Privacy Policy Statement

• CareWays Community is committed to safeguarding the confidentiality of personal or health information collected with regard to our service users and staff. Individuals have the right to control how their personal information is collected and used so we’ve created procedures that protect privacy with regard to the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information.
  
• The Privacy Policy applies to all services offered by CareWays Community and complies with the Australian Government National Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 and Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000.
  

Collecting personal or health information

• CareWays Community will only collect personal or health information with consent, except in specified circumstances including, but not limited to, emergencies, as required by law, or in circumstances relating to legal or equitable claims. We may also collect personal information without consent under special conditions, when providing a health service or when undertaking certain research or management activities.
  
• CareWays Community collects information regarding the personal details and health history of service users to ensure the highest quality of service provision. Information regarding staff members is collected for administrative and occupational health and safety purposes.
  
• Individuals do not have to supply CareWays Community with their personal or health information. However, if the individual chooses not to, we may be unable to provide the service required or engage the individual.
  

Using and disclosing personal or health information

• CareWays Community intends to only use an individual’s personal or health information in the provision of service to service users or for administrative or occupational health and safety purposes for staff.
  
• We recognise the importance of individuals providing their personal or health information. We will not use or disclose any information about individuals for other purposes without consent, except in exceptional cases, such as if disclosure is required by law or is necessary to protect the rights or property of CareWays Community or any other individual, or to lessen a serious threat to a person’s health or safety.
  
• CareWays Community may contact individuals on the phone numbers or at the postal address provided to us for the purposes listed above. If an individual is receiving material from CareWays Community that they no longer wish to receive, the individual can ask that their details be removed from our mailing list.
  

Accessing the information we keep

If at any time an individual wants to know what personal information has been provided to us, the CareWays Community Privacy Officer can be contacted on the number listed at the end of this information. You’ll need to complete the Enquiry Form to start the process.

Changing and deleting the information we keep

If at any time an individual wants to change personal information that is inaccurate or out of date, or if personal information needs to be deleted, the Privacy Officer should be contacted on the number at the end of this section. We will take all reasonable steps to amend or delete the information unless we need to keep it for legal or contractual reasons.

Storage and security of personal information

CareWays Community will take all reasonable steps to keep secure any information that is held about individuals and to keep this information accurate and up-to-date, including information that is stored electronically. Our employees and contractors are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us. CareWays Community is not, however, responsible for events arising from unauthorised access to an individual’s personal information.

Problems or questions?

Contact CareWays Community if you have any ongoing concerns or problems with the personal information we hold because we take these issues seriously and will address the matter. If you have any further queries regarding our Privacy Policy, need to change or delete information, or have a problem or complaint, please contact:

CareWays Community Privacy Officer
PO Box 274, DAPTO, NSW 2530
Ph: 02 4262 1918
Email: help@careways.org.au