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Confidentiality

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Consultations between psychologists and clients are strictly confidential. All psychologists at our service adhere to the ethical standards of the Code of Professional Conduct as set by the Australian Psychological Society. This means that communication is private and safe-guarded and your psychologist is not able to provide any information to other persons unless you give them permission to do so. However, there are some exceptions to confidentiality and these relate primarily to psychologists' ethical obligations or "duty of care". It is considered unethical for psychologists to maintain confidentiality where it may result in significant harm to yourself, your child or others. Confidentiality may therefore be breached for the following reasons:

 

  • For the purpose of professional consultation with other practitioners legitimately concerned with you or your child's care.

  • If we have good reason to believe that you or your child may be at risk of seriously harming him / herself or another person or of being harmed by someone.

  • If you / your child are involved in a court case and your psychologist is required to give evidence.

 

These circumstances are in our experience unusual and infrequent. Your psychologist will make every effort to discuss this with you if she/he believes that it may be necessary to break confidentiality.

 

Protecting your privacy is important to Western Psychological Services. Our Privacy Policy endorses the Privacy Act 2000 and the Health Records Act 2001. It is necessary for us to collect certain personal information to better meet your needs and to manage our service to you.

 

We will:

 

  • Only use personal information provided by you for the purpose for which it was collected.

 

  • Psychologists keep records for a minimum of seven years since last client contact. In the case of records collected while the client was less than 18 years old, psychologists retain the records at least until the client attains the age of 25 years.

 

  • You have the right to access personal information WPS has about you at any time.

 

  • Your psychologist is likely to keep a record of your consultations with them. These records are confidential and are stored in a secure locked cabinet and/ or password protected computer files.

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