Privacy Policy

The Caring Initiative is committed to providing quality services and respecting your rights. Your right to privacy and confidentiality will be recognised, respected, and protected in all aspects of your contact with us. This statement outlines our ongoing obligations to you in respect to how we manage your Personal Information. 

The Caring Initiative are committed to the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and our responsibilities relating to protection of Personal Information under the Aged Care Act and NDIS guidelines.  

Our website address is: www.thecaringinitiative.com.au

Personal Information

What is personal Information and why do we collect it? 

Personal Information is information or an opinion that identifies an individual. Personal Information includes Health Information, which is information about the physical or mental health of an individual.  

Examples of Personal Information we collect includes;  

• Names 

• Addresses 

• Email addresses  

• Phone numbers 

We collect your Personal Information in many ways including; 

• Interviews 

• Correspondence 

• By telephone 

• By email  

• Via our website 

• From other publicly available sources and from third parties  

Personal Information includes information that is recorded in a visual or audio format, such as photos, videos, and sound recordings.  

The Caring Initiative will only request and retain Personal Information that is necessary to: 

• assess your eligibility for support 

• provide safe and responsive support and coordination of services 

• monitor the supports provided and 

• to assist with facilitating our internal business operations;  

• as required to meet any legal and regulatory requirements;  

• to provide you with information about us and the Services that we offer;  

• fulfil contractual and other requirements to provide non-identifying data and statistical information to government agencies. 

When we collect Personal Information, we will explain to you why we are collecting the information and how we plan to use it. 

Third Parties

Where Reasonable and practical to do so, we will collect Personal Information directly from you.  However in some instances, we may collect Personal Information from other sources such as third parties, other providers, publicly available sources, press reports or other publications, in which case, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us.

We acknowledge that there is no obligation for you to provide us with Personal Information except as required by law.  However, if you choose not to provide us with certain Personal Information, our capability to offer services, employment or meet your needs or exceptions may be impacted.

Website / Social Media

We may collect personal information about you when you use and access our website.

While we do not generally use browsing information to identify you personally, we may record certain information about your use of our website, such as which pages you visit, the time and date of your visit and the internet protocol address assigned to your computer.

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who we share your data with

Disclosure of Personal Information 

Your personal information will only be disclosed if you provide consent for us to do so  or we are legally obligated to share the information and is shared with an intent to reduce or prevent harm and promote quality of care.  

We may disclose your Personal Information in these instances:  

1. Your Support workers, including to assist with the provision of Services and the reporting of incidents or concerns between your Support workers and The Caring Initiative;  

2. Your Authorised Representative;  

3. Your nominated emergency contact;  

4. Any other person you ask us to speak to about your care or Services;  

5. Our related entities and affiliated organisations and service providers, who assist us in operating our business;  

6. A court, a tribunal or an authority or person with power to require the production of documents or the answering of questions, including regulatory bodies and government agencies.  

7. Other service providers involved in your care or Services;  

8. My Health Record and Government agencies;  

9. A previous service provider, if you are to move to our service from another service;  

10. Your new, or prospective new service provider, if you move or propose to move from our service to another service;  

11. Any other person or body as permitted by law.  

How long we retain your data

Security and Destruction of Personal Information 

All Personal Information collected by us will be retained as part of our business records, which will be securely monitored and maintained. Your Personal and Health Information will be stored in a manner that reasonably protects it from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. 

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

Where your Personal Information or Health Information held by us is no longer required to be held, and its retention is not required by law, then we will destroy such Personal Information by a secure means.

What rights you have over your data

A breach of privacy and confidentiality 

A breach is an incident in which we would follow the manage the incident internally via our incident management procedure to resolve. Such an incident may require an investigation, and an intentional breach will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.  

 If we know or suspect your personal information has been accessed by unauthorised parties, and we think this could cause you harm, we will take reasonable steps to reduce the chance of harm and advise you of the breach, and if necessary, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. 

Access to your personal Information 

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

You may access the Personal or Health Information we hold about you, including to update or correct it, subject to certain exceptions. If you wish to access your Personal or Health Information, please speak to a staff member. 

To protect your Personal or Health Information we may require identification from you before releasing the requested information. 

You have the right to: 

• request access to personal information we hold about you 

• access this information and 

• make corrections if you consider the information is not accurate, complete, or up to date. 

However, access may be denied in part or in total where: 

• the request is frivolous or vexatious 

• providing access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other individuals 

• providing access would be likely to prejudice an investigation of possible unlawful activity 

• providing access would pose a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of any individual and 

• denying access is required or authorised by or under law. 

We aim to address all requests to access or correct information within 7 working days. We will not charge any fee for your access request but may charge an administrative fee for providing a copy of your information. 

Maintaining Accurate Personal Information 

It is an important to us that your information is up to date. We will take all reasonable steps to make sure that your Personal Information is accurate and complete. If you find that the information we have is not up to date or is inaccurate, please advise us as soon as practicable so we can update our records and ensure we can continue to provide quality services to you. 

Complaints and Enquiries 

If you have any queries or complaints about this Privacy Statement or how The Caring Initiative manages privacy matters, please contact us: 

• email: info@thecaringinitiative.com.au 

• phone:  08 7134 3347

• Post:  The Caring Initiative, PO Box 286, St Agnes, SA , 5097 

Alternatively, you can speak directly to any employees at The Caring Initiative who will record your enquiry or complaint and ensure it is followed up. 

All feedback and complaints regarding privacy will be dealt with in accordance with our Feedback and Complaints Policy and Procedure. 

Additional information regarding GDPR and Facebook sharing plugins can be located at this link.