Privacy policy

Hardwick Psychological Services (we, us and our) offers different types of services through our clinic, online and via phone.

In providing our services to you, we may collect or be provided with personal information about you, online or offline, when you access our clinical psychology services, when you complete any questionnaire we provide you, when you visit our practice or participate in a telehealth consultation when you access our website and when you contact us online, via telephone or via email (Services).

We have adopted the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act). The APPs govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your Personal Information.

Types of information we collect

We may collect information about you that includes personal information, sensitive information and health information.

Personal information: is information or an opinion, whether true or not and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual who is identified or reasonably identifiable.
Sensitive information: is a sub-set of personal information that is given a higher level of protection under the Australian Privacy Principles. Sensitive information means information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, trade union or other professional associations or memberships, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation or practices, criminal records, health information or biometric information.
Health information: is a type of sensitive information and includes any personal information that is collected while providing you a health service. For example, any details you share with us in a consultation about your medical history or mental health will be health information.

The types of personal information we may collect about you include:

your name; your contact details, including email address and/or telephone number;
any other required personal information requested by us and/or provided by you or a third party;
your Medicare number (if you are referred to us under a health scheme, for example);
details of your referring doctor;
an emergency contact name and telephone number;
our correspondence with you or with other health professionals about you;
any other required personal information requested by us and/or provided by you or a third party;
banking payment information for payment of services
personal details which are necessary and relevant to the assessment and/or treatment of your presenting mental health concern and which you choose to share with us. For example, this may include details of your schooling/training/employment status; your marital status; your beliefs, values, and views;
sensitive information (including health information) which is necessary and relevant to the assessment and/or treatment of your presenting mental health concern and which you choose to share with us and any mental health assessment or diagnostic opinion we believe is necessary or relevant to the record. The types of sensitive information you choose to share with us may include:
detailed information about your current medications, your physical health and detailed information about your psychological health;
your racial or ethnic origin;
your religious beliefs;
your philosophical beliefs;
your political beliefs or affiliations;
your sexual orientation or practices;
any other sensitive details you choose to share with us;
any other required personal information requested by us and/or provided by you or a third party;
information collected from the website e.g. website cookies

Purpose of holding personal information

Your personal information is gathered and used to provide psychological services, which include assessing, diagnosing and treating your presenting issue. The personal information is retained in order to document what happens during sessions and enables the psychologist to provide a relevant and informed psychological service.

We may also use the personal information we have collected from you for the purposes related above, and to:

verify your identity;
register you as a client;
administer and provide our Services (including invoicing or billing you for our Services and to book an appointment for you);
enable your referring doctor to refer you to us and/or book an appointment for you;
internal record keeping;
notify you of new or changed services offered in relation to our Services;
carry out marketing or training relating to our Services;
comply with laws and regulations in applicable jurisdictions;
communicate with you;
to enable you to access and use our website and trusted associated applications and platforms;
to comply with our legal obligations and resolve any disputes that we may have.

We will only use your personal information for the purposes described in this Policy or with your express permission.

Disclosure of personal information

We will not disclose your personal information except when:

It is subpoenaed by a court; or
Failure to disclose the information would, in the reasonable belief of your psychologist, place you or another person at serious risk to life, health or safety; or
Your prior approval has been obtained to
Provide a written report to another professional or agency. e.g., a GP or a lawyer; or
Discuss the material with another person, e.g. a parent, employer or health provider; or
Disclose the information in another way; or
Disclosure is otherwise required by law.

If you are referred by

A GP under a Mental Health Care Plan – it is a requirement of Medicare that the psychologist provides a treatment report at the end of a referral or episode of care, therefore in signing this document you are agreeing to the psychologist writing reports and speaking to your GP if necessary as part of your MHCP;
A third-party organisation (and writing a report or communicating regarding treatment outcome is a requirement of that service provision e.g. WorkCover, NIISQ, other insurance companies etc),
If you have a parent, other relative, or support person who you may require to help with general administrative tasks, please advise reception who this is so we have the appropriate consent in place. Without this consent, reception will not be able to provide any information to your supporter, including but not limited to, invoices, payments, appointment times and dates, attendance records, copies of receipts/rebates, errors, or cancellations.
Reports may be reviewed by senior staff for quality assurance purposes.
When our third-party service providers require the information to enable them to assist us in providing our Services to you, including:
our cloud-based practice management software;
software to send and receive emails and for internal business purposes;
digital document storage;
telehealth solutions;
or payment service providers;
or telecommunication service providers.

Overseas disclosure

We take reasonable steps to use Australian-based third-party service providers where practicable. However, some of these providers are located outside of Australia (e.g. Google Workspace) or need to transfer or access your information outside of Australia to assist us in providing our Services to you and some information is held on our servers, or service provider servers.

By providing us with personal information, you understand we may disclose your information outside of Australia and acknowledge that where we disclose personal information to a third party outside of Australia, we will only use reputable third parties and we will only disclose the personal information necessary for the recipient to assist us in supplying our Services to you.

Your personal information will not be used, sold, rented or disclosed for any other purpose.

Disclosure of Sensitive Information

Your sensitive information may only be used and disclosed for the purposes for which you may consent, such as:

to provide a written report to another agency or professional, such as a general practitioner or a lawyer;

to discuss the material with another person, such as a parent, employer, health provider, or third-party funder;

to disclose to another professional or agency such as your general practitioner;

secondary purposes directly related to the primary purpose for which your sensitive information was collected, including disclosure to third-party service providers as reasonably necessary to provide our Services to you;
to refer you to medical or health service providers, or to speak with your family, partner or support person where we reasonably believe there is a serious risk to the life, health or safety of you or another person and it is impractical or we are unable to obtain your consent; and

if otherwise required or authorised by law, such as where the information is subpoenaed.

Storage and Security

We are committed to ensuring that the personal information we collect is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure your personal information and protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. These procedures include:

securing any personal information we hold in an electronic format behind a password logins securing any personal information we hold in physical files in a locked cabinet;
encrypting data, and
limiting internal access to the personal information we hold about you based on a need-to-know basis.

Although we take measures to safeguard against unauthorised disclosures of information, due to the inherent risks associated with the Internet, we can not unconditionally guarantee against unauthorised disclosure.

Your rights and controlling your personal information

Choice and consent: Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By providing personal information to us, you understand we will collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You do not have to provide personal information to us, however, if you do not, it may affect our ability to provide our Services to you and your use of our Services.

Information from third parties: If we receive personal information about you from a third party, we will protect it as set out in this Privacy Policy. If you are a third party providing personal information about somebody else, you represent and warrant that you have such person’s consent to provide the personal information to us.

Anonymity: Where practicable we will give you the option of not identifying yourself or using a pseudonym in your dealings with us. For example, if you make a general enquiry, you may choose to use a pseudonym but where we provide our psychology services to you we will require that you provide some identifying information.

Restrict and Unsubscribe: If you have previously agreed to use your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by contacting us using the details below. To unsubscribe from our e-mail database or opt out of communications (including any marketing communications), please contact us using the details below or opt out using the opt-out facilities provided in the communication.

Access and Correction: At any stage, you may request to see and correct the personal information kept on file. If satisfied that personal information is inaccurate, out of date, or incomplete, reasonable steps will be taken in the circumstances to ensure that this information is corrected.

All requests by you for access to or correction of personal information held should be lodged with the Manager at hello@hardwickpsychology.com.au
A request must state your name and address, particularise the health information to which access is sought and specify the form in which you would like the information to be provided. These requests will be responded to in writing and, if necessary, an appointment will be made for clarification purposes. An administrative fee may be payable for the provision of such information and professional fees for appointments. Please note, that in some situations, we may be legally permitted to withhold access to your personal information or the personal information you have requested access to.

In accordance with the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 No 71, if you are a parent or legal guardian and you would like to request access to your child’s information, in addition to the information that needs to be included in a regular request for information, we also require that you provide evidence of your parental authority or guardianship to have access to the information in their request.

If you are the parent or legal guardian of a child and they have been deemed by us to have the capacity to make independent decisions about their health care in line with the Gillick competence, we may be legally permitted to withhold the child’s information from you.

Policy Updates

This Policy may change from time to time and is available on our website.

Privacy Policy Complaints and Enquiries

If you have any queries or complaints about our Privacy Policy please contact us at:

Hardwick Psychological Services
Level 1, Highpoint Plaza,
240 Waterworks Road,
Ashgrove, QLD, 4060, Australia
Phone reception : (07) 3515 0172
Fax: 07 3547 8469
Email: hello@hardwickpsychology.com.au

Effective: 27 February 2025