Privacy Statement

The Centre for Emotional Health (CEH) Online Programs are mental health education and treatment programs designed for use by a client or their guardian. The programs are designed for use on your own device, in your own time, in your own home. By accessing the CEH Online Programs you agree to be bound by this Privacy Statement and our Terms of Use.

The Centre for Emotional Health is a research, training and treatment centre operated by Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. The online programs developed and delivered via the CEH are also under the direction of Macquarie University.

Macquarie University (the University) is subject to the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) (PPIPA) and Health Records and Information Privacy Act (NSW) 2002 (HRIPA) which protects the privacy of your personal and health information. The purpose of this privacy statement is to let you know what information is collected about you and how the information is used by the University.

When we create a user account for you we may collect personal information about you. We may collect your name, gender, date of birth, email address, details of any health practitioner that refers you to us, and other information relevant to your participation in our services. Information about how you use and interact with the site will also be collected to assist us in understanding your progress through the program and how we can better improve our services. In some cases there will be the option to fill out a weekly questionnaire or online worksheets as part of the program. Where this is used any information you enter in the online worksheets is also collected and stored.

In addition to this, if you are receiving assistance from a therapist your therapist may store physical or electronic notes about your progress through the program, your medical history, family medical history, treatment and advice you have been given, and other information relevant to your participation in our services.

We are committed to treating your personal information in accordance with privacy law.

The CEH Online Programs team values your privacy. The information gathered by us in order to create your user account is held securely on our cloud-based servers which are located in Australia.

If you are receiving assistance from a therapist they may hold your information in a variety of ways. Your information may be held in a paper health record or electronic notes, outside your user account profile, which in turn means they are held outside our cloud-based servers. All Macquarie University employees are bound by the University’s Privacy Policy and Privacy Management Plan and are required to keep any personal information about you in a secure location, whether physically or electronically.

All third party partners are contractually bound to secure any personal information in line with the University’s Privacy Management Plan.

Your personal health information may be used by the CEH Online Programs or disclosed outside the CEH Online Programs to enable appropriate care and treatment to be provided to you. For example, your information may be used or disclosed as follows;

  • to other health services, hospitals or medical specialists involved in your health care.
  • to your nominated GP
  • to contact you via email regarding your program use
  • to your carer (if provided) to assist with your care
  • to contact you via email for feedback on the services you have received

We may use or disclose your personal information for other purposes required for the administration, management, and operation of the CEH Online Programs, including;

  • managing, monitoring, planning and evaluating our services (including for teaching and training purposes);
  • accreditation, safety and quality assurance and improvement activities, including those undertaken in conjunction with Macquarie University;
  • testing and maintenance of information technology systems;
  • risk management activities (including liaising with our insurers and legal representatives);
  • responding to complaints or inquiries about our activities and services;
  • obtaining advice from consultants and professional advisers;
  • responding to subpoenas, other legal claims and managing reporting obligations (including reporting to Child Protection Authorities or Police in situations where someone is judged to be at risk of self-harm, or of harming others). CEH therapists are also obliged to report to Police if you provide us with information relating to a serious crime, including serious assault, domestic violence or child abuse.
  • to fulfil our funding and regulatory requirements with Commonwealth and State government agencies;

We may also use or disclose your personal information to other health services and authorised third parties to help prevent a serious and imminent threat to someone’s life, health or welfare, such as in an emergency.

If you do not wish for us to collect, use or disclose certain information about you, you will need to tell us and we will discuss with you any consequences this may have for your care.

In certain circumstances, your personal information may be used or disclosed (including within Macquarie University) for research, or for the compilation or analysis of statistics, relevant to public health or safety. Use of information in this way is strictly limited under privacy laws and generally requires approval by an ethics committee.

Where information is disclosed or published for research or scholarly purposes, all reasonable efforts will be made to de-identify the information. If used for research and publication purposes, your information will be analysed in a non-identifiable form and dissemination of the results will not contain material capable of identifying you.

CEH follows strict rules and policies regarding the secure storage of personal information in all formats to protect your information from unauthorised access, loss or other misuse.

All staff working with the CEH Online Programs are bound by a formal code of conduct and receive training about their privacy obligations.

You should sign out or close your browser once you have finished using the CEH Online Program website. This is to ensure that others cannot access your personal information and correspondence on your device.

You can view the details entered in your user account by logging in to your CEH Online Program account and clicking on the My Profile page which can be accessed under the Account button located at the top right-hand side of any page, in the page header.

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You can edit any of these details by removing the existing data, replacing it with the correct data and clicking on the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.

Alternatively, you can send us a message via the contact form on the Contact page of the website or use the contact details provided on the Contact page. We can correct any errors in our system or add a notation, as appropriate.

You may contact the CEH Online Programs team at any time, via the Contact page on the website, if you have any privacy complaints, questions or concerns. Alternatively, you may contact the Macquarie University Privacy Officer or the NSW Information and Privacy Commission on 1800 472 679 or online at ipc.nsw.gov.au

For further information on how your query or complaint will be handled please review the Macquarie University Privacy Policy.