Introduction
Hiatus House is a registered charity, providing 24/7 emergency shelter for abused women and their children, as well as specialized counselling services for all family members including children and abusive partners.
Who does this privacy statement apply to?
Depending on an individual’s relationship with us, the specific personal information that we collect, use and disclose and the related purposes varies. This Privacy Statement applies to those we serve, our clients.
What is the purpose of this privacy statement?
Clients come to us in a vulnerable state and share their most personal information with us. We understand that maintaining privacy is key to maintaining trust and safety. The purpose of this Privacy Statement is to let you know how we respect your privacy. We may update this Privacy Statement from time to time and encourage you to refer back to it regularly.
Privacy compliance
All of our privacy related practices have been designed to comply with or exceed privacy legislation, including the Canada Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Ontario Personal Health and Information Protection Act, 2004, whether or not such legislation applies to Hiatus House.
How do we collect personal information?
We mostly collect personal information about you directly from you such as, for example, when you fill out our intake forms. We may also collect personal information about you from others who are involved in your care. Occasionally, we collect personal information about you from other sources such as family members, if we have obtained your consent to do so, or if the law permits such collection.
What personal information do we collect, use and disclose and why?
We limit the personal information that we collect about you to that which is necessary for our purposes as outlined in this Privacy Statement. Further, we also only use and disclose your personal information for these purposes. More specifically, the purposes in connection with which we collect, use and disclose your personal information include the following:
- providing or assisting in providing you with the care and services that
- you request
- connecting you with other service providers and working with them to
- provide you with the care and services you request such as for
- example: physicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses,
- community service providers and mental health associations.
- responding to your requests
- ensuring your safety and the safety of our staff
- verifying identity and preventing fraud
- accurate record keeping
- training
- planning, administering, managing and evaluating our operations
- conducting quality improvement and research activities, such as
- surveys
- fulfilling our legal obligations and complying with applicable law
- including for example: reporting child abuse and complying with
- subpoenas and search and coroners warrants4
- any other purposes permitted by law
If the personal information we require is collected for a reason other than as outlined in this Privacy Statement or if a new purpose arises, we will seek your further consent.
What won’t we do with your personal information?
We assure you that we do not sell or rent your personal information. Nor do we disclose your personal information to any persons that are not involved in providing care and services to you.
What do we do to protect privacy?
We are responsible for the personal information within our control. We have established policies and procedures, specifically designed to protect personal information from theft, loss, unauthorized use, disclosure, copying, modification or disposal. We educate our staff about these policies and procedures and monitor compliance on a regular basis.
What do we do to ensure our service providers protect privacy?
From time to time, we may engage third party service providers to assist us with our purposes such as, for example, information technology experts. We contractually obligate all of our third-party service providers to protect your privacy.
Help us keep your personal information up to date
We rely on you to let us know of any changes to your personal information that may be relevant to your relationship with us. This way we can keep our records accurate and up to date, which helps us to protect your privacy.
Your control over your own personal information
When you or someone you have authorized, provides us with your personal information, you are consenting to Hiatus House’s collection, use and disclosure of that personal information for the purposes outlined in this Privacy Statement. In many circumstances, we also employ other methods to further ensure consent, such as just-in-time notifications. For example, our forms often contain consent provisions and alerts to our Privacy Statement.
You can change your consent preferences or withdraw your consent for the collection, use and disclosure of any or all of your personal information, at any time (see contact information below). It is important to note however, that when you change or withdraw your consent, it will not have a retroactive effect; it may have implications to you and it will not affect the collection, use and disclosure of personal information where such collection use and disclosure is permitted or required by law without consent.
You may, subject to a few limited legal exceptions, access your personal information. If any inaccuracies are noted, you can request that we correct those inaccuracies.
Contact us
We are committed to providing you with understandable and easily available information about our privacy policies and procedures. We encourage you to let us try to resolve any privacy concerns that you may have. Please contact us with any questions you might have. You can reach our Privacy Officer as follows:
- By telephone at: (519) 252-1143 Extension 2239
- By email at: admin@hiatushouse.com
- Or send a letter to: Hiatus House, 250 Louis Avenue, Windsor, Ontario
- N9A 1W2 Attention: Privacy Officer