The services at Toronto West Psychology are strictly confidential. The information discussed between client and therapist is confidential and no information about the client is released without your written permission, except as required by Ontario law.

Our policy regarding confidentiality is that no information we have about you (including all information contained in your clinical file) will be communicated directly or indirectly to any third party without your informed and written consent, except when we have the following legal obligations to release confidential information:

  • If your therapist believes that you pose an imminent danger to yourself or to someone else.
  • If your therapist learns that you have been sexually or physically abused by another registered health provider (e.g., physician, dentist, chiropractor), he/she is required to contact that person’s regulatory college and report what he/she knows; however, the therapist would not give your name without your permission.
  • If your therapist suspects or is informed that a child is at risk of being harmed in any way (e.g., sexual or physical abuse, negligence), he/she must contact Child and Family Services and report all relevant information with or without your permission.
  • If the contents of your therapy file are subpoenaed by a court of law, your therapist is required to release the file to the court.
  • If the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO) requests access to Toronto West Psychology files for the purposes of assuring quality of care, we are obligated to allow them that access. The CPO is bound by its own strict confidentiality rules.

Privacy Policy

Toronto West Psychology collects, uses, and discloses personal information responsibly and in accordance to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, The Ontario Personal Information Act, and the Psychologists’ Ethical Code.

Personal Information is any information about an identifiable individual, such as personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, home address, phone number, education and training); health (e.g., health history, health conditions, health services received); activities (e.g., occupation). It is important to note that personal information (e.g., information on an individual’s business card such as phone number and address) is not protected by privacy legislation.

Toronto West Psychology collects, uses, and discloses personal information only to provide psychological services to our clients. For instance, information about a client’s health history helps provide an understanding of the individual’s mental health needs, which helps to design a personal treatment plan and to monitor changes in personal functioning.

In some situations, we collect personal information to conduct an assessment to provide a professional opinion about an individual’s psychological functioning. With the client’s informed and written consent, that opinion would be reported to the appropriate person or agency (e.g., to an insurance company, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, the Children’s Aid Society, or rehabilitation companies).

It would be rare for us to collect or disclose personal information without a client’s express consent; however, this might occur in an emergency (in this case the client would be notified in writing as soon as possible) or if we believed that the client would consent if asked and it was impractical to obtain consent (e.g., a family member passing a message on from our client and we had no reason to believe that the message was not genuine).

Your Personal Information

The College of Psychologists of Ontario requires us to retain client records for ten years. For clients who are seen before the age of 18, records are retained for 10 years following their 18th birthday.

With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see the personal information we have about you. We will confirm your identity and have the right to charge a fee and to have the request in writing. We can review your personal information with you to help you understand it (e.g., technical language).

If you believe that there is a factual mistake in your personal information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. We may ask you to provide documentation proving that our files are wrong. If we agree that we made a mistake, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not agree, we will nevertheless include in our file a brief statement from you on the point, and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.

If you have any questions regarding your privacy, please contact our Information Officer. Mail: Toronto West Psychology 4 Beamish Drive, Toronto, ON M9B 3P3

General Inquiries

For general inquiries regarding privacy issues, contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada. The Commissioner also acts as a kind of ombudsman for privacy disputes. You can contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner in the following ways:

Mail: 112 Kent Street Ottawa, ON K1A 1H3

Telephone: 613-995-8210 or 1-800-282-1376 Fax: 613-947-6850

You may also want to contact the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner for more information: Telephone: 1-800-387-0073