Privacy and Confidentiality Protocols
The following points summarises our privacy and confidentiality procedures: These procedures are as required by the Privacy Amendment Act (2001). Please read this carefully and if you have any concerns, please discuss this with your counsellor before signing the counselling agreement form.
Confidentiality Arrangements
All personal information gathered by the counsellor will remain confidential and be kept secure in locked filing cabinets and/or password protected electronic files which are accessible only to Renewed Hope Counselling Services. Possible exceptions to confidentiality may occur in the following circumstances:
- If your counsellor learns that a child is being harmed, or is at serious risk of harm or neglect they will contact the appropriate authorities (as is required by law).
- If your counsellor has reason to believe that you may be in danger of physically hurting yourself or somebody else, then other people (such as family, emergency services or friends) may need to be involved in order to keep you safe or to keep other people safe.
- In order to comply with professional and ethical requirements, counsellors receive supervision by senior colleagues. In these cases your personal details are not disclosed, and supervisors maintain the same level of confidentiality as your counsellor.
- In the rare event that information about you may be subpoenaed by a court.
If any of these circumstances do arise, your counsellor will endeavour, where possible, to discuss with you regarding the need to breach confidentiality.
Counselling Agreement
Session Times
The duration of counselling sessions for individuals will run for 50 minutes, and 1 hour and 20 minutes for couple counselling.
Fees and Payment
All fees and payments will be due at the end of each session. Payment for service can be made by cash, EFTPOS, direct deposit or Stripe online payment services.
Late Attendance to Session
Should you be running late to attend a session, please call or SMS to advise us of your expected time of arrival. If you arrive late the session will still need to conclude at the original time. Your time will not be able to be extended to allow for your late arrival due to other client sessions. The full fee of the session will still be required.
Cancellation Policy
If for some reason you need to postpone or cancel an appointment, please provide 24 hours notice via email, SMS or phone call. Failure to do so will incur the full session fee. In the event of continual appointment cancellations, full payment will be required upfront at the time of booking. This is to safeguard the accessibility of counselling services for others. Should there be extenuating circumstances, please contact us to discuss further.
Change of Details
If your personal details change during the course of our relationship, please inform us of your new details as soon as possible.