

The ANTS website contains links to other websites (linked websites). We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices employed by any linked website.

Can you access your personal information?

Clients have a right to access their personal information held by ANTS. To request access to your personal information, please contact us at the contact details below. Under privacy laws, in some circumstances, we may refuse you or limit your access to your personal information (for example, when giving access would put you or another person at risk of harm).

Complaints

Clients have a right to make a complaint about the handing of their personal information. If you have any concerns about personal information we have asked you to provide, please raise those concerns directly with us. Complaints can be made to ANTS via email (complaints@neurotreatment.com.au). We will endeavour to respond appropriately to reasonable complaints (i.e., not of a frivolous or vexation nature) within 10 days of the receipt of the email.

When complaints cannot be resolved internally, the complainant may be referred to the external agencies, listed below:

NDIS Commission
Ph: 1800 035 544 (free call from landlines) or TTY 133 677.
Interpreters can be arranged.
National Relay Service and ask for 1800 035 544.
Completing a complaint contact form.
https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms/servlet/SmartForm.html?formCode=PRD00-OCF

AHPRA
Ph: 1300 419 495
Email: AHPRAfeedback@ahpra.gov.au

Health Care Complaints Commission
Ph: 1800 043 159
Online: https://ecomplaints.hccc.nsw.gov.au

Corrections

ANTS endeavours to ensure that your information is accurate, up-to-date and complete. You can help us achieve this by letting us know if you notice errors in information we hold about you and letting us know if your personal details change (for example, your name or contact details). If you consider any personal information we hold about you is not accurate, you may also ask us to correct that information. It may not be possible to make changes to clinical information recorded in your medical record. However, we can make notes in your record of the required change.

Contacting ANTS

Postal Address: PO Box 4070, Strathfield South NSW 2136
Email: enquiries@neurotreatment.com.au
Telephone: 1300 224 331

How are changes to this privacy policy made?

This privacy policy is reviewed and amended from time-to-time. Revisions and updates to this privacy policy will be published on this website.

This privacy policy was last updated in October 2021.