INTERACTEASTLONDON STATEMENT IN RELATION TO GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR)
INTRODUCTION
Therapists at this practice keep records necessary to the proper administration of their work. They keep notes needful for the due consideration of that work. They secure then, five years after each piece of work finishes, destroy these.
No breaches of security have occurred at this practice. However, therapists at this practice would and shall notify both clients and each relevant authority, in the exceptional event of a breach specific to those clients.
Clients can discuss with their therapist at this practice concerns regarding information held about them. Their therapist at this practice is not the only recourse for clients, in such cases.
MORE DETAIL
In providing your talking therapy assessment and treatment, your therapist at this practice asks for information about you, your health and health history. Exceptionally and only with your knowledge and consent, they may receive information from other providers. These are such as have been involved in and engaged with your care.
This privacy notice describes the type of information about you that your therapist at this practice holds, why it is held and what they do with it.
INFORMATION COLLECTED
Your therapist at this practice collects the following information about you:
- data such as your names, date of birth, address, telephone number and email address
- details pertaining to your mental health, including symptoms, history and previous treatment
- notes of conversations with you about your care
- dates of your appointments
- details of any concerns you have expressed or complaints you have made, with the ways they worked in connection with these, and
- details of fees charged, amounts you have paid and payments.
Your therapist at this practice is responsible for keeping secure the information held about you.
They ensure their work complies with data protection requirements to ensure your information is collected, used, stored and disposed of in a responsible way.
USE OF YOUR INFORMATION
To assist you with your mental health care and to provide the treatment you need, therapists at this practice require up-to-date and accurate information about you.
They will seek your preference for how to contact you, in the unusual event of their needing to. The conventional methods are telephone, email, letter or text message.
SHARING INFORMATION
Therapists at this practice are normally the only ones who make use of your information. Yet there may, exceptionally, be instances when they need to share it.
They undertake to notify clients, when appropriate or on request, that there are ethical and legal limits to confidentiality and exceptional circumstances under which therapists at this practice might disclose confidential information to a third party.
However, they commit to protect sensitive and identifying information obtained in the course of their work.
Should they exceptionally be required by law to serve in judicial or administrative proceedings, they also commit to getting clarification at the outset of the potential impact that this could have on their dedication to the confidentiality of any client.
In such a situation, they pledge to maintain this clarification, as the situation proceeds, and to seek legal and ethical advice, as appropriate.
They focus upon safeguarding the welfare and anonymity of clients. This includes when therapists at this practice are considering any form of publication of clinical material and means their always obtaining the verifiable consent of the relevant client, in any case where the welfare or anonymity of that client may be compromised. This relates also to situations where a client might recognise themselves in case material, despite the changing of names or contexts.
In all such exceptional circumstances, your therapist at this practice will only disclose your information on a need-to-know basis; and will limit any information that they share to the minimum necessary.
KEEPING YOUR INFORMATION SAFE
Your therapist at this practice stores your personal information securely. As a principle, only they have access to your information. The only exception that can, extraordinarily, occur is when an emergency causes them to be indisposed.
In the interests of your care and support, this may necessitate a therapeutic colleague to access, for example, your contact details. Nevertheless, therapists at this practice understand the ethical and legal responsibility to maintain confidentiality and follow practice procedures to ensure suitable parameters.
They take precautions to ensure security of practice premises, filing systems and computers.
They use high-quality specialist software to record and hold your information safely and effectively. The practice’s computer system has a secure set of audit trails.
The aforementioned five year period, during which therapists at this practice keep your records, starts after your last visit.
You have a right to access the information that they hold about you and to receive a copy. You should submit your request to your therapist at this practice in writing. As a rule, they would not and shall not charge you for copies of your information. If they were to have to pass on a charge, they would and shall explain the reasons.
You can also request them to
- correct any information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete (in the exceptional and agreed circumstance of their having disclosed such information to a third party, your therapist at this practice will let that party know about the change) and
- erase information they hold, though you should be aware that, for ethical and legal reasons, they may be unable to erase certain information (for example, information about your treatment).
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE
If you do not wish your therapist at this practice to use your personal information as described, then please email them. Please note that, if you object to the way they collect and use your information, they may not be able to continue to contribute to your mental health care.
If you have any concerns about how your therapist at this practice uses your information and you do not feel able to discuss it with them, you are not only able to contact the practice’s data protection officer, Dharma Paul, but also The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF (0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745).
25th May 2018
