Privacy

As an organisation that provides services to individuals and the community, dealing with personal information is essential to our operations. We collect your information to communicate with you, to provide you with services, and to meet our contractual and legal obligations.

We mostly collect your personal information directly from you, for example when we meet with you or when we talk to you on the phone. 

We will only collect information about you from other people in specific circumstances, for example, a referral form sent to us from another agency or telephone conversations with another agency. If we do collect your personal information that way, it will only be contact details, and details we need to assist you. We will let you know when this occurs, unless we reasonably believe you would expect it to.

We only hold information about you if it is relevant to the service you are receiving. Generally, we keep your name, contact details and other relevant information. This could include information about your family and other key relationships gathered during an intake and/or assessment process. We may keep some sensitive information about you, such as information about your health or your ethnic origin, if it is relevant to our service provision.

Depending on the circumstances, we may hold your information either in paper form, or on a computer, or both. 

We use your personal information:

• to provide you with services,
• for purposes such as assessments, risk management and review in relation to your use of the service or program you are accessing,
• to identify and inform you of other relevant services and programs that may be of interest to you.

We only share your personal information in very limited circumstances, where it is related to the service you are receiving.  This could include sharing with agencies you have an existing relationship with. We will always seek your consent where possible. If we are legally required to do so, such as under a court order, or where there is a significant risk or harm or medical emergency, we may, in accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act, share your information with others such as the Police, Child Abuse Report Line or emergency medical practitioners. 

We train our staff to only access personal information that is directly relevant to their work. Whilst your information may be visible to others within the organisation, we ensure that it will not be misused through training and security measures such as restricting access to certain employees for certain sensitive information.

We will take all reasonably practical steps to protect the security of your personal information. All workers follow strict information handling procedures. Access to your records only occurs by those who require it in the provision of service to you or in an administrative role related to system development and maintenance. 

If you want to see your personal information you can contact your Centacare worker directly or send a written request to ‘Privacy Enquiries’ by mail to 45 Wakefield Street Adelaide SA 5000. You don’t need to give us a reason but you do need to tell us how you would like to obtain access. You can only access your own information, not information about anyone else. We will need to verify your identify then your request will be forwarded to the Unit Executive Manager who will arrange for access to be provided to you.  We will follow up with you to make sure you are happy with everything.

In rare circumstances, and only where it is permitted under the Privacy Act 1988, we may not be able to provide you with access to your information. If we are unable to provide you with access, we will state why this is so.

If your personal information is out-of-date or incorrect, you may inform us and we will correct it for you. In the unlikely event that we disagree about the accuracy of the information and are unable to change it, you may provide us with a statement where you dispute its accuracy, and we will associate the statement with your information in such a manner that it will be brought to the attention of each person who uses the information.

Government agencies that fund our services generally require us to report to them. The information we report to them varies, however all government agencies are required to comply with Australian privacy laws.

If you have any questions about the type of information your service provides to a funding body you can ask your worker.

We might need to change our privacy policy from time to time. If we do, we will endeavour to ensure your overall level of privacy protection is not diminished. We will publish the changes on this page.