Living Stillness Privacy Statement

 

Part of Living Stillness’ commitment to providing a high level of care for clients includes ensuring a high level of protection for any personal information we have on our records. Living Stillness views the privacy of clients as an important part of our duty of care and seeks to comply with all elements of the Australian Privacy Principles as well as our existing obligations of confidentiality including the Esoteric Practitioner Association (EPA) Code of Ethics and Conduct.

 

This privacy policy explains how we at Living Stillness, handle your personal information, including the collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information, as well as how you can access and change your information, provide us with feedback or make a complaint. Your personal information is readily available should you require to make any amendments.  

 

When you come for a session at Living Stillness Clinics or register for a workshop, you will be asked to sign a consent form which includes notices about privacy and requests your consent. The privacy statements in various forms specify how any information about you may be used and disclosed.

 

When you complete a consent form, either in clinic or on-line, you consent to us collecting, maintaining, using and disclosing personal information about you and provided by you or by another person in accordance with the privacy statements in the form and this privacy policy, as amended from time to time.

 

The information handling processes outlined in this policy also relate to any personal information collected online via our website.

 

Living Stillness takes seriously the trust you place in us and at all times we make every effort to ensure that your personal information is secure, protected from interference, misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

 

Contacting Us 

We value your comments and opinions. If you have questions or require further information about our privacy policy please contact us by emailing contact@livingstillness.com.au

 

Personal & Sensitive Information 

Personal information refers to information or an opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.

 

Sensitive information is a subset of personal information and includes your health information as well as information pertaining to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or memberships of a political organisation, religious belief or affiliations, membership of a professional or trade association, sexual preferences or a criminal record. Sensitive information attracts additional privacy protections compared with other types of personal information.

 

Consent Forms

 

On you first visit for a session at Living Stillness, you will be asked to sign a Client Consent form and to provide certain personal information including:

 

1. Your name, address, phone number and email contact details:

2. Your gender, date of birth and marital status;

3. Contact details of your next of kin and your doctor;

4. Information about your health and any medication you may be taking.

 

You will also be asked to consent to specific treatments and whether you are agreeable to your personal information being shared with other practitioners or medical practitioners where this may enhance your treatment.

 

At the end of your treatment your practitioner will make a few notes about any symptoms you may have exhibited and the treatment given. These notes will be used by your practitioner for the ongoing support of your condition should you have a subsequent visit. Should you have a further session with a different practitioner they will make separate notes during your consultation. Practitioners will not share your consultation notes or personal information without your written consent. 

 

Children and other persons who are not able to give informed consent may come for a session with the consent of a parent or guardian. In such cases, personal information will be collected and used as described above.

 

When you first attend a Living Stillness workshop, you will be asked to sign a consent form and provide your personal information similar to that outlined above. 

 

Other People 

 

We will try to collect your personal information directly from you. However, there may be instances where we will need to collect your information from other persons or entities. Whenever possible we will request this other person to have your signed consent or email giving your permission for them to provide us with your personal information. Exceptions may be if you suddenly take ill and are incapable of providing certain information which may be important to your treatment, such as if you have had a recent operation, illness or an implant and what medication you are taking.  

 

If you have provided us with information about another person, then you will need to tell that person that you have done so, that they have a right to access their information and that they can refer to this policy for information on how we will handle their personal information.

Research

 

If you have consented to your personal information being shared for research purposes, your information will be de-identified before being made available to the research team unless you have consented to your personal information remaining identified.

 

Website 

 

When you access our website, anonymous technical information may be collected about your activities on the website. This may include information such as the type of browser used to access the website the website and the pages visited. This information is used by us to make decisions about maintaining and improving our websites and online services. This information remains anonymous and is not linked in any way to personal identification details.

 

Living Stillness does not store financial information such as credit card numbers. 

 

How we store your Personal Information

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that our personal information is stored securely and is protected from misuse and loss from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes a range of systems and communications security measures, as well as the secure storage of hard copy documents. In addition, access to your personal information will be restricted to people properly authorised to have access. 

 

When you complete a consent form either at the clinic or at a workshop, the information on the form is entered into our database and the original document is then filed in secure storage. Only your practitioner may see your personal information unless you have consented to your practitioner sharing your information with another profession such as a GP or researcher.   

 

We will keep your personal information  for as long as it is required to provide you with the services you request from us and to comply with legal requirements.

 

If we no longer require your personal information for any purpose, including legal purposes, we will take reasonable steps to securely destroy or de-identify your personal information.

 

It is your responsibility to advise us should either you health situation or your personal details change so that your record is kept up to date. 

 

How we use your Personal Information

Personal information is used to:

1. Contact you about your appointment or any other matter in relation to the service provided to you;

2. Contact your next of kin or GP in an emergency;

3. Better understand your health history and thus ensure your treatment is of the highest quality;

4. Discuss your case with other practitioners and / or medical professionals if you have consented to this and only if it is felt necessary to do so in support of your case and in your best interest;

5. Research purposes if you have consented to this, in which case your personal information will be ‘de-identified’ that is anonymous, unless you advise us otherwise;

6. Allow you to purchase products and services;

7. Answer our enquiries and resolve complaints;

8. Provide you with information about any product you may have purchased or register for, such as a workshop or other event.

Credit card information is used only for payment processing and fraud prevention. This information is not used for other purposes and not retained by Living Stillness.

 

Anonymous data may be aggregated for reporting client statistics for the clinic and to improve our customer support. If you complete a questionnaire, you may do this anonymously and you will have an option to provide your name if you have any questions or are seeking further information.

 

When you register on-line for a newsletter, event or other product, you consent to us using your personal information to send you further information relevant to that product (for an indefinite period), unless you have contacted us to withdraw your consent.

 

Sharing your personal information

Living Stillness takes seriously the trust you place in us and on no account will we sell, rent or lease your personal information to others. We will not share your personal with any third party without your permission unless required by law enforcement action or subpoena. For example, we may be required to provide your personal information to the appointed case manager of insurance companies managing compensation cases or third party case in the treatment of injury or illness.       

 

Personal information may be disclosed to anyone to who you have given written and signed consent to have access to this information (e.g. a solicitor, accountant or a person who has authority to act as your attorney). This could also include referees, any financial institution nominated by you (for example in a direct debit) or anyone else you request.

 

Access to your Personal Information

If you have completed a consent form at the clinic or at an event, you can request access to your personal information at any time. By law it is necessary to make the request in writing and emailing to: contact@livingstillness.com.au

Upon receiving your request we will discuss your access options. A copy will be supplied to you within ten working days depending on the nature of the request. We will endeavour to make your file available earlier if possible.

If you believe any information is incorrect or outdated, you may ask for a correction to be made. There is no fee for requesting access to your information.

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In a very few cases we may be unable to give you access to certain information for example where:

1. We no longer hold or use the information;

2. Providing access would pose a serious threat to the physical or mental health of any individual;

3. Providing access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;

4. The request is vexatious;

5. Providing access would be unlawful;

6. The information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings;

7. Providing access would prejudice or be likely to prejudice the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of unlawful activity;

8. Disclosure would pose a threat to the life or health of any individual.

If your request is refused, we will tell you the reason why. If we are not required to provide you with access to the information requested, we will consider, if reasonable, where the use of a mutually agreed intermediary would allow sufficient access to meet our mutual needs. 

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Correcting your Personal Information

We strive to keep your personal information accurate, however, it is your responsibility to notify Living Stillness when your details change. If you believe any information held about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, you may ask to be provided with a copy of your information to view and following your authorisation your information will be corrected.

 

To protect your privacy and security, you may be asked to verify your identity before being granted access to your data. In some cases, you may be asked to put your request in writing.

 

Making a complaint

You can ask at any time if you have any questions or concerns about this policy or about how your personal information has been handled.    

 

We value your comments and opinions and will try to answer any questions, correct any errors or resolve any complaint that you may have about how your information is handled.

 

Once you have contacted us in relation to your concerns, if you are not happy with our response, or if you do not feel your complaint has been resolved, you are able to seek advice from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by calling 1300 363 992.  

 

Further information about making a complaint regarding health care services is available at the following website:www.hcc.vic.gov.au/make-complaint

 

Online data collection and use

The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices.

 

Our registration form requires visitors to give us contact information, like their name and email address and unique identifiers. We use contact information from the registration form to send visitors information about our services and products. The contact information is used to contact visitors when necessary if they have subscribed to a mail list. Visitors may opt-out of receiving future mailings by choosing to unsubscribe by sending us an email stating so. Unique identifiers are collected to verify the user’s identity and for use in our records.  

 

Security of your Personal Information

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is stored securely and is protected from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

 

Security includes a range of systems and communication security measures, as well as the secure storage of hard copy documents. These include:

• An encrypted client database for collection of client information;

• Password secured digital client notes;

• Individual database user logins for effective auditing of data amendments;

• A password protected server;

• A closed WiFi network strictly accessible to staff only

• Password locked screens on all computers.

 

We keep your personal information for as long as required to provide you with the products and services you requested from us and to comply with legal requirements. If we no longer require your personal information for any purposes, including legal purposes, we will take reasonable steps to securely destroy or de-identify your personal information.