Data Privacy Notice
As you may be aware, on 25th May 2018, the law changed with regard to how organizations have to protect your ‘data’ (personal details and records). The new law is known as the EU General Protection Regulation (GDPR). GDPR principles and rules have not changed following UK’s exit from the European Union.
I aim to be as clear as possible about how and why I use information about you so that you can be confident that your privacy is protected. This data privacy notice explains the information that I collect about you and how it is managed when you use my services.
It is assumed that by engaging with Dr Iakovina Koutoufa you are consenting to the following:
Why do we need to collect your personal data?
We need to collect information about you so we can:
Communicate with you in a personal way.
Keep session notes which are an essential component of therapy. It helps us understand how best to help and forms the basis of any reports that may be needed.
Undertake administration related to our services, such as communication with you to arrange an appointment and raising invoices.
Why do we need to collect your personal data?
For Iakovina to be able to provide you with therapy, we need to collect the following information from you:
Your name.
Your occupation, gender, and date of birth.
Your contact details, including your postal address, telephone number(s), and electronic contact details such as email address.
Your GP and/or psychiatrist details.
Your next of kin details.
A summary of the therapy session content.
How do we use the information that we collect?
We will only use the information you provide us with to communicate with you about your appointments with us, or to write a progress report, or raise an invoice. We will use your contact details, your name, and your session notes to do so.
Where do we keep the information that we collect?
All therapy session notes recorded on paper and questionnaires are securely stored. Electronic therapy session notes are securely stored on a computer, are labelled with your initials only, and are password protected. All electronic devices used to access stored information are themselves password protected. Your personal contact information is stored separately from any notes.
How long is your information kept?
Dr Iakovina Koutoufa observes the British Psychological Society (BPS) Practice Guidelines in relation to retention of your information. We will only keep your sensitive and personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it. In practice, this means that, for adults, we may retain your data to satisfy any legal, accounting, research or reporting requirements for 7 years, and 10 years after you cease to be a client for research purposes.
How long is your information kept?
Confidentiality is maintained at all times (which means that your information is not shared) unless there are exceptional circumstances such as risk to yourself or others, when other services such as your GP, social services, or the police may be contacted without your consent as this is a professional obligation. However, we will inform you if we intend to break confidentiality. We may send reports to you, your insurance company, and anyone we are required by law to inform. All reports that are sent electronically are password protected.
How can you see all the information we have about you?
Right of access (or a ‘subject access request’; SAR) can be made for copies of records but there may be a £15 administration charge and these will be provided within 1 calendar month of the request being made.
What happens if your information is incorrect?
If you wish to have your information corrected, you must provide us with the correct data as soon as possible. We will give you a confirmation that your information has been corrected within 1 calendar months of the request being made.