Privacy policy

Melbourne Health Psychology Centre (MHPC), ABN: 59387731425 complies with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”) and the applicable Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act when handling personal information, together with the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) (“Health Records Act”) and the applicable Health Privacy Principles in the Health Records Act when handling personal information which is health information (“Health Information”).

MHPC also complies with Health Privacy Principles and the Ethical Guidelines of the Australian Psychological Society http://www.psychology.org.au/about/ethics in the collection, use and disclosure of all Health Information and to ensure that all Health Information is kept strictly confidential.

We take the protection of your personal information seriously. Personal information includes any information or opinion, whether true or not, about a person who is identified or whose identity can reasonably be established.

Data collection

MHPC collects personal information for the purposes of professional communication, answering your requests, arranging appointments and for delivering psychological treatment services. We may collect information through our client consent forms, via the MHPC website, or in the course of treatment.

The kind of personal information we may collect will depend on who you are and the nature of your relationship with us, and may include your full name, address, email address, date of birth, Medicare details, emergency details, billing information, general appointment information and other personal information. You do not have provide us with all the information we request, but this might restrict our capacity to provide you with the right service.

Consent

By engaging us or registering your details on our Website or by email or telephone, and/or using the Website or completing a client consent form or engaging in our psychological services, you consent to us and our psychologists collecting, using and disclosing your personal information (including Health Information) for the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy.

Use of  information

Personal information that you submit to MHPC website is used only for the purpose for which it is submitted or for such other secondary purposes that are related to the primary purpose (such as clinical supervision or a case conference), unless we disclose other uses at the time of collection or seek your consent for doing so later.

Copies of correspondence sent from the web site, that may contain personal information, are stored as archives for record-keeping and back-up purposes only.

Any personal information that you disclose in the course of treatment, will only be used for the purpose it is collected.

Disclosure and sharing

In certain circumstances and only with your consent you clinical information can be shared with other medical and allied health practitioners who are registered with the relevant professional bodies, such as Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Authority, and other medical boards internationally. This will only be done for the purposes of enhancing your treatment, or providing professional education to a registered practitioner, in both instances your information will be as unidentified as possible.

Otherwise will only disclose personal information to additional third parties with your consent in accordance with this Privacy Policy or if it required to do so by law.

Data security and quality

We will take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we collect and hold from misuse, loss and interference and from unauthorised access and modification, and to make sure it is accurate, complete and up-to-date when we collect, use or disclose it.

To assist MHPC, please ensure you provide us with your correct details and  let us know if you believe the information we have about you is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date or misleading (and we will take reasonable steps to correct the information).

MHPC has a right to destroy or permanently de-identify information when it is no longer needed for the purpose it was collected. We may also retain and use de-identified information.

Access, correction and complaints

You can request, and MHPC will provide you with access to, any personal information we hold about you (including any Health Information) (subject to any applicable legal exceptions). Please also let us know if you have any concerns or complaints about the way we are handling your personal information so MHPC can address them. Requests should be submitted by email to contact@mhpc.com.au. Where our records are found to be inaccurate, we will promptly rectify any inaccuracies on the basis of the further information you provide.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or if you wish to request access to your personal information, correct or update you details or raise any privacy concerns you may have, please contact us at contact@mhpc.com.au

Further information

For further information on your privacy rights go to: www.privacy.gov.au 

For further information on the Health Records Act, go to:
https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/about/legislation/health-records-act 
http://www.health.vic.gov.au/hsc/downloads/hppextract.pdf 

For Health Privacy Principles and the Ethical Guidelines of the Australian Psychological Society visit http://www.psychology.org.au/about/ethics

For information on  Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Authority visit https://www.ahpra.gov.au/

Cookies Policy

This website, as most websites on the Internet, uses cookies to improve and optimize the user’s experience. Cookies are files that websites or applications install in the user’s browser or device (smartphone, tablet or connected television) while he/she surfs through the different sections of a site or application and are used to save information on such visit. While cookies do not personally identify you, they do identify your browser.

As in most sites on the Internet, this webpage uses cookies to:

Ensure that webpages work properly.

Save user preferences such as the selected language or font size.

Get to know the user’s browsing experience.

Collect anonymous statistical information such as the visited pages or how long the user has stayed on them.

The use of cookies helps to optimize browsing, by adapting information and services provided to the user’s interests in order to offer him/her a better surfing experience every time he/she visits a website.

This webpage uses cookies to operate as well as to adapt and simplify the user’s browsing.

Cookies, depending on their degree of permanency, can be divided into session or permanent cookies. The first ones expire when the user closes the browser. The second ones expire when their goal has been achieved (e.g. that the user remains identified on the website) or when they are manually deleted.

This website uses the following types of cookies:

Technical: These are cookies required for the proper functioning of the page. They are usually generated when the user gains access to the website or starts a session on it and are used to identify him/her on such site with the following objectives:

Keep the user identified so that, if he/she leaves the web, browser or device and returns to it later, he/she will still remain identified. In this way his/her surfing will be easier and he/she will not have to identify himself/herself once more.

Check if the user is authorized to access certain services or sections of the website.

Improve the browsing experience and optimize the functioning of the website by, for example, saving the settings of specific services.

Analytical: These collect details on the browsing experience of the website’s user, most often anonymously, although sometimes they can uniquely and unmistakably identify the user in order to obtain reports on the interest shown in the services offered by the website.

Disable the use of cookies

If the user so wishes it, it is possible to stop accepting the cookies of the browser or of a specific service.

All modern browsers will allow you to change the cookies settings. Such adjustments can be usually carried out by clicking on the “Options” or “Preferences” rubrics of the browser’s menu.

The user will be able to disable the use of cookies on this website at any time by means of:

The browser’s settings, for instance:

Google Chrome: http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=es&answer=95647

Internet Explorer: http://windows.microsoft.com/es-es/windows7/how-to-manage-cookies-in-internet-explorer-9

Mozilla Firefox: http://support.mozilla.org/es/kb/habilitar-y-deshabilitar-cookies-que-los-sitios-we

Apple Safari: http://support.apple.com/kb/ph5042

Other tools provided by third parties, available online, that allow users to detect cookies on every website they visit and disable them (e.g. Ghostery: http://www.ghostery.com/privacy-statement).

What happens when you disable cookies?

If you disable the use of cookies on this website, you will probably not be able to access specific sections or your browsing experience may be negatively affected.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or if you wish to request access to your personal information, correct or update you details or raise any privacy concerns you may have, please contact us at contact@mhpc.com.au