Consent is a really important part of working with a psychologist. Please read the below important information about participating in psychological therapy via Telehealth. If you have any questions or concerns please discuss this with your psychologist.

As part of providing a psychological service to you, your psychologist needs to collect and record personal information from you that is relevant to your situation, such as your name, contact information, medical history and other relevant information as part of providing psychological services to you. This collection of personal information will be a necessary part of the psychological assessment and treatment that you receive.

A detailed description of how your personal information is managed, how you can access your personal information, and how to lodge any concerns or complaints about this service or how your personal information is managed must be provided to you by your health professional on request.

Personal information gathered as part of this service will remain confidential except when:

1. it is subpoenaed by a court; or

2. failure to disclose the information would place you or another person at serious risk to life, health or safety; or

3. your prior approval has been obtained to

  1. provide a written report to another professional or agency. e.g., a GP or a lawyer; or
  2. discuss the material with another person, e.g. a parent, employer or health provider; or
  3. disclose the information in another way; or

4. you would reasonably expect your personal information to be disclosed to another professional or agency (e.g. your GP) and disclosure of your personal information to that third party is for a purpose which is directly related to the primary purpose for which your personal information was collected; or

5. disclosure is otherwise required or authorised by law.

Your psychologist will not make recordings of your sessions or use material from your sessions for purposes other than delivering a service to you. Your consent will be obtained if your psychologist seeks to use material for other purposes (such as consultation with colleagues).

It is asked that you to respect the privacy of your psychologist by agreeing not to make recordings of sessions and not to use materials from our sessions for purposes other than therapy. If you wish to record sessions or use session material for other purposes, you must seek your psychologist’s consent to do so.

Where appropriate, the service may be provided by telephone or videoconferencing. You are responsible for the costs associated with setting up the technology needed so you can access telehealth services. Nourish Psychological Services will be responsible for the cost of the call to you and the cost associated with the platform used to conduct telehealth services.

To access telehealth consultations you will need access to a quiet, private space; and the appropriate device, i.e. smartphone, laptop, iPad, computer, with a camera, microphone and speakers; and a reliable internet connection.

Because you may be in varied locations for each of our videoconferences or phone calls, you are required to provide your location at the commencement of each session. The privacy of any form of communication via the internet is potentially vulnerable and limited by the security of the technology used. To support the security of your personal information this practice uses FaceTime (if you have an apple device like a Mac Computer, iPad, newer iPod, or iPhone) or doxy.me (no download needed – https://doxy.me/) which is compliant with the Australian standards for online security and encryption.

A telehealth consultation may be subject to limitations such as an unstable network connection which may affect the quality of the psychology session. In addition, there may be some services for which telehealth is not appropriate or effective. Your psychologist will consider and discuss with you the appropriateness of ongoing telehealth sessions.

If you need to cancel or postpone your appointment, please give the psychologist at least 24 hours notice, otherwise you will be charged a cancellation fee in accordance with the Financial Policy.

Consent to receive psychological services by telehealth

I have been provided with information about the service including the limitations to privacy and confidentiality and I have agreed that in circumstances where the psychologist is concerned about my welfare and is unable to contact me permission is provided for the psychologist to contact the people named below. If no emergency contact is available, please immediately discuss this with your psychologist.