Confidentiality
Confidentiality
I will work with you in confidence; unless I believe that you or someone close to you is at risk of harm, in which case I will talk to you about what we need to do; if I have serious concerns, I will act to safeguard the people involved.
I will keep brief records of what we do on my computer as a memory aid. These will be securely maintained, confidential and only accessible to me (see policy on GDPR, I am registered with the ICO, Information Commissioner’s Office, and any information I keep can only be with your consent) and, of course, you.
I advise my patients to keep written records, too, and I will share my notes with you if this is helpful.
Safety
Sometimes mental health problems can cause us to consider hurting or harming ourselves; as part of the treatment, we will discuss this if it is a problem.
If you feel at risk, it’s important to act and seek help; call 999 or contact your GP for an emergency appointment or the local out-of-hours teams or call NHS 111 (Non-emergency medical help and advice for people living in England).
Contact the Samaritans (24/7) samaritans.org 116 123 (freephone) jo@samaritans.org.
Data Protection & GDPR
I comply with all data protection and GDPR requirements.
A copy of my privacy policy will be given to you at your first face-to-face appointment. It is also available upon request.
Cookie Policy
We use various methods to track general usage data for our website. In particular, we may collect information about your computer, including, where available, your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to analyse aggregate information. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns and does not identify anyone.
A cookie is a piece of data that a website can send to your browser, which may store on your computer’s hard drive.
We may obtain information about your access and use of our website by using a Cookie file stored on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your hard drive. They help us to improve our website and assist us in improving our services. They enable us to:
- estimate our audience size and usage pattern;
- store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise our website according to user needs;
- speed up your searches;
- recognise you when you return to our website
You may refuse to accept Cookies by activating the setting on your browser, which allows you to refuse the setting of Cookies. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting, our system will issue Cookies when you visit our website or parts of it. If your browser settings are set or changed to refuse Cookies or you remove any Cookie file, this may restrict your use or continued use of the website.
More information on how to modify your browser settings or block, manage or filter cookies can be found in your browser’s help file or through sites such as www.allaboutcookies.org.
