Odyssey House Victoria is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal and health information. The way in which we collect, store, use, release and delete any information about you follows Victorian and Australian laws relating to confidentiality and privacy.
Odyssey House Victoria collects and stores information about you to ensure we are able to provide you with the best possible care. We may also use the information you provide to improve our services and to meet our legal requirements. If we use any of your information to evaluate our programs, we will only present group results, in which your name and other identifying details have been removed.
We store your information securely. Wherever possible, it is stored in a secure, electronic file within Australia, with our security systems being regularly updated. By law, we are required to store your health records for a minimum of seven years, or at least until the age of 25 if you were a child when we collected the information about you. After this time, we may destroy or delete your information.
It is your right not to share some of your personal information with us, although in some instances, this may affect our ability to provide you with an appropriate service.
If you prefer, you can choose not to identify yourself and/or to use a pseudonym (alias) when dealing with us. However, we may need to know your identity, contact details, or other personal information so we can give you specific advice, a formal response to any feedback you provide to us, and/or to check your eligibility for some services.
If we need to contact another provider or organisation to obtain any of your information, we will ask for your permission first and ask you to sign a consent form. You do not have to give permission for this.
We will only release information about you to our partner services and others outside Odyssey House Victoria, if you agree to let us. We will not release information about you to family members without your consent. If you are aged under 16, we will ask for permission from your parent or guardian. Exceptions to this are if you or someone else is at immediate risk of harm, if you are unable to give consent due to mental impairment, or if we are required to by law.
You have a right to request access to your health information and ask for it to be corrected if necessary. You can do this by contacting healthrecords@odyssey.org.au. In some circumstances, we may need to explain technical information with you, rather than simply release it to you, and we may not share with you, personal or sensitive information about other people that may be contained in your file.
If you have a complaint about privacy you can contact us via email at feedback@odyssey.org.au or the Office of the Health Complaints Commissioner at 1300 582 113 or Health Complaints Commissioner, Level 26, 570 Bourke Street Melbourne 3000 Victoria.
If you have any questions about the information above, please ask your worker.
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