Your information. Your rights. Our responsibilities.
Your health information belongs to you. We collect and use what we need to work with you, and we take care to protect it.
If you are a parent, caregiver or guardian of a young child, you may be the one making decisions about your child’s information until they are old enough to manage it themselves. The laws don’t have any firm date when a child is “old enough” so we gradually increase a child’s involvement as they get older. By the age of 16, it is often the youth who is making their own decisions. In this document, when we say you, we mean the child or youth getting our services, the “client”.
We collect information about you in order to provide services. We make a record (usually in our electronic system, sometimes on paper notes, or in an app with your permission) of every session or conversation we have with you or about you. You have a right to see your record – see how to do that below.
We mail reports to you and anyone else you want to have them, with summaries of assessments and intervention plans we do with you.
We also get your background information, such as your address, school and contact information for your family and doctors. We sometimes collect information for payment for services. Other service providers may send us information to help us understand your development and needs. We use eCHN (the electronic child health network) – a provincial electronic record with information from hospitals – as a fast, secure way of seeing some of your medical information.
You have the right to
- tell us who you want us to share your information with and who you don’t want us to share it with (unless they have a legal right to it, for example, through a custody agreement). You can change your mind about this, just be sure to tell us.
- see or get a copy of our clinical records about you.
- correct our records if they’re not complete or accurate.
- contact us (details below) or the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) of Ontario if you think we have violated your rights at 1-800-387-0073 or through the IPC website.
We are responsible for
- only collecting the information we need to provide services to you.
- keeping your information private and secure, asking for your consent before sharing it with anyone new.
- sharing information without your consent when it’s required by law: for example, if we get a subpoena, need to report suspected child abuse to child protective services, or if the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services asks for it.
- using client information to plan and evaluate our services.
- asking if you want to also let us use your information for other purposes like teaching, promotional materials or research studies.
- doing audits, training and investigations of issues to check that all of us are protecting your privacy.
- telling you if your information was lost, stolen or seen by someone unauthorized.
For more information about your health information, see the Frequently Asked Questions below or contact us.
Contact Us
TVCC Privacy Officer:
Kristel Pallant
phone 519-685-8680 ext 53361
fax 519-685-8705
Kristel.Pallant [at] tvcc.on.ca (Kristel[dot]Pallant[at]tvcc[dot]on[dot]ca) (Please do not send personal information by email, it’s not secure.)
To request records:
Clinical Information Services
phone 519-685-8716
fax 519-685-8705
Frequently Asked Questions about Privacy
If I tell one therapist I no longer want information shared with a certain doctor, will they tell the other therapists?
Yes. Our staff will ask you for details and will then put a note in our central electronic record system (called GoldCare). There will be a special Alert about it for other staff involved with you.
How do I see my record? How do I get a copy of it? How do I correct it?
Contact our Clinical Information Services department by phone at 519-685-8716 or fax 519-685-8705. It’s not secure to send personal information by email, but if you want to ask about the process, please email goldcare [at] tvcc.on.ca (goldcare[at]tvcc[dot]on[dot]ca). For large files, there may be a fee to cover our costs to retrieve and copy it.
They will need proof that it is you asking for the copy if we’re sending it anywhere other than to you at your address on file. If someone else is asking on your behalf (for example, a lawyer), they will need to give us proof that you’ve agreed to sharing the information with them.
If you want to correct a specific report, please contact the person who wrote it to talk about it (Contact Us on our website: www.tvcc.on.ca/contact-us). Please contact Clinical Information Services if that person isn’t available.
I’m a parent of a client. Where is information you get about me kept? Can my child’s other parent see that information?
Our records – like our services – are about your child. When we are meeting with you and providing you with education or counselling, it is still about your child’s needs. We write down what we talked about as it relates to your child. For example, if you have ADHD yourself and have medication helping you set more consistent routines at home, we would write something like, “ is showing improvements related to their consistent bedtime routine.”
Yes, your child’s other parent can see that information unless there is a court order limiting their access to information. Every family’s situation is unique. If you have questions about who can access information in your situation, please contact our Privacy Officer.
Can you email me information instead of sending it by Canada Post?
We follow the provincial commissioner’s rules about sharing health information, which say that Canada Post is secure, while email is not. There is flexibility with the COVID pandemic, allowing for the use of email when needed. We also can send you information through a secure, encrypted system called Sync. It is your information, so we believe you should control how it is shared. Please talk with us about your preferred way of receiving information and we will talk with you about the security and privacy risks. The final decision about those risks is yours.
Website Privacy
We do monitor site use and traffic patterns for purposes of improving our site. We will never attempt to identify you personally without explicitly asking. Finally, we will not facilitate others (such as advertisement services) in any way to collect information about you or your interests.
If at any time, personal information is submitted to the TVCC website, the submission of information will be:
- obvious
- entirely voluntary and you will be informed of the purpose
- completely under your control
From time to time, our website privacy policy may change. In the event of any changes in practice, a revised privacy statement will be posted and explained.
Please be advised, TVCC assumes no responsibility for content or privacy practices/policies of any websites linked to from this site.