Privacy Policy

Haven Psychology Centre Pty Ltd (Haven Psychology) is committed to ensuring your personal information is professionally managed, and information is collected, recorded, and stored in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This privacy policy is to provide information to you on how various types of information is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we share it with third parties.
When referring to your information, we may use terms that are defined in the APPs.

Providing your consent
When you or someone acting on your behalf first engages Haven Psychology, we may require a minimum amount of personal information to enable us to evaluate the suitability of our health service to meet your needs, and for you to make a similar evaluation. In the process of making this evaluation, we consider consent is given when you or the person acting on your behalf contact Haven Psychology to seek services.
Haven Psychology will obtain your express consent before providing a health service and collecting sensitive information necessary for this service.
We may seek your consent when circumstances changes, before a new service is to be provided, or if we need to use or disclose personal information that is not reasonably expected or directly related to our services.

How we collect your personal information
Haven Psychology will collect your personal information in several ways.
We collect personal information directly from you when you:

  • Contact our practice via phone, sms, email, or in-person
  • Complete a form, such as the ‘Client Information and Consent’, or ‘Contact Us’ forms
  • Undertake an online assessment or screener
  • Attend your intake and subsequent sessions with your psychologist
  • Provide medical records, school reports, or other information for your psychologist
  • Leave a comment, message, or review on our social media pages
  • Subscribe to our email newsletter.

We understand that on occasion, it is not possible to collect information from you directly. In this instance, we may also collect this information from:

  • A friend, family member, or support agency acting on your behalf
  • An insurance provider, agent, or legal advisor acting on your behalf
  • Your GP, medical specialist, allied health, or other health providers
  • Government agencies, such as Services Australia, or NDIA
  • A parent or guardian if you are under 18-years of age

What personal information we collect and why
To provide a professional psychological service to you, Haven Psychology will need to collect relevant personal information (including sensitive and health information) for your situation and circumstance.
The information we collect includes:

  • Your name, address, date of birth, contact details, gender, pronouns
  • Information about your mental and physical health condition(s), relevant medical history, social and family history, risk factors, relevant medication(s), and previous mental health treatment
  • The identity and relationship with other people, such as emergency contacts, immediate family, or third parties authorised to act on your behalf.
  • Demographic information including identification as a First Nations person, LGBTIQAP+, or culturally and racially marginalised.
  • Medicare, DVA, NDIS, or other third-party details and identification number (s) for insurance claiming or payment purposes.

The purpose of this personal information is for business administration and for the provision of health services, including:

  • Managing appointments and recording attendance
  • Processing payments and claiming insurance or rebates
  • Improving business and clinical services
  • Filing and retrieval of clinical notes and medical records
  • Communicating with you, your authorised contacts, and other health and medical professionals
  • Undertaking questionnaires, screeners and assessments
  • Formulation of treatment plans, diagnoses, and reports
  • Providing telehealth video and phone services.
  • Note taking and summarisation of notes

Disclosure of personal information and in what circumstances
To provide you services, Haven Psychology uses third-party service providers, and we may need to disclose your personal information with these providers. We disclose personal information only to the extent necessary for the purposes it was collected for, and these providers are listed below along with a link to their privacy policy:

Zanda Health – for contact information, communications, appointment management, medical file storage, clinical note keeping, attendance statistics, telehealth services, billing and insurance information.  https://zandahealth.com/au/privacy-policy/

NovoPsych – for the administration of psychometric assessments and screeners, note taking, and reporting results. https://novopsych.com/security/

Services Australia – for submitting claims for rebates or session fees under Medicare or Department of Veterans Affirms schemes and receiving confirmation of claims. https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/privacy-policy

Medical Objects – for sending and receiving medical records between medical providers. https://www.medicalobjects.com/privacy/

eFax – for sending and receiving medical records between medical providers. https://www.efax.com.au/privacy-policy/

Microsoft – for communications, telehealth services, enquiry management, drafting reports
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/privacy/privacystatement

As required and necessary for the provision of services, Haven Psychology will disclose personal information to other third parties in circumstances outlined below:

Insurance claims – as a condition of paying for psychology services, insurance providers (such as WorkCover Queensland, NDIS, Medicare, DVA, etc.) require the disclosure of your personal information to validate that a service was provided in accordance with the conditions of your claim. The requirements for disclosure will be provided by the insurer and may include disclosure to other third parties such as your GP with progress reporting.
Court subpoenas – Haven Psychology or your psychologist may be served with a subpoena and is required by law to disclose your personal (including health and other sensitive information) to the court as per the specific requirements of the subpoena.
By law – under obligation of relevant federal, state, or territory acts and regulations (such as child safety and protection laws), your personal information may be disclosed as part of a mandatory report as specified by the relevant law.
For the protection of you or others – where there is a serious and imminent risk to you or another person, Haven Psychology may disclose the minimum necessary personal information to third party with the capability to reduce this risk.
Under a contingency plan – in the event of your clinician being unable to continue therapy, your details may be disclosed to another clinician named in a pre-prepared contingency plan. This contingency plan is part of your clinician’s obligations to ensure that that you have access to ongoing therapy should unforeseen circumstances arise.
At your request – to support your therapeutic or personal goals, Haven Psychology may disclose your personal information to a third party with your consent. Such third parties may include parents, guardians or other family members, employers, other health providers, legal representatives, etc.
Clinical supervision – as part of our commitment to ongoing professional development and ethical practice, our practitioners may disclose the minimum amount of information necessary during in clinical supervision, where the supervisor is bound by the same professional and ethical standards of confidentiality.
We will not share your information with anyone outside Australia (unless under exceptional circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.

How we hold and protect your personal information
We hold your personal information at our practice as paper and electronic records. Our practice stores all personal information securely and adheres to strict protocols to ensure your personal information is protected from misuse, loss, interference, or unauthorised access. All software or programs used to store your information are password protected. Hard copies of records/information are securely shredded after they have been scanned and stored electronically. On occasion where this is not practicable, paper copies of your files are stored in a locked cabinet until they are returned to you or securely destroyed.
Haven Psychology is also required by law to store your records for a minimum of seven (7) years, or until the age of 25 if under 18 years of age.

Privacy and our website
If you access information about our practice electronically, including by way of social media or our website, your personal information may also be recorded digitally through use of website analytics and cookies.

How you can access and correct your personal information at our practice
Our practice will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date, or your circumstances change. We will ask you from time to time to verify that your information held by our practice is accurate and up to date, and you may provide corrections or updates at any time.
You have the right to request access to personal information that we hold about you, in electronic or hard copy format. Should you wish to obtain a copy of this information, we request that you put it in writing and address it to: Directors – Haven Psychology Centre Pty Ltd, and we review and respond in writing within 30 days. You may be charged an administrative fee to reasonably cover our costs in fulfilling your request.
Under circumstances where we refuse access to the requested information, we will, where possible, provide information in another form, such as:

  • in a summarised format
  • viewing or inspecting the information with your psychologist
  • providing the information through an intermediary
  • with information redacted.

Dealing with Haven anonymously or by pseudonym
You have the right to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym.
You may enquire anonymously about our services via phone, website, social media, or other contact methods. Our capacity to provide further information will be limited by the means of communication used to contact Haven, and we are unable to provide psychology services anonymously.
You may enquire about services and receive some services from Haven Psychology using a pseudonym. In this situation, we may not be able to the full range of services where identification is required to deliver that service.

How you can lodge a privacy related complaint and how it will be handled at our practice
If you have concerns about your privacy or wish to make a complaint about a privacy breach, please contact:
Directors – Haven Psychology Centre Pty Ltd.
You should provide sufficient details regarding the nature of your complaint together with any supporting information. We will take steps to investigate the issue and will notify you in writing of the outcome within 30 days from receipt date of original written complaint.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact us directly to discuss your concerns or lodge a complaint with the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au or by calling 1300 363 992.

Policy review statement
As part of our ongoing commitment to your privacy, this privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is compliant with the Australian Privacy Principles, and to ensure clients are informed of any changes that may occur to this policy. We will notify our clients of these changes as they occur either in writing, on our website, or in person. A hard copy will also be made available to all clients at reception, and upon request.

Review date: 1 June 2026