Introduction

This document describes the Privacy Policy of Mindstate Psychology Pty Ltd (“Mindstate Psychology”, “Mindstate”, “We”, “Us”, “Our”). Mindstate Psychology provides administrative, marketing and advertising, technological and property facilities and services (“Our Facilities”) to independent psychology businesses.

This policy also describes how Your personal and health information is handled by the independent psychologists (“Service Providers”, “Psychologists”) who use Our Facilities to provide psychological services, including clinical and forensic psychology, neurofeedback, threat assessment, professional development, and training.

Both Mindstate Psychology and the Service Providers need to collect your personal and health information to deliver these services, and both are bound by the legal requirements of the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

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Collection and Use of Information

Mindstate Psychology and the Service Providers collect personal information to provide our respective services. The information collected fits into one of three categories:

• Administrative Information – This information is collected, held and maintained by Mindstate Psychology, and enables us to provide Our services to the Psychologists using Our Facilities. It includes your name, address, contact details including mobile number for SMS appointment reminders, calendaring appointments, Medicare details, billing information, referring doctor, consent, and other administrative forms. It may include compliance information such as contacts with medical practitioners, lawyers, or insurance companies.
• ‍Clinical Records – This information is collected, held and maintained by the Psychologist that you see, in order to provide effective treatment and/or comprehensive assessment. It includes life details, family history, medical and psychological symptoms, personal concerns, legal issues, and other relevant issues for psychological assessment and treatment. It may include diagnoses and psychological test results.
• ‍Biometric Information – Mindstate Psychology uses optical surveillance devices (CCTV) in the public areas of the office to enhance the safety of our staff and clients. Your image may be recorded when you visit public areas of our practice, including the reception and waiting rooms. We do not record individual consulting rooms or other private areas. We also record phone calls with reception for safety and compliance purposes. All images and audio recordings are held and maintained by Mindstate Psychology.

There is an ethical obligation for psychologists to make and keep accurate notes about all consultations, and you cannot request information to be excluded from the practitioner's file. Given the nature of the psychological services provided, Mindstate Psychology and the Service Provider are also generally unable to interact with you anonymously or under a pseudonym, except in specific, limited circumstances.

If you do not wish for your personal information to be collected in a way anticipated by this Privacy Policy, Mindstate Psychology or the Psychologists using Our Facilities may not be able to provide services to you. Please speak to your Service Provider if you have any concerns.

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Storage of Information

The Psychologists work independently and are responsible for storing their own clients’ clinical information. Mindstate Psychology maintains administrative records. Both the Service Providers and Mindstate Psychology adhere to the Australian Psychological Society’s guidelines and the Australian Privacy Principles. Please speak to your Service Provider for specific concerns regarding the storage of your clinical information. Please contact Mindstate Psychology’s reception for issues regarding the maintenance of administrative records, including making any changes. Additionally, if a Service Provider leaves the practice, Mindstate Psychology will no longer have access to any clinical notes but will maintain the administrative record.

While you are entitled to withdraw your consent to engage with our services, we are legally required to maintain a copy of both your administrative record and case notes. Administrative and clinical records are retained in accordance with applicable Western Australian health records legislation and professional obligations and are securely destroyed once the applicable retention period has expired.

Computer systems used for administration and clinical record storage are based in Australia and are encrypted and protected by strict access controls. Computer systems used to facilitate communication and other administrative services, such as emails, telephone and payment processing, are based in either Australia or the United States of America. While these services may process your information outside of Australia, that information remains under the control of Mindstate Psychology. All systems that store this data are ISO 27001-certified and compliant with the Australian Privacy Principles. Your personal information will never be used, sold, rented, or disclosed for any purpose other than to provide our services in accordance with the consent gained, and clinical and administrative records are not disclosed to overseas or Australian recipients unless you consent or such disclosure is otherwise required by law.

Biometric information, including from optical surveillance devices and recordings of phone calls, is securely stored locally in Western Australia in an encrypted format and is subject to strict access controls. Images and audio recordings are not disclosed unless the client consents or such disclosure is required by law. Recordings are retained for up to 12 months before being securely deleted from our systems, unless an exemption applies, such as for police investigations or legal proceedings.

If unauthorised access, disclosure or loss of a client’s personal information occurs, Mindstate Psychology will activate our cyber incident response plan and use all reasonable endeavours to minimise any risk of consequential harm. If there is a risk of consequential harm, Mindstate will notify you in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme (Part IIIC of the Privacy Act).

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Disclosure of Information

To provide our services, Mindstate Psychology may be required to disclose personal information to third parties. Disclosure may include, but is not limited to:

• Your Psychologist (Service Provider) – As part of delivering your treatment, Mindstate Psychology provides your Psychologist with relevant administrative information (such as contact details and billing information)
• Referring Doctor – Your Psychologist may release information to your referring doctor to assist in continuing treatment of problems and for Medicare rebate requirements.
• Insurance Company - Your Psychologist or Mindstate Psychology may release information, with your consent, to enable an Insurer to make decisions about their liability, funding, or appropriateness of treatment.
• Court - On subpoena, all relevant psychological and/or administrative information must be provided to the Court.
• Solicitor - To provide reports where requested (see Court Proceedings section below).
• Church, Agency, Employer, or other Referrer - When a third party has referred you, your Service Provider may provide them with feedback about how the treatment is going. This would be for funding purposes or to enable the organisation to assist you further.
• Other individuals - With your permission, your Service Provider may disclose information to others who can help you. These might include emergency services in crisis situations, or family members, doctors, schools, or employers.
• Mindstate Psychology may release administrative information for debt collection, Medicare Audits, insurance purposes, and related tasks. Only the minimum required information will be disclosed when released for these purposes.
• Clinical or administrative information may be released to AHPRA for compliance and investigations.

Service Providers may, from time to time, discuss select de-identified cases as part of professional supervision and/or internally with senior psychologists to ensure that they continue to provide competent and high-quality psychological services. All case discussions are conducted in accordance with ethical principles, and cases are presented in a de-identified manner to protect your privacy. You have the right to opt out of having your case discussed in this context by providing written notice to your practitioner. The right to opt out does not apply where case review is a mandatory part of service provision (in accordance with the terms of appointment for the specified service) or when a formal complaint has been made (e.g., to Mindstate Psychology, your Service Provider, or to AHPRA) and where a case review is a necessary part of the complaint management and quality assurance process.

Please be aware that the general principles of privacy can be waived if failure to disclose information places yourself or another person at risk. In other words, if you are deemed a risk of suicide or harming another, your Service Provider is required to disclose information in order to manage that situation.

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Court Proceedings (not general therapy)

In the case of legal proceedings, Mindstate Psychology or your Service Provider may be required to disclose personal or health information to the Court, your lawyer, or an insurer participating in the proceedings.

If you have a legal representative acting for you and that person seeks information about you, Mindstate Psychology and your Service Provider will not release that information without your written authorisation.

Where possible, Mindstate Psychology and your Service Provider will endeavour to advise you about the possibility of disclosing personal or health information to a Court.

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Requesting Access to your Personal Information

Any request to access your clinical or administrative records must be made in writing to Mindstate Psychology, using our Personal Information Request Form. You may be required to provide proof of identity and your entitlement to access the records requested. A fee (including for photocopying) may apply. Please ask for details when you make your request, as you will be solely liable for any associated costs.

Where the client is a minor, a parent or guardian may request access to that minor's records. Mindstate Psychology or the Service Provider may refuse or limit that access where release would not be in the best interests of the minor, where the minor has the capacity to consent to their own treatment and does not agree to the disclosure, or where access is otherwise not appropriate in the circumstances.

Mindstate Psychology or the Service Provider may otherwise refuse access to your personal information. For example, where release could cause an unreasonable impact on you or another person, or where the information is not personally identifiable and cannot be linked to your file (such as anonymised feedback or website analytics data). Access may also be limited where your information was used for a forensic assessment or Court report, as some Courts and other organisations prohibit disclosure without their permission. In most cases, forensic assessments or reports cannot be provided to you directly.

Your clinical file remains the property of the Service Provider, and your administrative record remains the property of Mindstate Psychology. Any access granted is to a copy only, not the original file. If a Service Provider no longer uses Our Facilities, Mindstate Psychology will retain the administrative record but will no longer have access to that Provider's clinical notes.

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Website and Social Media Analytics

Mindstate Psychology may collect anonymised, aggregated data when you access or interact with websites, social media pages, marketing campaigns or other digital services we own and operate, including web pages we operate on behalf of the Service Providers using Our Facilities.

This includes data such as the number of visitors or clicks, search terms, how long a page was viewed, the visitor's region and country, and the type of device. This does not include personal or individually identifiable information, such as IP addresses, specific locations (suburbs or addresses), names, or email addresses.

This data is collected through Google Analytics (on our website or Google Ads) and Meta Business Suite (when interacting with Facebook or Instagram pages or ads). This data may be collected through cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies.

Mindstate Psychology only uses this data to understand how individuals:

• access and use our digital services in order to improve them.
• interact with digital marketing campaigns in order to improve them.

If you do not wish to have your data collected through Google Analytics, Google provides an opt-out browser add-on here.

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SMS Messages

Mindstate Psychology uses SMS messaging to communicate with clients, primarily to remind them of upcoming appointments. When you become a client with a Service Provider using Our Facilities, your mobile number is added to your administrative file, and you will receive SMS reminders automatically. We do not use your phone number for commercial marketing purposes, and it is never disclosed to any other party.

If you do not wish to receive automated appointment reminders via SMS, please contact our reception team in writing, and they will update your profileMindstate Psychology recognises that psychologists handle personal and sensitive information. We, and the Service Providers using Our Facilities, are committed to keeping this information protected and secure in an increasingly AI-powered world. AI supports our reception team and Service Providers in different ways.

Service Providers may use AI tools for several functions, including transcribing sessions in real-time, dictating referral letters, or summarising or enhancing existing session notes. Not all Service Providers use these tools. If they are to be used, your Service Providers will discuss this with you directly and allow you to share your concerns and ask any questions. You have the right to request that your practitioner not use these tools.

Our reception team uses AI to transcribe voicemail recordings and summarise phone calls. Mindstate Psychology has data processing and business associate agreements with the companies involved to protect and secure your information. We do not permit the data we control to be used to train AI models or otherwise disclosed or retained by any AI system or model.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Mindstate Psychology recognises that psychologists handle personal and sensitive information. We, and the Service Providers using Our Facilities, are committed to keeping this information protected and secure in an increasingly AI-powered world. AI supports our reception team and Service Providers in different ways.

Service Providers may use AI tools for several functions, including transcribing sessions in real-time, dictating referral letters, or summarising or enhancing existing session notes. Not all Service Providers use these tools. If they are to be used, your Service Providers will discuss this with you directly and allow you to share your concerns and ask any questions. You have the right to request that your practitioner not use these tools.

Our reception team uses AI to transcribe voicemail recordings and summarise phone calls. Mindstate Psychology has data processing and business associate agreements with the companies involved to protect and secure your information. We do not permit the data we control to be used to train AI models or otherwise disclosed or retained by any AI system or model.

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Making a Complaint

If you are not satisfied with how Mindstate Psychology or your Service Provider has dealt with your personal information, you may wish to lodge a formal complaint about the use of, disclosure of, or access to your personal information. We require that any complaint be made in writing to the Director of Mindstate Psychology and the Service Provider. We will determine who needs to address the issue and respond to your complaint within 30 days.

If our response is not satisfactory, you may wish to further your complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. This can be done by phone on 1300 363 992, online at https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints or by post to: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, GPO Box 5218, Sydney, NSW 2001.

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Changes to the Policy

Mindstate Psychology reserves the right to update this policy periodically, and without prior notice to you, to reflect changes either within our practice or in accordance with relevant laws. Any changes to the policy will take effect upon publication of the updated version on our website. Continuing to access Mindstate Psychology’s facilities, including through the Service Providers using Our Facilities or otherwise engaging with Mindstate Psychology after an updated version of this policy is published, constitutes acceptance of the revised policy. Mindstate Psychology will endeavour to provide notice about any significant changes to the policy.

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Further Information

The protection of personal and health information is a priority for Mindstate Psychology. If you have any questions about Mindstate Psychology’s privacy policy, please contact us via email or another form of written communication. Should you wish to access additional copies of this privacy policy, it is available on our website here. If you require a copy of this policy in an alternative form, please contact reception.

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Contacting Mindstate Psychology

Mindstate Psychology can be contacted by:

• Calling: +61 8 9450 1618
• Sending an e-mail: info@mindstatepsychology.com.au
• Sending a letter to: PO Box 393, South Perth 6951

The most up to date contact details are available on the Mindstate Psychology website Contact Page. All complaints and requests for access must be submitted in writing.