Policies

All appointments with your Speech Pathologist are scheduled in advance and reserved to meet your individual requirements and preferences.

We understand illness and misadventures occur, however, cancellation of appointments needs to be received at a minimum, 48 hours prior to your appointment. Cancellations can be made via :

• Telephone, Voicemail, or Text: 0493 045 468

• Email: info@whaletalkspeechpathology.com.au,

If less than 48 hours prior to your scheduled session is provided, 100% of your session fee will be charged.

This includes cancelling for any reason such as illness, holidays, or any avoidable/unavoidable events or circumstances. You may request a rescheduled session that falls within 7 working days of your original session, however, this is subject to clinician availability.

A reminder that this fee is not a penalty, rather it is essential as all your sessions are individualised in advance for your child, preparation of future sessions, clinical notes are required to be written in your child's absence, and we are unable to help another family/client in your regular allocated spot, even if you are not able to make your session.

Individual circumstances may be discussed with your clinician and the fee may be waived at their discretion.

Failure to attend without notice/No show: Clients who fail to attend their scheduled appointment without prior notice will be charged 100% of their session fee. This includes clients who inform the Clinician that they cannot attend AFTER their appointment has commenced. You will remain liable for 100% of the appointment fee and no refunds will be issued under these circumstances.

Discontinuation of ongoing sessions: Appointments are booked on a regular ongoing basis unless otherwise stated by your clinician. If sessions are to be discontinued completely, two-weeks-notice is required otherwise 2 full session fees will be billed so that we have time to contact the next client on our waiting list.

If a Client cancels or fails to attend two consecutive or more Appointments, we reserve the right to discharge you and/or any child under your care from our service without notice or to request that the Client changes to a less in-demand time.

If we need to cancel an appointment, we will provide you with as much notice as possible. This would only occur in exceptional circumstances, such as if your treating Speech Pathologist became unwell.

We reserve the right to update our policies at any time without notice.

Last updated: February 2023

We, at Whale Talk Speech Pathology, take the wellbeing and safety of our staff and clients very seriously. Masks are required for any accompanying client representative at in-clinic sessions.

Your clinician will not provide face-to-face services if they :

• Have a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19

• Have been instructed to self-isolate

• Have any symptoms of illness, such as a cough, sore throat or fever

• Have been in contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 within the past 7 days

• Have been overseas within the past 7 days

In return, we ask that clients inform their Speech Pathologist immediately if they:

• Have a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19

• Have been instructed to self-isolate

• Have any cold or flu-like symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat, sneezing, runny nose etc.)

• Have been in contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case within 7 days

• Have been overseas within 7 days

Appointments can generally be rescheduled to a Telehealth session if you or your child is displaying symptoms of illness. Please cancel or reschedule the appointment 48 hours prior to your appointment to avoid the Cancellation Fee.

Whale Talk Speech Pathology reserves the right to cease a session prematurely and charge 100% of the session fee with no refunds under any circumstances:

• if a client appears unwell or is displaying any symptoms of illness;

• if it is made known that family member or close relative of a client is unwell;

• if an accompanying parent/client representative is unwell

and ask that the Client attends their next appointment via Telehealth, request that they opt for indirect services for their next appointment, or cancel their next appointment or until the Client does not display any symptoms of illness.

We regularly sanitise resources, toys and shared surfaces between clients to reduce the risk of any illness transmission.

Thank you for your continued patience and support in working through these difficult times with us and your cooperation with keeping everyone who accesses Whale Talk Speech Pathology safe and well.

If you have any feedback about our COVID-19 and Illness Policy, please contact us.

Last updated: January 2023

Whale Talk Speech Pathology - Privacy Policy

We are Whale Talk Speech Pathology Pty Limited (‘Whale Talk Speech Pathology’; ABN 67 664 061 125), of Suite 3, 378-382 Pennant Hills Road, Pennant Hills, NSW 2120, Australia.

1. What is this policy about?

Whale Talk Speech Pathology is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information collected and held about individuals.

This privacy policy explains how Whale Talk Speech Pathology manages personal information, what kinds of personal information is held, why the information is held, and how the information is collected, stored and handled.

Whale Talk Speech Pathology, like most private health businesses in Australia, is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW). This policy is intended to reflect our obligations under the Privacy Laws.

Hard and soft copies of this policy may be requested free of charge by way of:

• By letter: Suite 3, 378-382 Pennant Hills Road, Pennant Hills NSW 2120

• By email: info@whaletalkspeechpathology.com.au

• By telephone: 0493 045 468

• By our website: www.whaletalkspeechpathology.com.au

When referring to “client” below, we mean both former and current clients, as well as potential clients with inquiries about our products and services.

2. What information does Whale Talk Speech Pathology collect and hold?

“Personal information” or “health information” means information or an opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained, including:

• Names, ages, genders, and other identifying information;

• Medicare and health fund details (including Medicare numbers and health fund insurers and the extent of their coverage for the purpose of addressing accounts, processing payments, and contacting you regarding our services and you or your child’s therapy;

• developmental, medical, ethnic, language, cultural and social histories (including medications, diagnoses, surgeries, and allergies);

• disabilities and impairments;

• family histories, to the extent they may be relevant to our assessment, diagnosis and/or treatment of clients;

• hobbies, motivations, interests, and activities in which clients and their families participate; and

• financial information concerning the ability of clients to pay for our products and services

For sensitive information – such as information about client health that is reasonably necessary for Whale Talk Speech Pathology to provide services or products – we will seek further consent.

3. How does Whale Talk Speech Pathology collect and handle personal information?

Whale Talk Speech Pathology collects information directly from you by telephone (e.g. when you ring us initially to book an appointment for yourself or your child), via our website, pages on our social media sites (e.g. on our Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn sites), through our client questionnaires (e.g. forms filled in by client representatives usually at intake), by written letters, reports and other documents provided to us, through emails, SMS and other forms of electronic communication, and in interviews and other interactions in our clinic (including face-to-face interviews and interviews conducted electronically, such as by way of Telehealth e.g. Zoom).

4. Who does Whale Talk Speech Pathology collects personal information from?

Any information collected by Whale Talk Speech Pathology is obtained with informed consent for the purpose of providing assessment and therapy to the client. We collect information from clients or someone authorised to act on a client’s behalf (e.g. their parents, carers or representatives). However, we may need to collect information about the client from a third party (e.g. a relative or another health service provider or educational setting). Wherever practicable, we will ask for the information directly.

When you give us information about other individuals, we rely on you to have obtained their prior consent and on you to tell them of the types of third parties we may provide the information to and why.

5. Why does Whale Talk Speech Pathology use personal information?

Whale Talk Speech Pathology uses your information to deliver, review and improve the products and services that are provided in accordance with the standards required by law and the Speech Pathology Australia Code of Ethics.

If you do not provide the personal information that we request, we would not be able to carry out our business and provide our highest-quality products or services to you.

Personal information collected is used:

• to provide evidence-based speech pathology services (to provide clients with assessment, diagnosis and management services and products related to their speech, language, voice, fluency, swallowing/feeding, literacy-related issues, and/or multi-modal communication);

• when necessary, to fulfil our obligations under law, regulation and/or Speech Pathology Australia’s Code of Ethics;

• to manage our relationship with you;

• for billing management (either directly or through insurers or other compensation agencies);

• to contact you in relation to matters concerning client care;

• for discussions between speech pathologists at our clinic, speech pathologists external to our clinic, doctors, other health professionals, and education professionals in relation to the care of the client;

• discussions with insurers; and any insurance or compensation or other claims or litigation (including threatened litigation).

From time to time, we may use personal information (but not sensitive health information) to provide you with news or offers about our products or services that may be of interest to you. These products and services will be related to our speech pathology business described above and will be products and services that we believe will be relevant to you. You have a right, at any time, to tell us that you don’t want to receive this type of material.

6. Who will see or have access to your personal information?

Your information may be seen or used by people working for or on behalf of Whale Talk Speech Pathology and other service providers including (without limitation):

• our speech pathologists (employed or contracted);

• our administrative staff (employed or contracted);

• other health professionals, and education professionals involved in client care;

• the refer (i.e. medical practitioner);

• Medicare, private health insurance providers, our insurers and reinsurers; and

• our third-party professional advisors and service providers, including (without limitation) our lawyers, accountants, auditors, tax consultants, actuaries, management consultants and IT service providers (including software-as-a-service provider).

We will not rent, sell, trade or otherwise disclose to any other third parties any personal information about you without your consent, or unless we are required by law (including pursuant to a court or tribunal order), or where a permitted general situation (including a permitted health situation) exists within the meaning of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), or if we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary for enforcement-related activities.

You also have the right to access the personal and health information that Whale Talk Speech Pathology holds about you at any time. If you believe personal information that we hold about you is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete or misleading, we will, on receipt of your request for an amendment, take steps that are reasonable in the circumstances to correct the information as soon as possible.

IMPORTANT: To promote the safety, welfare and wellbeing of vulnerable children in NSW, the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW) requires NSW speech pathologists who are members of Speech Pathology Australia to take reasonable steps to proactively exchange information, and co-ordinate the delivery of services, with NSW Health, schools, non-government organisations, the Family and Federal Courts, the police and other prescribed bodies in NSW. These obligations generally override confidentiality and privacy rights.

7. How does Whale Talk Speech Pathology handle the security of your personal information and data retention?

Whale Talk Speech Pathology will take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We use technologies and processes such as access control procedures, network firewalls, encryption and physical security to protect your privacy. We also have data protection measures in place (including password-locked computers and two-factor authentication for all practice management software) when we store personal information electronically. Our hard copy health records are stored in a room on site, which is usually locked and accessible only to authorised staff.

Whale Talk Speech Pathology will destroy or permanently de-identify any information which is in its possession or control and which is no longer needed for the purpose of which it was collected, provided Whale Talk Speech Pathology is not required under an Australian law, court or tribunal, or otherwise to retain information. This obligation is subject to an important exception as under the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW), we are obliged to retain health information:

• about children, until the individual has attained 25 years of age; and

• about adults for 7 years from the last time we provided them with a service or product.

Given the increasing globalisation of electronic information systems and the businesses of service providers, it is likely that personal information may be disclosed to a person or entity outside Australia (e.g. to a third-party service provider managed outside Australia). For the same reason, it is not practicable to specify the countries in which such recipients may be located.

If your personal information is disclosed by us to an overseas recipient (e.g. to an insurer or IT-service provider), we will take reasonable steps in the circumstances to ensure the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to the information.

8. Complaints

If you have any questions or queries about the Whale Talk Speech Pathology Privacy Policy or if you believe your privacy has been prejudiced by something we have done or failed to do, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint. You can lodge a complaint through Whale Talk Speech Pathology contact details below:

• By letter: Suite 3, 380 Pennant Hills Road, Pennant Hills NSW 2120

• By email: info@whaletalkspeechpathology.com.au

• By telephone: 0493 045 468

• By our website: www.whaletalkspeechpathology.com.au

9. How does Whale Talk Speech Pathology handle your personal information when you visit our website?

This section of our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your personal information that is collected from our website: www.whaletalkspeechpath.com.au

When you use our website, we do not attempt to identify you as an individual user and we will not collect personal information about you unless you specifically provide this to us.

Sometimes, we may collect your personal information if you choose to provide this to us via an online form or by email, for example, if you:

• Submit an enquiry via our contact pages;

• Register to receive an eNewsletter; or

• Send a written complaint or enquiry to our Privacy Officer or Director

When you use our website, our Internet Service Provider (ISP) may record and log for statistical purposes the following information about your visit:

• Your computer address;

• Your top-level name (for example: .com, .gov, .org, .au etc.);

• The date and time of your visit;

• The pages and documents you access during your visit; and

• The browser you are using.

Our website management agent may use statistical data collected by our ISP to evaluate the effectiveness of our website.

A “cookie” is a device that allows our server to identify and interact more effectively with your computer. Cookies do not identify individual users, but they do identify your ISP and your browser type. This website uses temporary cookie, which means that upon closing your browser, the temporary cookie assigned to you will be destroyed and no personal information is maintained which will identify you at a later date.

Personal information such as your email address is not collected unless you provide it to us. We do not disclose domain names or aggregate information to third parties other than agents who assist us with this website and who are under obligations of confidentiality. You may be able to configure your browser to accept or reject all cookies and to notify you when a cookie is used. We suggest that you refer to your browser instructions or help screens to learn more about these functions. However, please note that if you configure your browser so as not to receive any cookies, a certain level of functionality of the Whale Talk Speech Pathology website and other websites may be lost.

We may create links to third party websites. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices employed by websites that are linked from our website.

We will use any personal information collected via our website in accordance with our privacy policy.

Last updated: January 2023