Collection and Management of Information

Hamilton Centre is a part of Eastern Health and is co-located with Turning Point in Richmond, Victoria. As a result, Hamilton Centre website is the property of Eastern Health and is overseen and managed by Turning Point.

As an Australian healthcare-focused organisation, Hamilton Centre complies with all applicable state and federal legislation in relation to the privacy, confidentiality, use and disclosure of personal information. In addition, our staff are bound by Eastern Health’s strict privacy and confidentiality policies, as well as a professional code of conduct. You can view Eastern Health’s comprehensive privacy brochure here Your Privacy at Eastern Health.

This Privacy Policy explains how we manage information that may be collected as you access and interact with this site or our services. When you access and interact with this site, we will automatically record non-personal information. This information can include:

• Your server address;

• Your top level domain name;

• Date and time you accessed our site;

• Type of browser used;

• Pages you visited on our site and documents downloaded; and

• The site you visited prior to Hamilton Centre website.

This information that has been de-identified in such a way as to reasonably protect your identity. We collect non-personal information for statistical and administrative purposes, including to highlight where improvements to website functionality and accessibility may be required. To the extent that you may be identified from the non-personal data collected, we will not attempt to do this unless authorised by law.

Contact requests submitted through our site, may require you to provide personal information including your name and contact details. This information will be used to respond to you. It will not be disclosed to any other 3rd party without your knowledge or consent, unless required by law. We may also collect personal information through other interactions with you. This can include when you respond to a survey, attend on information session, interact with us on social media or through telephone, mail, email or text messages. For additional information beyond name and contact details, Hamilton Centre will only collect personal information that is necessary for the interactions or to provide advice, referral, treatment or to perform health-related services. Your information may be disclosed or accessible to health professionals involved in this process, now or at a future time-point. This is to ensure you are provided with the best possible treatment and health outcomes.

Cookies

Hamilton Centre website utilises ‘cookies’. A cookie is a small text file that is stored on your device when you browse the internet. They allow us to collect information on how our website is used. They also help to distinguish you from other users and provide a better user experience when you access our site. We use two types of cookies on our website:

• Session cookies are temporary and last from the time you launch a website to the time you close a browser window. Any information collected is deleted as soon as you do this.

• Persistent cookies remain on your device for a much longer period usually until they expire or are deleted by you.

No personal information is stored within cookies used by our website.

Security of Information

Our website and IT infrastructure have security controls in place to protect information from unauthorised access or disclosure, misuse or loss. Regular audits are conducted to ensure these controls are adequate and effective in maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of your information. However, we can never completely remove the risks in storing and transmitting personal information electronically. We are not able to guarantee that your information will not be viewed, intercepted or modified unlawfully or that downloads from our site don’t contain viruses, worms, disabling codes or other malicious faults. Hamilton Centre accepts no liability for any damages directly or indirectly resulting from the use of our website. If the security of your information still remains of concern, you may prefer to visit us in person at our Richmond office, or contact us by telephone or mail instead.

Hamilton Centre stores and disposes of information in line with the obligations set out in the Public Records Act 1973 (VIC).