Privacy Policy for Éire Psychology Services
At Éire Psychology Services, your privacy and the security of your personal and health information are of paramount importance. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, protect, and handle your information in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Irish data protection legislation, as we provide psychological assessment, therapy, and counseling services.
1. Information We Collect
We collect various types of information to provide our services effectively and responsibly.
- Personal Identification Information: This includes your name, address, contact details (phone number, email address), date of birth, and gender. We collect this to identify you and facilitate communication.
- Health and Psychological Information (Special Category Data): We collect sensitive information related to your mental and physical health, psychological assessments, therapy notes, treatment plans, and any other information relevant to the psychological services you receive (e.g., trauma therapy, CBT, DBT, addiction counseling, stress management, anxiety and depression treatment, family therapy, couples counseling, child and adolescent psychology, grief counseling, crisis intervention). This information is crucial for providing appropriate and effective care.
- Contact Information of Emergency Contacts: With your consent, we may collect names and contact details of trusted individuals for emergency purposes.
- Payment Information: If applicable, we collect billing and payment details for service fees.
- Information from Referrals: If you are referred to us by a GP or other healthcare professional, we may receive relevant information from them.
2. How We Collect Information
We collect information through various methods:
- Directly From You: When you contact us, complete intake forms, participate in assessments or therapy sessions, or communicate with us in person, by phone, or email.
- From Third Parties: With your explicit consent, we may receive information from other healthcare providers or relevant professionals involved in your care.
- Through Our Website: While this service primarily serves informational purposes, any interaction you have with our site might involve the collection of technical data (e.g., IP address, browser type) for website analytics and security, though we do not use cookies for tracking personal data without explicit consent.
3. How We Use Your Information
Your information is used for the following purposes:
- To Provide Psychological Services: This is the primary purpose, enabling us to deliver effective psychological assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and counseling tailored to your needs. This includes services such as trauma therapy, CBT, DBT, addiction counseling, stress management, anxiety and depression treatment, family therapy, couples counseling, child and adolescent psychology, grief counseling, and crisis intervention.
- For Administrative Purposes: Including scheduling appointments, managing billing, maintaining accurate client records, and communicating with you regarding your appointments or care.
- To Comply with Legal Obligations: We may use and disclose your information as required by law, such as for record-keeping in healthcare, responding to court orders, or reporting health and safety concerns.
- For Professional Supervision and Quality Assurance: In line with professional ethical guidelines, and always anonymised where possible, or with your explicit consent if identifiable information is shared for the purpose of clinical supervision to ensure the highest quality of care.
- To Ensure Your Safety and the Safety of Others: In rare circumstances, if there is a serious risk of harm to yourself or others, we may be ethically and legally obliged to disclose information to relevant parties.
4. Lawful Basis for Processing
Under GDPR, our lawful bases for processing your information include:
- Consent: For specific purposes where we explicitly ask for your agreement. You have the right to withdraw consent at any time.
- Contract: Processing necessary for the performance of a contract for services with you.
- Legal Obligation: Where processing is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
- Vital Interests: In rare cases, to protect your vital interests or those of another person.
- Legitimate Interests: For our legitimate interests, provided these do not override your fundamental rights and freedoms (e.g., for administrative purposes without violating privacy).
- Health and Social Care: For processing special category data (health information) necessary for the provision of health or social care or treatment pursuant to contract with a health professional.
5. Data Sharing and Disclosure
We treat your information with the utmost confidentiality. We will not share your personal or health information with third parties unless:
- You provide explicit written consent: For example, if you wish for us to communicate with your GP or another professional.
- Required by Law: Such as a court order, subpoena, or to comply with professional ethical guidelines (e.g., if there is a serious risk of harm to yourself or others).
- For Professional Supervision: Anonymised or with your explicit consent for clinical supervision purposes.
- Billing and Administrative Support: With trusted third-party service providers who assist us in our operations (e.g., accounting software). These providers are bound by strict confidentiality agreements and GDPR-compliant data processing agreements.
Éire Psychology Services does not sell or rent patient data to third parties.
6. Data Security
We employ robust technical and organisational measures to protect your personal and health information from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These measures include:
- Secure electronic and physical storage of records.
- Access controls and authentication procedures for electronic systems.
- Staff training on data protection and confidentiality.
- Regular review of our security practices.
7. Data Retention
We retain your personal and health information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the provision of services, for legal and professional record-keeping requirements, and to meet our statutory obligations. For healthcare records, this period typically aligns with professional and regulatory guidelines in Ireland.
8. Your Rights Under GDPR
As a data subject, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- The Right to Be Informed: About how your data is collected and used.
- The Right of Access: To request a copy of the information we hold about you.
- The Right to Rectification: To correct any inaccurate or incomplete information we hold about you.
- The Right to Erasure (Right to Be Forgotten): To request that your data be deleted, under certain circumstances. Please note that healthcare records may be exempt from this right due to legal and professional obligations.
- The Right to Restrict Processing: To request that we limit the way we use your data, under certain conditions.
- The Right to Data Portability: To obtain a copy of your data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and transmit it to another controller.
- The Right to Object: To our processing of your data, under certain conditions.
- Rights in relation to Automated Decision Making and Profiling: The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided below. We will respond to your request within one month.
9. Complaints
If you have concerns about how we handle your data, please contact us in the first instance. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission (DPC) in Ireland, the supervisory authority for data protection issues.
10. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. We will post any updates on this service and, where appropriate, notify you directly. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.
11. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:
Éire Psychology Services
14 Merrion Square West
Dublin 2
Dublin
D02 X452
Ireland
Phone: +353 1 677 3456