Consultations between psychologists and clients are strictly confidential. All psychologists at our service adhere to the ethical standards of the Code of Professional Conduct as set by the Australian Psychological Society. This means that communication is private and safe-guarded and your psychologist is not able to provide any information to other persons unless you give them permission to do so. However, there are some exceptions to confidentiality and these relate primarily to psychologists' ethical obligations or "duty of care". It is considered unethical for psychologists to maintain confidentiality where it may result in significant harm to the self or others. Confidentiality may therefore be breached for the following reasons:

 

• For the purpose of professional consultation with other practitioners legitimately concerned with your child's care.

• If we have good reason to believe that your child may be at risk of seriously harming him / herself or another person or of being harmed by someone.

• If you / your child are involved in a court case and your psychologist is required to give evidence.

 

These circumstances are in our experience unusual and infrequent. Your psychologist will make every effort to discuss this with you if she/he believes that it may be necessary to break confidentiality.

 

Protecting your privacy is important to Mind and Seek. Our Privacy Policy endorses the Privacy Act 2000 and the Health Records Act 2001. It is necessary for us to collect certain personal information to better meet your needs and to manage our service to you.

 

We will:

 

• Only use personal information provided by you for the purpose for which it was collected.

 

• Psychologists keep records for a minimum of seven years since last client contact. In the case of records collected while the client was less than 18 years old, psychologists retain the records at least until the client attains the age of 25 years.

 

• Your psychologist is likely to keep a record of consultations with you and/or your child or teen. Mind & Seek psychologists are aware of the relevant privacy and health record laws that affect parents’ legal capacity to access their child’s health records, regardless of which parent(s) engaged the psychology service.

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• Our psychologists’ responses to requests for confidential records by parents will depend on any relevant court orders, the capacity of the young person to give informed consent, and whether any exceptions apply under the relevant law, according to the Health Records Act (2001) (Vic).
   

• These records are confidential and are stored in a secure locked cabinet and/or password protected computer file.