Privacy Policy

Privacy of personal information is an important principle to Lawlor Therapy Support Services Inc. We are committed to collecting, using and disclosing personal information responsibly and only to the extent necessary for the goods and services we provide. We also try to be open and transparent as to how we handle personal information. This document describes our privacy policies and practices.

What is Personal Information?

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes information that relates to their personal characteristics (i.e., gender, age, home address or phone number, ethnic background, family status, language, identifying features, insurance benefit coverage), their health (i.e., health history, health conditions, health services received by them, prognosis or other opinions formed during assessments or treatments, health diagnosis and assessment), or their activities and views (i.e., religion, politics, opinions expressed by an individual, an opinion or evaluation of an individual, criminal history, involvement with the agency). Personal information is to be contrasted with business information (i.e., an individual's business address and telephone number), which is not protected by privacy legislation.

We Collect Personal Information: Primary Purposes

About Clients

We collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve our clients. For our clients, the primary purpose for collecting personal information is to provide rehabilitation support services as an integral part of the client.s rehabilitation team. For example, we collect information about the results of client evaluations and assessments, physical condition and function, social and familial situations in order to implement rehabilitation recommendations. A second primary purpose is to seek recommendations from the client.s rehabilitation team and to document and report concerns and / or progress as needed. It would be rare of us to collect such information without, the client.s expressed consent, but this might occur in an emergency (i.e., the client is unconscious) or where we believe the client would consent if asked and it is impractical to obtain consent (i.e., a family member passing a message on from our client and we have no reason to believe that the message is not genuine) or where consent is implied ( i.e., sharing information with a medical professional when attending an appointment with the client). In cases were the client in incapable of consenting (i.e., a child, an incapacitated person), an appropriate substitute will provide the consent (i.e., parent, guardian, spouse, power of attorney).

About Clients Family and Friends

We collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve our clients. As part of the rehabilitation process, the agency and it.s employees are exposed to private familial and social relations and matters. For the families and friends of our clients the primary purpose for collection of personal information is to provide effective rehabilitation services to the client. A second primary purpose is to seek recommendations from the client's rehabilitation team and to document and report concerns and / or progress as needed. It would be rare of us to collect such information without the client's express consent, but this might occur in an emergency or where the clients. health and safety or that of a family member or friend is at risk. In such cases consent is not needed to report the incident or situation to the appropriate organization (i.e., Children.s Aid Society, Police).

About Prospective Clients

For prospective clients, our primary purpose for collecting personal information is to evaluate the availability of services we have and can offer. A second primary purpose is to match the prospective client.s personality, and needs to that of the potential therapy support worker to ensure a successful therapeutic relationship. Consent to collect such information is implied when contact is initiated by the client.s rehabilitation team, family and / or the client themselves.

About Members of the General Public

For members of the general public, our primary purpose for collecting personal information is to make them aware of Lawlor Therapy Support Services Inc. For example, while we try to use work contact information where possible, we might collect home addresses, fax number and email addresses. We try to obtain consent before using any such information, but where this is not, for any reason, possible, we will upon request immediately remove any personal information from our distribution list. On our website we only collect, with the exception of cookies, the personal information you provide and only use that information for the purpose you gave it to us (i.e., to respond to your email message). Cookies are only used to help you navigate our website and are not used to monitor you.

About Employees

For employees of Lawlor Therapy Support Services Inc., our primary purpose for collecting personal information is for necessary work-related communication (i.e., sending out pay cheques, tax receipts), to monitor work-related performance and for necessary work-related communication. Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include home addresses and telephone numbers. It is rare for us to collect the information without prior consent, but it may happen in the case of a health emergency or to investigate a possible breach of law (i.e., if a theft were to occur in the office). If employees with a letter of reference or an evaluation, we will collect information about their work related performance and provide a report as authorized by them.

About Contract Staff, Volunteers and Students

For people who are contracted to do work for us (i.e., temporary workers), our primary purpose for collecting personal information is to ensure we can contact them in the future (i.e., for new assignments) and for necessary work-related communication (i.e., sending out pay cheques, tax receipts). Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include home addresses and telephone numbers. It is rare for us to collect such information without prior consent, but it might happen in the case of a health emergency or to investigate a possible breach of law (i.e., if a theft were to occur in the office). If contract staff, volunteers or students with a letter of reference or an evaluation, we will collect information about their work related performance and provide a report as authorized by them.

We Collect Personal Information: Related and Secondary Purposes

Like most organizations, we also collect, use and disclose information for purposes related to or secondary to our primary purposes. The most common examples of our related and secondary purposes are as follows:

To invoice clients for goods or services or collect unpaid accounts.
To advise clients and others of special events or opportunities (i.e., presentations, seminars, programs, new services) that we have available.
Our agency reviews client and other files for the purpose of ensure that we provide high quality services, including assessing the performance of our staff. In addition, external consultants (i.e., lawyers, accountants, practice consultants) may on our behalf do audits and continuing quality improvement reviews of our agency, including reviewing client files and interviewing our staff.
As professionals, we will report serious misconduct, incompetence or incapacity of other rehabilitation team members if necessary. Also, our organization believes that it should report information suggesting serious illegal behaviour to the authorities. External regulators have their own strict privacy obligations. Sometimes these reports include personal information about our client, or other individuals, to support he concern (i.e., improper services). Also, like all organization, various government agencies (i.e., Canada Customs Agency, Information and Privacy Commission, Human Rights Commission, etc.) have the authority to review our files and interview our staff as part of their mandates. In these circumstances, we may consult with professionals (i.e., lawyers, accountants) who will investigate the matter and report back to us.
Our agency is legally obligated to copy and forward the client.s file where a subpoena, warrant or court order has been issued to do so.
Our agency believes it should report information suggesting self harm, danger to self or others to the authorities.
The cost of some goods / services provided by the agency to clients is paid for by third parties (i.e., OHIP, WSIB, private insurance). These third party payers often have your consent or legislative authority to direct us to collect and disclose to them certain information in order to demonstrate client entitlement to this funding.
Clients or other individuals we deal with may have questions about our goods or services after they have been received. We also provide ongoing services for many of our clients over a period of months or years for which ur previous records are helpful. We retain our client information for a minimum of ten years after the last contact to enable us to respond to those questions and provide theses services.
If Lawlor Therapy Support Services Inc. or its assets were to be sold, the purchaser would want to conduct a Adue diligence