Lambeth Psychology Privacy Policy
Lambeth Psychology (referred herein as the “Practice”) is committed to respecting and protecting your privacy.
The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you of our policies and practices related to the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of and your access to your personal information and/or personal health information. The Practice is committed to taking steps to ensure that the personal information that we collect about you is adequate, relevant, not excessive, and used for limited purposes. You are strongly encouraged to review this information.
Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time at any time without notice.
Legislation
The Personal Health Information Protection Act (as amended from time to time) (“PHIPA”) governs the manner in which your Personal Health Information may be collected, used and disclosed in the province of Ontario. To the extent that any provision of this policy conflicts with PHIPA, PHIPA will govern.
Information Collected
The Practice may collect, from time to time, the following information:
1. “Personal Health information” means identifying information about an individual in oral or recorded form, if the information:
a. relates to the physical or mental health of the individual, including information that consists of the health history of the individual’s family,
b. relates to the providing of health care to the individual, including the identification of a person as a provider of health care to the individual,
c. is a plan of service within the meaning of the Home Care and Community Services Act, 1994 for the individual,
d. relates to payments or eligibility for health care, or eligibility for coverage for health care, in respect of the individual,
e. relates to the donation by the individual of any body part or bodily substance of the individual or is derived from the testing or examination of any such body part or bodily substance,
f. is the individual’s health number, or
g. identifies an individual’s substitute decision-maker.
2. “Personal information”, that we can reasonably use to directly or indirectly identify you, such as your name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number, Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, username or other similar identifier, billing and account information, social insurance number, and any other identifier we may use to contact you.
3. “Non-personal information”, that does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity or directly relate to an identifiable individual, such as demographic information, or statistical or aggregated information. Statistical or aggregated data does not directly identify a specific person, but we may derive non-personal statistical or aggregated data from personal information.
4. “Technical information”, including your browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, or information about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Website, and usage details.
Such information, known collectively in this policy as the “Information”, is collected by the Practice when you provide it to us for the purpose of receiving a response from the Practice, including filling in forms on our website. In addition, if you choose to contact the Practice by email, telephone or otherwise, we may keep a record of that correspondence so that we may fully address the subject matter. Information may also be collected automatically as you navigate our website.
Consent
Your provision of Information, as well as the use of the Practice’s website and services offered by our site, constitutes implied consent for the collection, use and disclosure of Information for all of the identified purposes. Your continued use of the Practice’s website and services offered by our site after we make changes indicates that you accept and consent to those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.
If at anytime you wish to withdraw your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Health Information (for the purposes listed below), please contact Dr. Devita Singh at info@lambethpsychology.ca
How is Information Used?
The Practice may use your Information for a purpose for which PHIPA or other applicable legislation permits or requires.
This includes, but is not limited to the following purposes:
1. To provide you with psychological services, which is the primary use of your Personal Health Information;
2. To develop and maintain our relationship with you and to communicate with you. For example, we may send you a responding email;
3. For risk management, error management, or for the purpose of activities to improve or maintain the quality of care, or to improve or maintain the quality of any related programs or services of the Practice;
4. For educating agents to provide health care;
5. If you indicated that you were interested in receiving information from the Practice, we may send you information about services that we feel may be of interest to you;
6. If we have reasonable grounds to believe the information could be useful when investigating a contravention of a federal, provincial, or foreign law, or in order to protect or defend a legal interest;
7. For compliance with the policies of College of Psychologists of Ontario. Psychologists are regulated by the College of Psychologists of Ontario. The College may inspect our records as part of their regulatory functions in protecting the public. The College has its own privacy obligations when completing this function; and
8. For any other purpose with your consent or required or permitted by law.
Disclosure of Personal Health Information
The Practice will not sell, license, trade or rent your Information to or with others. The Practice may disclose your Information where disclosure is permitted or required by PHIPA or other applicable legislation, including, but not limited to, the following circumstances:
1. Where you have specifically given the Practice your consent to disclose your Information for a designated purpose. Consent may be expressed in writing or be implied, may be given to us verbally, electronically, or through an authorized representative and may be withdrawn at any time;
2. To third parties who are acting on behalf of the Practice as service providers, solely to enable us to more efficiently provide you with the service you have requested from us;
3. As required for billing and accounts receivable purposes;
4. As required for insurance purposes and assistance programs;
5. To the College of Psychologists of Ontario for the purpose of quality assurance;
6. To contact a relative or friend or other potential substitute decision-maker of an individual who is injured, incapacitated or ill and unable to give consent personally;
7. To the Public Guardian and Trustee, a children’s aid society and the Children’s Lawyer for the purpose of carrying out their statutory function;
To determine or verify someone’s eligibility for publicly funded health care or related goods, services or benefits;
8. As required by law, including by an order of any court, institution or body with jurisdiction or authority to compel the production of information, or in order to protect or defend a legal interest; or
9. In connection with a corporate re-organization, merger or amalgamation with another entity, or a sale of all or a substantial portion of our assets provided that the Personal Health Information disclosed continues to be used for the purposes permitted by this Privacy Policy by the entity acquiring the information.
There are situations in which the Practice is permitted to disclose Personal Health Information without your consent. These circumstances include: when it is necessary to eliminate or reduce a significant risk of serious bodily harm to a person or group of persons, actual or suspected abuse or neglect of a child, harm or a risk for harm to a resident of a long-term care of retirement home, and sexual abuse by a regulated health professional. For further information on the applicable circumstances, please refer to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario’s website provided at the end of this policy.
Retention of Information
We retain your Information only for as long as is necessary, for the purpose for which it was collected and in accordance with applicable legislation and our regulatory College. We retain Information for a minimum of 10 years after the last contact to enable us to respond to any questions and provide our services. The College of Psychologists of Ontario and other regulatory bodies also requires us to retain our client records. For clients who are seen before the age of 18, records are retained for a minimum of 10 years following their 18th birthday.
Our Security Measures
We are committed to protecting the security of your Information. We have put in place physical, electronic, administrative, and contractual steps to protect the Information you provide to the Practice.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure.
Although we do our best to protect your Information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our website or via email. Any transmission of Information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the website.
We instruct our agents to only use Personal Health Information in adherence with the principles set forth in this Privacy Policy and the applicable laws and legislation.
Links
The Practice’s website may provide links to other third-party websites. While we try to link only to websites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, please understand that we are not responsible and disclaim any liability for the content of, or the privacy practices employed by, other organizations or websites. This Privacy Policy applies only to the services offered by the Practice at LambethPsychology.ca and you should refer to the third-party link’s privacy policy for more information.
Cookies
The Practice uses “cookies” to improve the quality of your visit to our website by providing you with personalized information and features. Cookies are a software technology that enables our systems to recognize your computer and collect non-personal information about you. This type of information may include: type of browser used to access the Internet, type of operating system (i.e. Windows XP, Macintosh), and the domain of your Internet Service Provider. Cookies are anonymous. The Practice does not know the name, e-mail address, telephone number, or home address of anyone who visits our site. The Practice does not sell or rent any information that we gather through the use of cookies.
It is the Practice’s intent to use cookies to make navigation of our website easier.
Access and Changes to your Personal Health Information
You can help us maintain the accuracy of your Personal Health Information, by notifying us of any changes to your Information. To update any of your Information, please contact Dr. Devita Singh at info@lambethpsychology.ca. If you believe that there is a mistake in the Information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual Information and not to any professional opinions that we may have formed.
With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see the Personal Health Information we hold about you. To access your health records, please contact Dr. Devita Singh at info@lambethpsychology.ca.
We may ask you to put your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within 30 days, if at all possible, and tell you the reason as to why we cannot give you access.
Updates to the Privacy Policy
The Practice reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time without notice.
The Privacy Policy on our website will reflect our current practices.
Questions or Concerns Regarding your Personal Health Information
If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about your privacy or our use of your Personal Health Information, you may contact Dr. Devita Singh at info@lambethpsychology.ca.
We will inform you of our complaint procedure and work towards resolving the situation. If a complaint is found to be justified, appropriate measures will be taken including, if necessary, amending our practices and procedures.
You are also entitled to make a complaint to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (contact information below).
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
1-800-387-0073
info@ipc.on.ca
www.ipc.on.ca/about-us
2 Bloor Street East,
Suite 1400
Toronto, ON M4W 1A8
For more information on your privacy rights, you may contact:
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
1-800-282-1376
www.priv.gc.ca/en/about-the-opc
30 Victoria Street
Gatineau, Quebec K1A 1H3