Employees of Essential Care will sign this confidentiality agreement on commencement of employment. Confidentiality means that you must not share any information about clients/participants and/or team members without first gaining the clients/participant/team members permission.

It is important to maintain confidentiality and never share unnecessary information about a client/participant or other team members with other workers or anyone else.

For example:

• Do not discuss a client’s/participant/team member over meal breaks or outside the workplace

• Do not speak disrespectfully about a client’s/participant/team member

• Do not disclose information to someone who rings to enquire about a client’s/participant/team members

• Do not provide personal client/participant information to other care workers who are not involved in the clients/participants service provision

• Do not Leave a client/participant care plan lying around for people to see/read Confidentiality is a legal requirement that means access to a client’s/participant/team members personal information is restricted to authorised people only.

This applies to both written and verbal information. People have a right to expect their personal and health information remains private and secure.

Essential Care collects and administers a range of personal information for the purposes of service provision.

Essential Care is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information it collects, holds and administers.

Essential Care recognises the right of individuals to have their information administered in ways which they would reasonably expect – protected on one hand, and made accessible to them on the other.

Essential Care is bound by Privacy Laws, the Information Privacy  Act 2014, and theHealth Records Act 2002, as well as other laws, which impose specific obligations when it comes to handling information.

Essential Care has adopted the respective Privacy Principles as minimum standards in relation to handling personal information.

This means that we:

• Only collect the information which we require for our primary function

• Ensure clients/participants are informed of the reason why we collect the information

• Use and disclose personal information only for the provision of service or as directed by the clients/participant/team members

• Store personal information securely, protecting it from unauthorised access

• Provide clients/participants with access to their own information, and the right to seek its correction.

In relation to the Health Records Act 2002, Essential Care must retain health information relating to an individual as follows:

• In the case of health information collected while the individual is an adult- for 7 years from the last occasion on which a health service was provided to the individual by the health service provider,

• In the case of health information collected while the individual was under the age of 18 years – until the individual has attained the age of 25 years.

Essential Care will adhere to the Procedures outlined below.

Collection

Essential Care will:

• Only collect information that is necessary for our performance and primary function

• Notify clients/participants about why we collect the information and how it is administered.

• Notify clients/participants that this information is accessible to them.

Use and Disclosure

Essential Care will:

• Only use or disclose information for the primary purpose for which it was collected

• For other uses we will obtain consent from the consumer.

Data Quality

Essential Care will:

• Take reasonable steps to ensure the information we collect is accurate,

complete, up-to-date, and relevant to the functions we perform

Data Security and Retention

Essential Care will:

• Safeguard the information we collect and store against misuse, loss, unauthorised access and modification.

Openness

Essential Care will:

• Ensure clients/participants are aware of Essential Care’s Privacy Policy and

its purposes.

• Make this information freely available if relevant.

Access and Correction

Essential Care will:

• Ensure individuals have a right to seek access to information held about them and to correct it if it is inaccurate, incomplete, misleading or not up-to-date.

Anonymity

Essential Care will:

• Give clients/participants & stakeholders the option of not identifying themselves when completing evaluation forms or opinion surveys.

Making information available to other service providers

Essential Care:

Can only release personal information about a person with that person’s expressed permission. For personal information to be released, the person concerned must sign a release form.

Essential Care can release information to third parties where it is requested by the person concerned.

Essential Care will release personal information to a third party if the person is unable to express permission due to illness, unconsciousness etc in order to gain medical assistance.

Archiving of information

All information collected will be kept for the specified time periods pertaining to the ACT in which they are relative to. All archived information will be stored in safe location at all times.

To contact our team regarding any Privacy concerns:

Contact: Shelley Shannon

Email: [email protected]