YSAS Privacy Statement
This information has been prepared for young people and their parents or guardian.
Your privacy is important to YSAS – we respect and protect people’s privacy. YSAS collects and uses personal information as a health service provider, and as an employer. We recognise your right to have your information used and managed in ways which you would reasonably expect – protected on one hand and made accessible to you on the other.
We make sure that your information is handled according to YSAS policies and procedures and all privacy and information security legislation which set standards for the collection, access, storage and use of the information we obtain as part of our normal operations.
What information do we collect about you?
YSAS collects the following personal information about you:
• Medical information,
• Personal details, such as name, address, age, admission and discharge dates, billing information and Medicare information,
• Notes and opinions about your health and treatment progress, and
• Any relevant information you may provide us throughout your time with YSAS.
Why do we collect your information?
We collect this information so you can access YSAS and be provided with support and assistance, for use in research and planning to help YSAS provide a better service, to obtain funding and report to our funders, management, monitoring, improvement or evaluation of services, compilation or analysis of statistics in the public interest, or legal proceedings.
We update your information each time you visit. Complete and accurate information is important for YSAS to be able to provide you with the best possible support, care, and/or treatment.
YSAS staff will only collect information that is necessary for us to do our job and provide the best service possible.
Who else sees your information?
Your information will only be seen by the professionals in this service who are involved with your care and with service improvement. We need your consent to provide your information to other services except when we are required by law, such as in a medical emergency, court proceedings, or if there is a serious threat to your health and well-being or that of someone else or to public health and safety. We will talk to you if we must do this, if it is safe to do so.
What say do you have in what happens to your information?
You have a say in what happens to your information. We rely on the information you give us to help provide the right care for you. If you decide not to share some of your information or restrict access to your client record, this is your right, but it may affect our ability to provide you with the best possible services. Talk to us if you wish to change or cancel your consent.
Can you access your information?
You have a right to request access to your information and to ask for it to be corrected if necessary. Contact YSAS Privacy Officer at privacy@ysas.org.au or 9415 8881 and we will send you a request form to fill out and sign. We will contact you to confirm your identity and request. We will provide you with the information within 30 days. There may be some instances where we will not be able to give you the information you have requested. We will need to give you our reasons in writing.
How will your information be protected?
We are committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information. The privacy of your information is also protected by law. We treat your information in the strictest confidence and store it securely. We take all reasonable steps to protect your information from unauthorised access, interference, loss, misuse, or changes, and we destroy, delete or de-identify this information when it’s no longer required for the purpose that we collected it.
Can YSAS contact you in the future?
YSAS may need to contact you in the future for a number of reasons: follow up to evaluate and improve our services and support; research to advocate with the government for improved services; anniversaries and other celebrations; community education and awareness raising activities; or fund raising opportunities. YSAS will seek your consent to do this while you are with the service, and you will be able to opt out at any time.
What do you need to know as a parent/guardian?
The Health Records Act 2001 (Vic), the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 (Cth), and the Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic) safeguard the privacy rights of children and young people.
Children have the right to privacy of their health information and to make their own decisions regarding their privacy where they are competent to do so. As a parent or guardian, you do not have automatic access to all health information relating to a child in your care.
In assessing a child’s capacity, age is relevant but not necessarily decisive. Privacy laws adopt the common law test referred to as the Gillick test, which asks the question: does this child have the intelligence and maturity to understand the nature and effect of the proposed decision?
YSAS considers that a young person under the age of 18 years can give informed consent when they demonstrate a sufficient understanding and maturity to fully understand what is proposed. YSAS workers consider the capacity of young people under the age of 18 on an individual basis, safeguarding the privacy rights of young people in our care, particularly when using, disclosing, or providing access to a young person’s health information. YSAS’ Youth Support Service obtains parental consent for young people under 13 years.
YSAS workers encourage parental involvement in a young person’s support and/or treatment whilst recognising that adolescent health care increasingly involves young people’s growing autonomy.
Where parents are providing consent about the use, disclosure and access to the health information of their child, the following information will be explained to them and the young person concerned prior to giving consent:
• Their / their child’s rights and responsibilities,
• What the program does with client information and how their / their child’s privacy will be protected,
• Limits to confidentiality, and
• What to do if they have a complaint about or need to give feedback to the program.
Under current law both parents have equal rights to a child who is a minor, unless the right has legally been removed from one parent. If we are unsure whether there are orders against one parent we may contact the Family Court for assistance.
A parent’s right to make decisions about their child’s health information ceases once the child is 18, when the child becomes legally entitled to make their own decisions, or earlier if the young person has the capacity to give informed consent.
A child’s consent may be overridden by a court order on the basis of the ‘child’s best interests’.
For further information regarding YSAS procedure when working with statutory clients, please contact YSAS Privacy Officer.
What if you want to make a complaint?
If at any time you have a question about the way your information is being managed, or you have a complaint in relation to privacy of your information, please contact your worker or the YSAS Privacy Officer at privacy@ysas.org.au or 9415 8881 or submit it through the feedback section at www.ysas.org.au/feedback-and-complaints
You may also contact the Health Services Commissioner, Toll Free: 1800 136 066; or the Commissioner for Children and Young People, Toll Free 1300 78 29 78.
Updating our Privacy Policy
We review our policies regularly so from time to time we may revise our Privacy Policy. The current version will be posted onto our website.
Want to know more?
If you would like a full copy of our Privacy Policy or you have questions, contact YSAS Privacy Officer on (03) 9415 8881 or email at privacy@ysas.org.au
About the privacy of this website
By using this website, you consent to our Privacy Policy.
Collection of your personal information
The personal information we collect through this website may include:
• Content of any forms you fill out and submit which could contain your name, email address, and/or phone number, feedback, suggestions for improvement, complaints,
• Any messages or comments you send to us through this website or to email addresses displayed on this website, and
• When you apply for a job with us.
Email addresses provided through this website will only be used to reply to your questions, and will not be added to any mailing lists, or given to anyone else without your consent, unless we are required by law.
Web statistics data collection
Pages on the site may be coded with Google Analytics software. This does not identify you personally. We do not and will not marry any data collected by Google Analytics with any personal information.
Clickstream data
This website’s web server automatically records non-personal clickstream data. To the extent that any clickstream data could make you identifiable, we will not attempt to identify you unless required by law or to investigate suspected improper activity in relation to the website.
The following clickstream data are automatically recorded by this website’s web server for statistical and system administration purposes only:
• Your IP address,
• Your domain name, like gmail.com or another website,
• The date and the time of your visit to the site,
• The pages you accessed and files downloaded,
• The address of the last site you visited,
• Your operating system, and
• The type of browser you are using.
Cookies
Like many sites, this website may use cookies from time to time. Cookies are small data files that a website can place on a user’s hard drive to record information about your usage, the time of your visit, how long you visited for, the pages you visited and style settings. In this way, cookies can improve the operation of the website, and make your experience more efficient, more enjoyable or more personalised. Importantly, in putting information on a user’s computer and referring to it later in the same session or on another visit, cookies do not identify you individually or record any personal information.
The default settings of browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari may allow some or all cookies, but users can easily take steps to erase cookies from their hard-drive, block all cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. However, some parts of sites may not function fully for users that disallow cookies.
Security
Every endeavour is made to ensure that this site is secure. However, you should be aware that the World Wide Web is an insecure public network that gives rise to a potential risk that your transactions are being viewed, intercepted or modified by third parties or that files which you downloads may contain computer viruses or other defects. We take additional steps to protect the security of your personal information, such as strong 128-bit SSL encryption.
Once we receive your personal information, we take reasonable steps to protect that information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. If you are concerned about sending sensitive information to us over the internet, you could contact us by phone or mail.
Direct marketing
Any personal information collected through this website will not be added to a mailing list without your consent.
Links to external websites
This Website Privacy statement does not extend beyond this website. When following links to other websites, we recommend that you read the privacy statement of that site to familiarise yourself with how it manages your privacy.