As part of providing a psychological service to you, The May Clinic needs to collect and record personal information from you that is relevant to your situation, such as your name, contact information, medical history and other relevant information as part of providing psychological services to you. This collection of personal information will be a necessary part of the psychological assessment and treatment that is conducted. and holding information

Your personal information is gathered as part of your assessment and treatment, is kept securely and, in the interests of your privacy, used only by your psychologist and the authorised personnel of the practice (as necessary). Your personal information is retained in order to document what happens during sessions and enables The May Clinic to provide a relevant and informed psychological service to you. A more detailed description is provided in the “Privacy policy for management of personal information”, which can be obtained by contacting The May Clinic.

If you do not wish for your personal information to be collected in a way anticipated by this letter or the Privacy Policy, The May Clinic may not be in a position to provide the psychological service to you. You may request to be anonymous or to use a pseudonym, unless it is impracticable for The May Clinic to deal with you or if The May Clinic is required or authorised by law to deal with identified individuals. In most cases it will not be possible for you to be anonymous or to use a pseudonym

At any stage you are entitled to access your personal information kept on file, subject to exceptions in the relevant legislation. Your psychologist may discuss with you different possible forms of access. Your psychologist reserves the right to provide a summary of your clinic notes.

All personal information gathered by the psychologist during the provision of the psychological service will remain confidential except when:

1. it is subpoenaed by a court, or disclosure is otherwise required or authorised by law; or
2. failure to disclose the information would in the reasonable belief of the Janis Ritchie, place you or another person at serious risk to life, health or safety; or
3. your prior approval has been obtained to
   a) provide a written report to another professional or agency. e.g., a GP, a third-party payer or a lawyer; or b) discuss the material with another person, eg. a parent, employer, health provider or third party funder; or c) disclose the information in another way; or d) disclose to another professional or agency (e.g. your GP) and disclosure of your personal information to that third party is for a purpose which is directly related to the primary purpose for which your personal information was collected.

Your personal information is not disclosed to overseas recipients, unless you consent, or such disclosure is otherwise required by law. Your personal information will not be used, sold, rented or disclosed for any other purpose. In the event that unauthorised access, disclosure or loss of a client’s personal information occurs, The May Clinic will activate a data breach plan and use all reasonable endeavours to minimise any risk of consequential serious harm.

*Please note: If, after reading this document you are at all unclear about any of the information provided, please discuss this with the psychologist prior to your appointment.