Privacy Policy

Protecting Your Privacy

Happy Valley Home Care provides a range of services and collects personal information to ensure a holistic approach to the care we offer. We recognise and respect every person’s right to privacy, dignity and confidentiality. We will:

• Provide environments that enable our clients and their families to maintain relationships with privacy and dignity.
• Promote respectful relationships between all staff, clients and their representatives.
• Ensure compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (The Act) and the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) about how we manage your personal information.

Your Personal Information

We collect a variety of personal information so we can provide services and holistic care to our clients. Examples of personal information which we regularly collect include a person’s:

• name;
• contact details;
• date of birth;
• marital status;
• family details, including personal information about an individual’s next of kin;
• health and medical details,

and in some cases, we may collect financial details. Sometimes we will ask you for other information depending on the type of service you would like to access from us.

Collecting and Storing Information

When you contact Happy Valley Home Care to access our services we will ask you questions about yourself or receive information from a Third Party so we can provide support that meets your needs and preferences. We prefer to collect personal information directly from the person it relates to, however, in some cases this may be impracticable, or the information might be held by someone else.

This could include but not limited to:

• personal information from your MyAgedCare Service Provider;
• medical records held by your current or previous health care provider;
• financial records;
• next of kin details.

You do not have to provide us with all the information we ask for, however it might limit the types of services we can offer you.

We store your information in secure forms. These include:

• web-based records stored in our secure digital filing system;
• web-based CRM database;
• secured email system,

where data is entered and stored securely and access is restricted within Happy Valley Home Care to hose who need to access the inforamtion in providing services and care to you. We are required to keep these copies for legal reasons. Your information is archived in secure storage online databases where data is entered and stored securely.

Anonymity or Pseudonymity

You can enquire about our services anonymously or by use of a pseudonym. We will be able to discuss services that might be suitable, including costs which might be charged for those services. However, we cannot provide services to someone without confirming their identity. Until we have sufficient information to provide a detailed quote or outline of suitable services we can only give general, non – binding information.

How we use your information

Generally, we will use your information to:

• assess your eligibility to access our services;
• adjust services to meet your specific needs;
• determine if you need to make any payments;
• contact you to discuss the services you are using and give you the opportunity to tell us what you think about your experience with Happy Valley Home Care;
• discuss the services you are using with your family, next of kin or MyAgedCare provider, provided you have given us consent to do so.

We may also use your information for a secondary purpose such as research or marketing if:

• you have consented, or
• where it is impracticable to seek consent, we will give you the opportunity to opt out of further communications.

There are also limited, serious circumstances where we will disclose personal information to third parties without your consent:

• where we reasonably believe it is necessary to reduce or prevent a threat to a person’s life, health or safety or a serious threat to public health or safety;
• where the use or disclosure is required by law;
• where we reasonably believe that the use is necessary for law enforcement, public revenue protection, preventing or remedying of serious improper conduct, or conduct of court or tribunal proceedings, either by or on behalf of an enforcement body.

If we use or disclose information without consent we will record each instance in writing.

Data Processing

Happy Valley Home Care uses third party systems to process some of the data we collect, including some providers that are interstate. In all instances we ensure the contractor has appropriate controls in place to comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act and our Privacy Policy.

Accessing and Correcting Personal Information

If you ask us we can normally give you access to your personal information. However, we may deny a request for access if:

• the information poses a serious threat to the life or health of any person;
• releasing information would impact upon another person’s privacy;
• the information relates to existing legal proceedings;
• providing access would be unlawful
• the information relates to a sensitive decision about how we operate our business

If you would like to access or change your information, you can contact us. It will be necessary for you to verify your identity, and you may need to visit an our Office to access the information you would like to see. If we do not give you access to your information, we will explain why.

Data Security

We will implement measures to protect your personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, change or disclosure. We will destroy or permanently de-identify personal information when we no longer need it or it is no longer required to be kept for legal purposes. We will protect the security of your information during transmission by using software that encrypts information that you input.

Data Breaches

The Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act 2017 requires us to let you know if your information is impacted by a data breach. This means we will let you know in the way we normally communicate with you, if:

• there is unauthorised access to or disclosure of your information; or
• your information is lost and unauthorised access or disclosure is likely to occur; and
• there is a reasonable chance that this could cause you serious harm (which can include physical, physiological, emotional, economic or reputational harm); and
• we have been unable to remedy the situation in line with the Act.

If we are unable to contact any affected parties individually we will post a notification that an eligible data breach has occurred on our website. In such circumstances we are also required to inform the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. We will follow our Notifiable Data Breach Procedure in these instances.

Identifiers

We will not adopt Commonwealth Government identifiers for use as our own identifiers. If we are required to collect a government identifier to provide you a service, we will not use this number to identify you in our systems.

Sensitive Information

Generally, we will only collect sensitive information with an individual’s consent, except where:

• the collection is required or authorised by law or to establish, exercise or defend a legal or equitable claim, or;
• it is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious or imminent threat to the life or health of the person who is the subject of the information.

Sensitive information includes things like your ethnicity, your religious beliefs, if you have a criminal record or information about your health. A full definition of sensitive information is included in the Privacy Act 1988

Complaints

We value your feedback on how we have treated you and your personal information. If you are not happy about how we protected your privacy, please contact the Privacy & Complaints Officer:

Contact Person: Lauren Croiset, Head of Growth & Community

Phone: 0434 444 708

Email: lauren@happyvalleyhomecare.com.au

Mail: 2/50 Main St, Croydon VIC 3136

It is helpful if you can tell us how you think your information might have been misused and the details of any of our employees involved.

The Privacy Officer might ask for extra information to help them understand your circumstances and act to resolve the issue. We will keep you updated on how we are addressing your complaint and you can view our full Complaints Policy here. If you aren’t happy with how we have dealt with your privacy complaint you can ask for it to be referred to mediation. If you are still unhappy you can refer your privacy complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.