Confidentiality, Complaints, Rights & Privacy

Confidentiality

All information provided to Ōtepoti Communities Against Sexual Abuse is confidential, except in the following situations:

• If there is clear danger or risk of danger to yourself
• If there is clear danger or risk of danger to a child/children
• If there is clear danger or risk of danger to another person
• External and peer supervision purposes.

If we have concerns about your own or someone else’s safety, we will consult with a clinical supervisor before deciding if we need to speak to another party.

Complaints Process

If you are not happy with the service you have received from Ōtepoti Communities Against Sexual Abuse or your treatment whilst using our service, you have the right to make a complaint.

You can make a complaint either in person, via telephone or in writing.

You can raise your complaint with either:

1. Your support worker, or if you are not comfortable raising the complaint with that person, you can:
2. Ask to speak to, or make your complaint in writing to another Staff member or one of our Complaints People
3. Make a complaint with the support of a Health and Disability Commission’s Complaints Advocate.

In the event of a complaint being made, Ōtepoti Communities Against Sexual Abuse will inform you of the processes, contact details and time-frames to investigate any matters you have raised.

Ōtepoti Communities Against Sexual Abuse’s full complaints and full confidentiality policy documents are available upon request.

Your Rights

Ōtepoti Communities Against Sexual Abuse’s Collective members respect your rights under the Health and Disability Code of Rights (1996).

Under the Health and Disability Code of Rights (1996), you have the right:

• To be treated with respect
• To freedom from discrimination, coercion, harassment and exploitation
• To dignity and independence
• To services of an appropriate standard
• To effective communication
• To be fully informed
• To make an informed choice and give informed consent
• To support
• To complain
• To have an advocate

Privacy Statement

Rape Crisis Dunedin Incorporated, Trading as ŌCASA (Ōtepoti Communities Against Sexual Abuse) provides advice, assistance and direct support to survivors of sexual violence. In this statement, we will refer to ŌCASA as “we”, “our” or “us”.

Your Privacy is important to us. We have processes in place to ensure that when you contact us or use our services in any way, we meet our obligations to you under the Privacy Act 2020. Your information can only be accessed by authorised staff and is protected against unauthorised use, modification, access, or disclosure.

All our staff have signed a confidentiality agreement. All staff must also comply with their professional and ethical obligations of confidence.

When you call us or use our services it is important that you understand how we manage your information.

How We Collect & Use Your Information

We usually collect personal information directly from you when you contact us by any method; including telephone, text, email, online form on our website, or written correspondence. This may include your name, gender, ethnicity, date of birth, contact details and other information which helps us provide you with support. We may also check our records to make sure that we identify you correctly if you have used our services before.
When you contact us to make a donation, we will retain only your name and email address. We will not pass on or sell your personal information to any other person or company.

All access to donor financial information is strictly limited to professional staff responsible for processing and reporting on this data.

We sometimes collect or receive information from a third party, for example from a member of your family/whanau or from someone who is looking after or supporting you. If someone contacts us on behalf of another person, we also collect the name and contact details of the person contacting us.

We collect and use your information to provide you with the best advice and support possible. This includes providing you with information about other services, and with your consent, may include connecting you to other services. In order for us to do this, and to make safe decisions, we collect and use your information for a number of purposes:

• To contact you to offer information, support and advice
• To fully assess your needs and provide services in a timely manner
• To check previous use of our service to ensure you are connected to the right support and services within our organisation
• With your consent we pass relevant information to other service providers so that they have the information they need to support you
• If we believe that you or someone else is in immediate danger, we may pass your information onto the police, Oranga Tamariki or mental health services

On occasion we may need to speak to you to provide you with further information, support and advice.

You can choose not to provide relevant information to us, however this may affect our ability to fully assess your needs and provide you with the right support . If you choose not to provide us with information we will provide you with the best support we can based on the information you do provide.

We will not contact you unless you have requested this or provided consent via a third party such as the police or the hospital.

If we do try to contact you, and we can’t reach you, we will only leave a text or voice message if you have consented for us to do so.

Online feedback and Online Contact Form

When providing anonymous feedback on our website, we do not collect your personal details unless you choose to provide that information to us. We collect feedback information to improve our services and provide further support if that is requested. If you do provide your name and contact details we will only contact you if you give us consent.

If you use our online contact form, we will use that information to contact you if that is what you have requested and to assess your needs to ensure we provide the right support at the right time.

Voicemail Recordings

When you leave a voice message on our support line, we collect any information relevant you provide and use that information to assess your needs and contact you if that is requested. We do not keep voice recordings once we have responded to you query.

Text Messages

If you send any of our staff messages via telephone texts, we will collect that information and record it on your file. We use this information to assess your needs and provide you with the right support and services.

Who We May Share Your Information With

When a third party refers you to our service, we check with them that you have consented for our service to contact you. If consent is confirmed and our attempts to contact you are unsuccessful, we may contact the referrer to inform them that we have been unable to make contact with you.
We do not share your information with any other party unless you have consented for us to do so or unless we are permitted or required by law. This might include:

• Disclosing relevant information where that is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to someone’s life, health or safety or a threat to public health or safety.
• For audit and complaint management as set out below.

When we disclose your personal information to third parties, we make all reasonable efforts to ensure we disclose only relevant information and that it is accurate, complete and up to date.

We will not sell or rent your identifiable information to anyone, including any insurance or commercial company, without your express permission.

Information That Does Not Identify You

We provide non-identifiable information to the Ministry of Social Development and other organisations that fund our services for accountability and auditing purposes, we do not disclose your name or contact details.

Storage of Information

ŌCASA have systems and procedures in place to protect your information from misuse and loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Your information is stored securely in a secure client management system, and is accessed only by staff providing services to you, or in the course of carrying out service quality reviews and audits. All staff have signed confidentiality agreements and are our bound by professional and ethical confidentiality obligations. We have policies and procedures in place that prevent unauthorised disclosure of your information.

If Your Want To See A Copy of Your Information

You are entitled to request information that we hold about you. Prior to providing information we will ask you for evidence to confirm your identity and ensure that you are entitled to the information requested.

We may not be able to provide you with all information if it contains details about other people, or if it would be unsafe to provide the information to you. If we cannot provide you with the information requested we will tell you the reason for refusing your request.

Correction of Information

If you believe information we hold about you is incorrect, you have the right to request that the information be corrected. If we are unable to correct that information, we will tell you the reason why. If we cannot change information we hold about you, you do have the right to request that a statement of correction is attached to the information we hold.

Making A Complaint

If you believe your privacy has been breached and you wish to make a complaint you can make a complaint to ŌCASA’s Privacy Officer or Governance Committee using the following contact details:

Email:  support@ocasa.org.nz
Phone:  03 474 1592
Address:  ŌCASA, PO Box 5424, Dunedin 9054

For more information about our obligations and your rights under the Privacy Act 2020 please click on the following link: https://www.privacy.org.nz