PRIVACY - Your personal information

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

• We will ask for information about your health and your family’s health that we need to support you.
• We will collect information from you for the following purposes, which are our “main activities”: supporting you, administration of this agency and the child welfare system, teaching, limited research, statistics and complying with legal and regulatory requirements.
• We will either directly tell you why we are collecting your information or we will post a notice or give you information that describes why we are collecting your information.
• We may collect information about you indirectly (i.e. from other service providers or from your family and friends) if necessary to provide you with care, when you cannot provide the information yourself or cannot consent to providing the information yourself.

HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION?

• Your information is given to your service providers in the Client Information Management System (PHIPA) agencies to be used to provide care for you.
• Our managers, employees, professional staff, volunteers and students are trained and understand that your information is private and can only be used or accessed to provide care for you or carry out our main activities.
• People who have a contract to provide services to this agency (such as fixing equipment, maintaining computers) may have access to your information, and we take steps through our contracts to make sure this information is kept private.
• Unless we have your consent to use your information for research purposes, your information will only be used for research if the strict process (ensuring both privacy and ethical conduct) in PHIPA is followed.
• If we use your information for any purpose other than our main activities, we will ask your permission.

WHEN WILL WE DISCLOSE CLIENT INFORMATION?

• Unless you tell us not to, we will disclose client information to other service providers in the “Circle of Care” who need to know this information to provide care and support. The “Circle of Care” includes service providers who provide support services.
• Sometimes the law requires Kina Gbezhgomi Child & Family Services to disclose information about clients. We will only disclose client information when the law requires or permits us to do so.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Confidentiality involves the protection of client information by Kina Gbezhgomi Child and Family Services and by each person involved in its operation. Confidentiality is the clients’ basic right and Kina Gbezhgomi has a legal and ethical obligation to protect the clients right. When information is shared with families, staff within Kina Gbezhgomi and personnel in other agencies, this obligation binds everyone equally.
 
All clients who come in contact with Kina Gbezhgomi Child and Family Services have the right to be respected by all workers and individuals associated either directly or indirectly, with the organization. All information on the client will be kept confidential.
 
The Agency requires all staff to sign an “Oath of Confidentiality” before commencing direct involvement with files and clients attesting to their integrity, honesty and trust with respect to their roles to clients and client related information.