Our Privacy Policy

Developed in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, here are the rules that C&C Counselling adheres to in collecting personal information and in ensuring client confidentiality.

What we collect and why

As counsellors and consultants, we collect, use and disclose personal information for the primary purpose of serving our clients. In the course of our work, we may collect information about a client’s health history, including his/her counselling/psychotherapy, and family history, physical condition and function, and social situation.

This information is used to help us assess the needs of our clients, to advise them of options, and to provide the interventions of their choice when requested. Information may also be collected to obtain a baseline of health and social information so that in providing on-going health services it is possible to identify changes that occur over time. It is extremely rare for us to collect any information without the client’s express consent, but this might occur if we were to believe the client would consent if asked and it is impractical to obtain consent (e.g., if a family member calls in with a change of address).

Confidentiality

As a member in good standing with the College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers of Ontario, all staff at C&C Counselling Services are expected to adhere to the Social Worker’s Code of Ethics. Counselling services are confidential, with the exception of your signed consent to release your information. Your information cannot be discussed with anyone without your permission.

However, there are four standard situations in which professionals, due to legal and ethical obligations, cannot maintain confidentiality:

• If we believe you are at serious risk of harming yourself or someone else;
• If we receive information about child abuse (physical, sexual, emotional/neglect), and there is any degree of risk to other children, the law requires that we report this to the relevant Children’s Aid Society;
• If ordered to do so by the court, we must surrender the information they request; and
• If we receive information about inappropriate sexual conduct of a regulated health professional, we must alert the respective college of that health professional.

If you believe there is a mistake in the information we have, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information and not to any professional opinions we have formed. We may ask you to provide documentation that our files are wrong. Where we agree that a mistake has been made, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not agree that a mistake has been made, we will agree to include in the file a brief statement from you on the point and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.