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We collect personal information that is reasonably necessary to provide you with psychological care and to administer our practice. This may include:

Personal and contact information — your name, date of birth, address, email address, telephone number, emergency contact, and (where relevant) the details of your guardian, carer or next of kin.

Health information (sensitive information) — your reasons for seeking care, presenting concerns, medical and mental health history, assessment results, session notes, treatment and care plans, correspondence with your GP and other providers, and information from psychometric assessments and outcome measures.

Funding and billing information — your Medicare number, Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) details, NDIS participant number and plan details, WorkCover or Transport Accident Commission (TAC) claim information, private health insurer details, referral details (including Mental Health Care Plans), and payment information.

Referral and clinical relationship information — the identity of your referring GP or other practitioner, and information they provide to support your care.

Technical and website information — when you visit www.cdnhc.com.au or use our online booking, we may collect limited technical information such as your IP address, browser type, and pages visited, and we may use cookies (see section 11).

If you do not provide the information we request, we may be unable to provide you with appropriate care or to claim funding on your behalf.

Wherever reasonable and practicable, we collect personal information directly from you — for example, through our intake and consent forms, during appointments (in person or via telehealth), and through our patient/client portal.

We may also collect information from others where you have consented, or where it is necessary for your care, such as from your referring GP, other treating practitioners, hospitals, funding bodies (Medicare, DVA, NDIS, WorkCover, TAC), or your private health insurer.

We collect, hold, use and disclose your information for the primary purpose of providing you with psychological assessment and treatment, and for directly related purposes you would reasonably expect, including:

• Delivering and coordinating your care, including telehealth consultations;
• Communicating with you about appointments, including reminders by SMS and email;
• Liaising with your GP, referrers and other treating practitioners involved in your care;
• Processing payments and claiming funding from Medicare, DVA, NDIS, WorkCover, TAC and private health insurers;
• Meeting our legal, regulatory, professional and accreditation obligations;
• Managing and improving our services, and dealing with complaints.

We will only use or disclose your health information for a secondary purpose where you have consented, where you would reasonably expect us to and the purpose is directly related to your care, or where we are otherwise permitted or required by law.

We may disclose your information to:

• Other healthcare providers involved in your care, such as your GP, psychiatrist or other allied health practitioners, with your consent;
• Funding and billing bodies — Medicare, DVA, the NDIS and plan managers, WorkCover Victoria, the TAC, and private health insurers — for the purpose of claiming and payment;
• Our software and service providers who help us run the practice (see section 7);
• My Health Record, where this is used and you have not opted out (see section 8);
• Others as required or authorised by law — for example, in response to a court order or subpoena, to mandatory reporting obligations, or where there is a serious and imminent threat to the life, health or safety of you or another person.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not disclose it for marketing by third parties.

Your information is held in a combination of secure electronic systems and, where applicable, secure archived records. We take reasonable steps to protect your information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Our security measures include access controls and individual logins, encryption, secure backups, and physical and procedural safeguards. We require our staff and contractors to maintain confidentiality, and we review our security arrangements from time to time.

Where you have a My Health Record and have not opted out, we may upload to and access information from your My Health Record to support your care, in accordance with the My Health Records Act 2012 (Cth) and our My Health Record security and access policy. You can control what we see and upload, and you can ask us not to access your record. More information is available at www.myhealthrecord.gov.au.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that your information is stored within Australia. Our practice management, telehealth, assessment and archiving providers host your information on servers located in Australia.

With your consent, we will contact you by SMS, email and/or telephone for purposes related to your care, including appointment reminders, results notifications and practice updates. You can ask us to change how we contact you, or to stop a particular type of contact, at any time by contacting us.

When you visit www.cdnhc.com.au, our website may use cookies and similar technologies to help the site function and to understand how it is used. You can disable cookies in your browser settings, although some features of the site may not work as intended. Any personal information you submit through our website (for example, an enquiry or booking) is handled in accordance with this policy.

You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you, and to ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.

To make a request, please contact us. We will respond within a reasonable period. In most cases there is no charge to request access, although we may charge a reasonable fee for the costs of providing access to clinical records. In limited circumstances we may decline a request — for example, where providing access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any person — and if we do, we will explain why in writing and tell you how to complain.

We take reasonable steps to ensure the information we hold is accurate, complete and up to date. Please let us know if any of your details change.

We retain health records for the periods required by law. In Victoria, this is generally at least seven years from the date of last contact for an adult, and for a person who was under 18 at the date of last contact, until they turn 25. When records are no longer required to be retained, we destroy or de-identify them securely.

We have procedures in place to detect, contain and assess data breaches. If a breach involving your personal information is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as required under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.