Privacy of personal information is an important principle to Power Up Minds. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the goods and services we provide. We also try to be open and transparent as to how we handle personal information. This document describes our privacy policies.

WHAT IS PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION?

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual.  Personal information includes information that relates to: an individual’s personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income, home address or phone number, ethnic background, family status); health (e.g., health history, health conditions, health services received by them); or activities and views (e.g., religion, politics, opinions expressed by an individual, an opinion or evaluation of an individual). Personal information is different from business information (e.g., an individual’s business address and telephone number).   Business information is not protected by privacy legislation.

WHO WE ARE

Power Up Minds, at the time of writing, includes one Psychologist and administrative support staff.  At times, Power Up Minds may also work with other individuals and agencies that may, in the course of their duties, have limited access to personal information we hold. Others with whom we may work include bookkeepers and accountants, technical support staff, credit card companies, website managers, private practice consultants, lawyers, cleaners, and insurance providers. We only provide the information necessary to them in order to complete their respective roles and restrict their access to any personal information as much as is reasonably possible. We also have their assurance that they follow appropriate privacy principles. Any individual who realizes that they know a client personally is expected to disclose their relationship and as such, not access that client’s personal information unless there is an emergency or unless the client has given express consent for access.

COLLECTION, USE, AND DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

About Clients

Similar to all psychologists, we collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve our clients. We collect personal information directly from the client unless he/she/they have provided consent for us to obtain such information from others (e.g. previous care providers, parents/guardians). It would be rare for us to collect such information without the client’s express consent, but this might occur if the client is deemed incapable of providing consent, in an emergency (e.g., the client is unconscious), or where we believe the client would consent if asked and it is impractical to obtain consent (e.g., a family member passing a message on from our client and we have no reason to believe that the message is not genuine).

We collect only information about the client that we believe is needed: a) to provide the client with the services requested or that they have been referred for; b) to maintain contact with the client for service-related or future consent purposes; c) to prevent or offset harm (e.g., asking for an emergency contact).

For our clients, the primary purpose for collecting and using personal information is to provide psychological services (e.g., diagnostic assessment) or psychotherapy. For example, we collect information about our clients’ health history, including their family history, mental health, daily functioning, and social situation in order to help us assess what their health needs are, to advise them of their options and then to provide the health care they choose to have. A second primary purpose is to obtain a baseline of health and social information so that in providing ongoing health services we can identify changes that occur over time. It would be rare for us to collect such information without the client’s express consent, but this might occur in an emergency or where we believe the client would consent if asked and it is impractical to obtain consent (e.g., a family member passing a message on from our client and we have no reason to believe that the message is not genuine). Further, we collect and use personal information to carry out all of the functions reasonably necessary to provide those services (e.g. scheduling; service planning, monitoring, and evaluation; maintaining your record, billing). If we wish to collect information for other purposes (e.g., for research purposes), the reason will be explained to you and it will be collected only if you consent.

By law and in accordance with professional standards, we are required to keep a record of our services to and contacts with you. Your record includes information you provide to us or authorize us to receive, results of any assessments, your service plan, consent forms, contact notes, progress summaries, billing information, and correspondence that we have sent or received related to your service. The physical records are the property of Power Up Minds. However, you have rights regarding access to your record and regarding disclosure of information from your record (see below), regardless of the form in which the information is recorded.

With respect to the disclosure of personal information, our practice operates in a team-based model. This means that we may consult with one another about our clients or potential referrals (e.g., sibling of a client) to facilitate the provision of quality care. Identifying information will not be used during consultations, without your express consent. Sharing your personal information with others outside of our practice (e.g., family doctor, parents, school) typically only occurs with the client’s knowledge and consent, and would be to coordinate care or to advocate for additional supports (e.g., school accommodations, parent-based intervention), although there are some exceptions. The exceptions include: if there is significant risk of harm to self or others, if there are child welfare concerns, such as abuse or neglect; if the client goes missing and police feel that client records may be helpful in finding the client, if reports are made about the abuse of neglect of someone in a long-term care facility or retirement home, if reports are made about sexual misconduct by another registered health professional (e.g., dentist, massage therapist), if a judge requests client records, and if your records are selected for audit by the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario as part of their quality assurance program.  

The above exceptions are referred to as the “limits of confidentiality.” If other limits of confidentiality apply to your situation or arise, they will be discussed with you.

When consenting to the disclosure of your personal health information, you may restrict us from sharing all or any part of your personal information. However, if in our opinion the information is reasonably necessary for another health service provider to provide appropriate service, we have to inform the other provider that you have refused consent to provide some needed information.

About Members of the General Public

Our primary purposes for collecting personal information from the members of the general public are to provide notice of special events (e.g., a workshop) or to make individuals aware of psychological services in general or our clinic in particular. On our website we only collect, with the exception of cookies, the personal information you provide and only use that information for the purpose you gave it to us (e.g., to respond to your email message, to register for a workshop, to be notified of future events). We will upon request immediately remove any personal information from our distribution list. Cookies are only used to help you navigate our website and are not used to monitor you.

About Contract Staff, Volunteers and Students

For people who are contracted to do work for us, our primary purpose for collecting personal information is to ensure we can contact them in the future (e.g., for new assignments) and for necessary work-related communication (e.g., sending out pay cheques, addressing client inquiries). Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include home addresses and telephone numbers. It is rare for us to collect such information without prior consent, but it might happen in the case of a health emergency (e.g., an outbreak) or to investigate a possible breach of law. If contract staff, volunteers or students request a letter of reference or an evaluation, we will collect information about their work-related performance and provide a report as authorized by them.

WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION: RELATED AND SECONDARY PURPOSES

Like most organizations, we also collect, use and disclose information for purposes related to or secondary to our primary purposes. The most common examples of our related and secondary purposes are as follows:

·       To invoice clients for goods or services that were not paid for at the time, to process credit card payments or to collect unpaid accounts.

·       To advise clients that their product or service should be reviewed (e.g., to ensure a product is still functioning properly and appropriate for their then current needs and to consider modifications or replacement).

·       To advise clients and others of special events or opportunities (e.g., a seminar, development of a new service) that we have available.

·       The cost of some goods/services provided by the organization to clients is paid for by third parties (e.g., private insurance). These third-party payers often have your consent or legislative authority to direct us to collect and disclose to them certain information in order to demonstrate client entitlement to this funding.

·       Our clinic reviews client files for the purpose of ensuring that we provide high quality services, including assessing the performance of our staff. In addition, external consultants (e.g., auditors, lawyers, practice consultants, voluntary accreditation programs) may on our behalf do audits and continuing quality improvement reviews of our Clinic, including reviewing client files and interviewing our staff.

·       Psychologists are regulated by the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario who may inspect our records and interview our staff as a part of their regulatory activities in the public interest. In addition, like all organizations, various government agencies (e.g., Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Information and Privacy Commissioner, Human Rights Commission, etc.) have the authority to review our files and interview our staff as a part of their mandates. In these circumstances, we may consult with professionals (e.g., lawyers, accountants) who will investigate the matter and report back to us.

·       If Power Up Minds or its assets were to be sold, the purchaser would want to conduct a “due diligence” review of Power Up Minds records to ensure that it is a viable business that has been honestly portrayed to the purchaser. This due diligence may involve some review of our accounting and service The purchaser would not be able to remove or record personal information. Before being provided access to the files, the purchaser must provide a written promise to keep all personal information confidential. Only reputable purchasers who have already agreed to buy the organization’s business or its assets would be provided access to personal information, and only for the purpose of completing their due diligence search prior to closing the purchase.

You can choose not to be part of some of these related or secondary purposes (e.g., by declining to receive notice of special events or opportunities, by paying for your services in advance). We do not, however, have much choice about some of these related or secondary purposes (e.g., external regulation). 

PROTECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION

We understand the importance of protecting personal information, and are committed to protect the security of your personal information. We have put in place reasonable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use your personal information.

Your personal information may be stored on our database servers or hosted by third parties who adhere to relevant legislature (e.g., PHIPA). At this time, our practice makes use of Jane, a secure, web-based practice management system to store and manage our client records. This includes information such as client appointments, billing documents, session notes, contact details, and other client-related information and documents. The system we use is encrypted, has servers exclusively located in Canada and access to the system is granted only on an as-needed basis and governed by our strict confidentiality policy. Additionally, all practice data in the system is routinely backed up to ensure the privacy and protection of sensitive client information and to assist us with PHIPA compliance.

Your provider at the Power Up Minds may also temporarily store your personal information outside of Jane or whatever server/practice management system we are using at the time. For example, your provider may take handwritten notes that they keep in a locked area until those notes can be typed and then shredded.

Although we will make reasonable efforts to protect personal information from loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk that an unauthorized third party could find a way to thwart our security systems.

In addition to selecting a secure electronic platform (i.e., Jane), we have taken many steps to protect your personal information, including:

·       Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area.

·       Electronic hardware is either under supervision or secured in a locked or restricted area at all times. In addition, passwords and/or encryption are used on computers, phones, tablets, and external hard drives.

·       Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by reputable couriers or Canada Post.

·       Electronic information is transmitted either through a direct line or has identifiers removed or is password protected.

·       Individuals working with Power Up Minds are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with this privacy policy.

·       We require any external consultants and agencies with access to personal information to enter into privacy agreements with Power Up Minds.

·       Only secure video platforms are used (e.g., Zoom Healthcare; Jane)

RETENTION AND DESTRUCTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary, for the purpose for which it was collected, in accordance with the ethics and standards of The College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario. We are required to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for our accountability to our external regulatory bodies.

We retain our client information for a minimum of ten years after the last contact to enable us to respond to those questions and provide our services. For clients who are seen before the age of 18, records are retained for ten years following their 18th birthday.  Our client and contact directories are much more difficult to systematically destroy, so we remove such information when we can if it does not appear that we will be contacting you again. However, if you ask, we will remove such contact information right away. We keep any personal information relating to our general correspondence (i.e., with people who are not clients) newsletters, seminars and marketing activities for about six months after the newsletter ceases publication or a seminar or marketing activity is over.

The clinic is responsible for your records. If your provider were to become incapacitated or die prior to the end of the retention period for your file, your records would be placed in the care of another regulated health professional for protection, not examination. If you were to see another regulated health care professional (e.g., psychologist), your records could be sent to him/her/them at your request.

We destroy electronic information by deleting it and, when the hardware is replaced or discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed. Personal information that is not part of the permanent clinical file is shredded or otherwise destroyed or de-identified.

We retain any personal information relating to our general correspondence (e.g., newsletters, workshops, and marketing activities) with people who are not clients for about 12 months after a seminar or marketing activity is over.

YOUR RIGHT OF ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

With only a few exceptions, you have the right to access any record of your personal health information, and to request copies of the information. If the physical record contains information about another individual, that individual’s information must be able to be severed from the record before you may access that record. Other exceptions include access to raw data from psychological assessments, information provided in confidence by a third party, and information that could result in serious harm to someone’s treatment or recovery, or in serious bodily harm to someone.

We may ask you to put your request in writing. We may also need to confirm your identity, if you have not received service for some time, before providing you with this access. We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests, including the cost of retrieving your file from storage and separating out your information from those of other affected parties. If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within 14 days, if at all possible, and tell you the reason as to why we cannot give you access.

If you believe that there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information and not to any professional opinions that we may have formed. We may ask you to provide documentation that our records are wrong. Where we agree that we made a mistake, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not agree that we have made a mistake, we will still agree to include in our file a brief statement from you, and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.

Note: If you are the custodial parent or guardian of a child receiving service, you may not access - without that child’s consent - the personal health information of a child who was deemed competent and who consented to the service on his/her own.

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION?

Please do not hesitate to contact our information officer, Dr. Tajinder Uppal Dhariwal, if you have any questions regarding the Power Up Minds privacy policy or procedures.

Dr. Tajinder Uppal Dhariwal

50 Burnhamthorpe Rd W, Unit 86, Box 524 Mississauga ON L5B 3C2

Phone: (905) 364-8604

If you wish to make a formal complaint about our privacy practices, you may make it in writing to our Information Officer. They will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, ensure that it is investigated promptly and that you are provided with a formal written decision with reasons.

If you have a concern about the professionalism or competence of our services or the mental or physical capacity of any of our professional staff we would ask you to discuss those concerns with us. However, if we cannot satisfy your concerns, you are entitled to contact the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario:

College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario

110 Eglinton Ave W, Suite 500 Toronto, Ontario M4R 1A3

Phone: (416) 961-8817 or 1-800-489-8388 

This policy is made under the Personal Health Information Act, 2004. This is a complex Act and provides some additional exceptions to the privacy principles that are too detailed to set out here. There are some rare exceptions to the commitments set out above.  

For general inquiries about personal health information, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario oversees the administration of personal health information legislation in Ontario. The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario can be reached at:

Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario

2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1400 Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8

Phone: (416) 326-3333 or 1-800-387-0073

https://www.ipc.on.ca