Collection and Storage of Information

The Compassionate Care service collects personal, contact, and clinical information during the initial intake session. Information is stored electronically on a password-protected computer database system. It is kept for seven years (following the guidelines set out by the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers) and then destroyed. You may access a hard copy of your file by submitting a signed and dated “Request to Obtain File Information” form, available on request. Your information may be privately shared, without revealing any personally identifying information, with other counsellors for the purposes of record-keeping, supervision, and clinical education. From time to time it is necessary for other professionals (doctors, lawyers etc.) to view file information. In this case, you would need to sign a “Consent to Disclose Information” form before we would disclose your information. E-mails may be stored electronically and will be treated with the same level of privacy as your personal file.