Lacuna Clinical Psychology is committed to the open and transparent management of personal information. We have adopted the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act). The APPs govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your personal information. 

A copy of the Australian Privacy Principles is available from the website of The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.aoic.gov.au.

Personal information is information that identifies you including your name, address, phone number or other information of a personal nature gathered during your assessment or treatment. It is collected in order to provide a psychological service to you and in order to document what has occurred during your sessions, which is required to enable your psychologist to provide relevant and informed psychological services to you. Adequate sessions notes are required as per the Australian Psychological Society (APS) Code of Ethics and we must retain your information for a minimum of 7 years following your service or until the age of 25 years of age if you are under the age of 18. 

If you would like to access your personal information, seek correction of any incorrect personal information that we retain or lodge a complaint about how we have handled your personal information you can make this request to us in person, by telephone on (02) 4003 4804, or by e-mail at reception@lacunapsychology.com.au. 

If you do not believe we have adequately addressed a complaint related to your privacy and our handling of your personal information you can lodge a complaint in writing with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). For more information visit their website at www.oaic.gov.au.

At any stage you are entitled to access your personal information kept on file, subject to exceptions in the relevant legislation. 

We will keep your personal information confidential with these exceptions: 

1. Your information may be subpoenaed by a court, or may require disclosure due to some other reason required or authorised by law. 

2. If there is a reasonable belief that you or another person is at serious risk to life, health or safety. 

3. If you provide prior approval to: a) provide a written report to another professional or agency (e.g. a GP or lawyer); b) discuss the material with another person (e.g. a parent or employer); c) disclose the information in any other way; or d) disclose to another profession or agency (e.g. your GP, Bupa, NDIS) 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 required by law. Your personal information will be not used, sold, rented or disclosed for any other purpose. 

In the event that unauthorised access, disclosure or loss of a client’s personal information, Lacuna Clinical Psychology will follow all legal requirements and take all reasonable steps to minimise the risk of harm that could result from such a breach. 

Lacuna Clinical Psychology may not be able to provide a psychological service to you if you wish to remain anonymous. Individuals have the right to be anonymous in any particular matter with us where we are not otherwise required by law to deal only with identified persons or it is not not impractical to manage the matter without an individual identifying themself. 

Where reasonable to do so we will only collect personal information from you and only from third parties with your permission. In some circumstances third parties may provide us with unsolicited personal information about you (e.g. from a GP, partner, case manager). We will endeavour to inform you about our receipt of this personal information.