Privacy policy

Privacy notice

The University of Queensland (UQ) Psychology Clinic is committed to the protection of individuals’ privacy and to the transparent and responsible handling of personal information. This privacy notice outlines how we handle and manage personal information when you use the services of the UQ Psychology Clinic.

The UQ Psychology Clinic collects and manages personal information in accordance with:

The Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) (IP Act);
UQ's Privacy Policy and Privacy Management Procedure; and
The Australian Psychological Society Code of Conduct for Psychologists (https://www.apsc.gov.au/aps-code-conduct).

Privacy snapshot

As an overview, here is what you need to know:

The UQ Psychology Clinic collects personal information for the primary purposes of:
- providing our services to you, including the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of presenting issues;
- contacting you regarding the services we provide to you;
- training provisional psychologists or counselling trainees; and
- for research purposes (where you provide consent).
The Clinic will collect your personal information directly from you, except as described under “How does the UQ Psychology Clinic collect my personal information?”
The UQ Psychology Clinic is based in Queensland, Australia. Your personal information will be stored in Australia (except as described under ‘Handling of personal information outside Australia’ or otherwise with your consent) and will be collected and managed in accordance with Queensland’s IP Act.
UQ will not disclose your personal information to a third party, except as described under “To whom will the UQ Psychology Clinic disclose my personal information?”
Further information about privacy at UQ, including how you can access and amend your personal information or complain about a breach of your privacy, is available under “Further information” below.

What personal information does the UQ Psychology Clinic collect about me, and how will that information be used?

Our clinicians collect personal information to provide our services at the UQ Psychology Clinic, including to enable your clinician to make an informed, professional decision as to the most appropriate assessment and treatment methods to be used.

The types of personal information we collect, hold and use and the purpose for collecting that information, is described below:

Category	Personal information collected	Purpose
Biographic and demographic details	Name Gender, sex at birth, and preferred pronouns Date of birth Occupation (including whether you are a current student) Educational information (years of fulltime education completed or current grade) Concession card details Whether you are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin Whether there are current legal matters relating to the referral issue	To provide our services to you, including assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of presenting issues To determine service eligibility (e.g. we do not accept referrals from current UQ Master of Psychology students)
Contact details	Address Email address Telephone numbers Emergency contact details Existing GP contact details	To contact you or your emergency contacts To make appointments
Billing details	Invoices Records of payment	To facilitate payment of client fees
Treatment and medical information	Relevant history of the presenting matter, including reasons for presentation Areas of behaviour related to the presenting matter Relevant family history Relevant current and past medical information Information pertaining to your treatment plan and your response to treatment Your responses to, and the results of, psychological tests, questionnaires, and neuropsychological assessments Other information deemed necessary to make an informed clinical judgement about the nature of the presenting complaint and other relevant factors	To provide our services to you, including assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of presenting issues For the training of provisional psychologists or counselling trainees. Note: All psychologists and counsellors discuss their case load (which includes sharing case information) with an experienced clinician as part of a supervisory relationship. For research purposes with your consent
Session video recordings	Audio-visual recordings of sessions while attending the clinic. Note: You have the right to request that the recording be turned off at any point during any session, however as we are a training Clinic, the session will not be able to continue.	For the training of provisional psychologists or counselling trainees

Use for statistical purposes

The Clinic may use de-identified statistics about referral sources, nature of presenting problems and attendance durations to evaluate the service provided by the Clinic. In all cases where information is used for statistical or other internal purposes, no identifying information is made available.

Use of recordings for training purposes

To assist in the clinician’s training process, all sessions at the Clinic are video and / or audio recorded for the purposes of consultation with the clinician’s supervisor(s) or other Clinic staff who may be involved in the training of the clinicians. Recordings are for training purposes only and are destroyed at the end of the clinician’s placement (within a period of 12 months). All information on the recording remains strictly confidential and the recordings are securely maintained.

You have the right to request that the recording be turned off at any point during any session, however as we are a training Clinic, the session will not be able to continue.

Meeting our legal obligations

The Clinic may also collect, use, or disclose personal information to meet its legal obligations including where:

A file is subpoenaed by a court; or
A clinician forms the professional opinion that you or another individual is at risk of harm, and a moral or legal obligation exists to disclose this information to prevent such harm.

How does the UQ Psychology Clinic collect my personal information?

Generally, we will collect information directly from you. In some cases, we may also need to collect information about you from third parties, such as:

A spouse or partner;
A parent, carer, or legal guardian;
Teachers, counsellors, guidance officers or other support workers involved in your care;
Health professionals involved in your care (such as your GP or psychiatrist); or
Online assessment providers, e.g. Pearson (Q-interactive and Q-global) and Multi-Health Systems (MHS Assessment Center+).

We will endeavour to keep you informed of the information we collect from third parties, and the source of that information, and where appropriate will seek written consent from you before obtaining such information.

To whom will the UQ Psychology Clinic disclose my personal information?

All information that you give to the UQ Psychology Clinic is strictly confidential. Only your clinician and the small consultative team assigned to your care will have access to your personal information.

Personal information will not be disclosed to a third party, except in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) and the APS Code of Conduct, including (but not limited to) where:

You have agreed in a written Record Release Authority for the information to be disclosed;
A file is subpoenaed by a court; or
A clinician forms the professional opinion that you or another individual is at risk of harm, and a moral or legal obligation exists to disclose this information to prevent such harm.

What happens if you don’t provide this personal information?

If you do not provide the personal information referred to in this privacy notice, the UQ Psychology Clinic may be unable to provide you with our services.

Storage and retention of personal information

Your personal information is stored securely in accordance with UQ’s Information Management Policy, University Sector Retention and Disposal Schedule, and the APS Code of Conduct.

Information provided to the Clinic is held both in the Client File and the Client Database. All files are held within the School of Psychology, at the UQ Psychology Clinic, in locked offices. Files do not leave the Clinic at any time.

Records for adults are retained for 10 years after last client service provision or medico-legal action. Records for minors are retained for 10 years from patient attaining 18 years of age; and 10 years after last patient service provision or medico-legal action.

Handling of personal information outside Australia

Some assessments conducted by clinicians at the UQ Psychology Clinic may involve the use of external providers (Pearson and Multi-Health Systems) that store your personal information outside of Australia.

Only the treating clinician and their supervising clinician, or clinic admin staff (where strictly necessary) will have access to your information stored within these systems. We will seek written consent from you regarding the use of the below systems before using them to collect and/or otherwise handle your personal information:

Multi-Health Systems: Personal information relating to assessments conducted via the MHS Assessment Center+ system is hosted on servers located in the United States, as described in the MHS Privacy Policy.
Pearson: Personal information relating to assessments conducted via the Q-interactive and Q-global systems is hosted on servers located in Canada and other locations, as described in Pearson's Privacy Policy: Pearson clinical privacy policy | Pearson Clinical Assessment AU&NZ and Privacy Notice: Pearson Privacy Notice (Australia) – Your Data & Rights.

How to access or amend your personal information

You may access your clinical file and/or payment information by emailing the Clinic Manager at pyclinic@psy.uq.edu.au.

Requests should state the specific information required. Requests will only be accepted from the email address we have on file for you, and must be accompanied by the following information for verification purposes:

Your full name
Date of birth
Phone number
The name of the clinician you had seen while accessing services at the Clinic.

The Clinic Manager will then review the relevant file and release the requested information, as appropriate to the circumstances.

We have a duty of care to protect the safety, health, and wellbeing of our clients and, as a result, in some cases we may not be able to release some or all of the requested information to you. If you are dissatisfied with the information released to you, you may wish to apply for access to the information via a formal access application.

If you wish to update your details, or amend information which you believe to be incorrect, incomplete or out-of-date, please contact the Clinic via email: psyclinic@psy.uq.edu.au or telephone 07 3365 6451 in the first instance.

Complaints and enquiries

If you have questions or concerns regarding your personal information as held by the UQ Psychology Clinic, please direct these to the Clinic Manager at psyclinic@psy.uq.edu.au in the first instance.

If you believe that the Clinic has breached your privacy in its management of your personal information, you may make a privacy complaint to UQ’s Right to Information and Privacy Office. Further information is available on UQ’s Privacy Complaints webpage.

Further information

For further information about privacy at UQ, including how you can complain about a breach of your privacy, please refer to the following:

Alternatively, or in addition, you may contact UQ’s RTI & Privacy Office.