Privacy Policy
What is Personal Health Information?
All identifiable information collected by a therapist or healthcare provider about an individual while engaging in therapy/healing/healthcare services is considered “personal health information” under the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA, 2004). This includes your name and contact information, the name and contact information for a minor child, as well as any information collected and/or recorded in the course of providing services to you or your minor child.
Collection of Your Personal Health Information: I/we collect your personal health information directly from you or the parents/caregivers for a minor child, except: (a) when you have provided consent to obtain such information from others (i.e. reports, assessments or other relevant services); and (b) when the law requires or allows me/us to collect information without your consent (i.e. urgent situations, when information is needed to prevent potential harm).
I/We collect only information from you that we believe is needed: (a) to provide you with the therapy/healthcare services you have requested; (b) to maintain contact with you for service-related purposes; and (c) to prevent harm (i.e. an emergency contact).
By law and in accordance with professional standards, I/We are required to keep a record of services and contacts with you or your minor child. Your record includes information you provided to me/us or authorized me/us to receive. This may include results of assessments, consent forms, session notes, billing information, contact logs, and correspondence that I/we have sent or received related to your service. The physical records are the property of the practice. However, you have rights regarding access to your record and disclosure of information from your record.
Disclosure of Your Personal Health Information: With only a few exceptions, your personal health information will not be disclosed to persons outside this practice without your knowledge and expressed, written consent. The exceptions known as limits of confidentiality are: (a) when allowed by law (i.e. clear and imminent risk of serious bodily harm to someone; and (b) when required by law (i.e. mandatory reporting of a child who might be in need of protection).
Please note that the law requires any disclosure of your personal health information to be limited to information that is reasonably necessary for the purpose of the disclosure. When consenting to the disclosure of your personal health information, you may restrict me/us from sharing all or any part of your information or that of your minor child. However, if in your therapist’s opinion the information is reasonably necessary for another health service provider to provide appropriate services, we are required by law to inform the other provider that you have refused consent.
Use of Your Personal Health Information: is to provide therapy/healthcare and/or counselling and/or consultation services to you or your minor child. This includes carrying out all of the functions reasonably necessary to provide those services.
Paper and electronic information are secured in a locked or restricted area at all times, and passwords are used on computers. Electronic information is transmitted through the services of Zoom (https://www.zoom.com/), a fully-encrypted service that is private, confidential and meets all of Canada’s privacy laws (PHIPA).
Right of Access to Your Personal Health 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 (I/we reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for
record copying). If the physical record contains personal health information about another individual, that individual’s information must be redacted (removed) from the record before you may access the record. Your records will be provided in a timely manner.
Retention and Destruction of Personal Health Information: I/We must retain personal health information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for our own accountability to regulatory bodies. PHIPA and Ontario healthcare regulations requires that client records be kept for at least 10 years past the date of last contact for adults, and 10 years past the date at which the client would turn 18 years of age. I/We destroy paper records containing personal information through shredding, I/we remove electronic information through deletion.
Additional Personal Privacy Information:
Email marketing
I/We offer electronic newsletters to which you may voluntarily subscribe at any time. I/ We are committed to keeping your e-mail address confidential and will not disclose your email address to any third parties except as allowed in the information use and processing section or for the purposes of utilizing a third-party provider to send such emails. I/We will maintain the information sent via e-mail in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
In compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act, all e-mails sent from me/us will clearly state who the e-mail is from and provide clear information on how to contact the sender. You may choose to stop receiving my/our newsletter or marketing emails by following the unsubscribe instructions included in these emails or by contacting me/us.
Cookies
To enrich and perfect your online experience, Healing Therapist, healingtherapist.ca uses “Cookies”, similar technologies and services provided by others to display personalized content, appropriate advertising and store your preferences on your computer.
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Visitors/users who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using healingtherapist.ca . By continuing to navigate my/our website without changing your cookie settings, you hereby acknowledge and agree to Healing Therapist and healingtherapist.ca use of cookies.
Social media
My/Our Website and Services may include social media features, such as the Instagram and Youtube buttons, Share This buttons, etc (collectively, “Social Media Features”). These Social Media Features may collect your IP address, what page you are visiting on our Website and Services, and may set a cookie to enable Social Media Features to function properly. Social Media Features are hosted either by their respective providers or directly on our Website and Services. Your interactions with these Social Media Features are governed by the privacy policy of their respective providers
Information security
I/We secure information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. I/We maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards in an effort to protect against unauthorized access, use, modification, and disclosure of Personal Information in our control and custody. However, no data transmission over the Internet or wireless network can be guaranteed.
Therefore, while I/we strive to protect your Personal Information, you acknowledge that (i) there are security and privacy limitations of the Internet which are beyond my/our control; (ii) the security, integrity, and privacy of any and all information and data exchanged between you and the Website and Services cannot be guaranteed; and (iii) any such information and data may be viewed or tampered with in transit by a third party, despite best efforts.
In the event I/we become aware that the security of the Website and Services has been compromised or Users’ Personal Information has been disclosed to unrelated third parties as a result of external activity, including, but not limited to, security attacks or fraud, I/we reserve the right to take reasonably appropriate measures, including, but not limited to, investigation and reporting, as well as notification to and cooperation with law enforcement authorities. In the event of a data breach, I/we will make reasonable efforts to notify affected individuals if I/we believe that there is a reasonable risk of harm to the User as a result of the breach or if notice is otherwise required by law. When I/we do, I/ we will send you an email.
Acceptance of this policy
We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this privacy policy (“Policy”). This Policy describes the types of information I/we may collect from you or that you may provide (“Personal Information”) on
the healingtherapist.ca website (“Website” or “Service”) and any of its related products and services (collectively, “Services”), and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that Personal Information. It also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your Personal Information and how you can access and update it.
This Policy is a legally binding agreement between you (“User”, “you” or “your”) and Heather O’Donnell, healingtherapistheather, Healing Therapist, Professional Corporation, (“I”, “me”, “we”, “us” or “our”). If you are entering into this agreement on behalf of a business or other legal entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind such entity to this agreement, in which case the terms “User”, “you” or “your” shall refer to such entity. If you do not have such authority, or if you do not agree with the terms of this agreement, you must not accept this agreement and may not access and use the Website and Services. By accessing and using the Website and Services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by the terms of this Policy.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this privacy policy please contact me/ us using the link below