Privacy Policy
Wiser Minds Psychology ("Wiser Minds," "we," "our," "us") is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your personal and health information. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, how we protect it, and your rights in relation to it.
1. Who we are
Wiser Minds Psychology is an independent psychology practice founded and operated by Andrew Bechara, a registered psychologist (AHPRA registration PSY0002506656). Our contact details are at the end of this policy.
2. What information we collect
We collect personal and health information that is reasonably necessary for the provision of psychological services. This includes:
- Identifying information: your name, date of birth, address, phone number, email address, Medicare number, and emergency contact details.
- Health information: medical history, mental health history, presenting concerns, treatment goals, clinical assessment results, session notes, test scores, and any correspondence with GPs or other health practitioners.
- Billing information: invoicing records and Medicare, NDIS or insurer claim information. Wiser Minds does not collect card details through this website. According to Halaxy's Australian electronic payments guide, card details are stored securely through its payment partner rather than in the Halaxy patient record. The full card details are not visible to Wiser Minds or retrievable by Halaxy.
- Referral information: Mental Health Treatment Plans, referral letters, and information provided by referring clinicians.
- Website enquiry information: information entered in the enquiry form, including contact, service, funding and referral details that are reasonably needed to assess fit and arrange next steps.
- Website and campaign measurement: most pages load Google Analytics and Google Ads base tags. The interactive resources page does not. On measured pages, Google may receive information such as the page address, device and browser information, approximate location, referral source and advertising click identifiers in accordance with Google's technology and account settings. Form answers and contact details are not included in the site's fixed accepted-enquiry measurement event.
3. How we collect it
We collect information directly from you, through our contact form, intake documentation, session discussions, and correspondence, and from referring practitioners where applicable. Where a third party (such as a family member or support coordinator) provides information about you, we will tell you so unless doing so would be unreasonable or impracticable.
Website form submissions are processed by Formspree, a third-party form service, so that the information can be delivered to Wiser Minds. Formspree may process or store submission information outside Australia, and its handling is also governed by its privacy policy and service terms.
The interactive tools on the resources page run in your browser. Wiser Minds' tool code does not submit your entries or save them in browser storage, and Google Analytics and Google Ads tags are not loaded on that page. A locally hosted PDF library is loaded only if you choose to download a worksheet and creates that file in your browser. Wiser Minds does not receive the worksheet.
4. Why we collect it and how we use it
We collect and use your information for the following primary purposes:
- Providing psychological assessment, therapy, and related services.
- Communicating with you about appointments, reports, fees, and administrative matters.
- Processing Medicare and NDIS claims where applicable.
- Maintaining clinical records in line with the record-keeping obligations of AHPRA and the Psychology Board of Australia.
- Communicating with referring practitioners where you have consented or where required by the Medicare Benefits Schedule.
- Complying with legal, regulatory, and professional obligations.
5. Disclosure of your information
Your information is kept confidential. We will only disclose your personal or health information in the following circumstances:
- With your consent, for example, communicating with your GP, psychiatrist, or support coordinator.
- Where required by law, for example, a court order, subpoena, or mandatory reporting obligation.
- Where necessary to prevent serious and imminent risk to your life or health, or the life or health of another person.
- To Services Australia (Medicare), limited information required to process rebates under the Medicare Benefits Schedule.
- To professional indemnity insurers and legal advisors, where necessary in the course of managing the practice.
- To service providers that operate the website, including Formspree for enquiry delivery and, on measured pages, Google for website and advertising measurement, as described below.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes under any circumstances.
6. How we store and protect your information
Clinical records are stored in Halaxy, the electronic practice management system used by Wiser Minds. Halaxy states that Australian data is stored in Australia and protected by encryption at rest and in transit. Halaxy also offers configurable user access controls and two-factor authentication. Wiser Minds has not independently audited Halaxy's infrastructure, and this policy does not claim that every optional account safeguard is enabled. Paper records, where kept, are stored securely and destroyed confidentially at the end of the retention period.
Clinical records are retained for a minimum of seven years after your last session (or until an adult client reaches 25 years of age, whichever is longer), in accordance with Australian health records legislation and professional guidelines.
7. Appointment formats
Appointments may be provided at the Blacktown office, by secure telehealth, or, for suitable NDIS services, as mobile or in-home appointments in serviceable Western Sydney areas. The available format depends on the service, clinical suitability, privacy, availability and any funding or approval requirements.
Where telehealth is used, sessions take place through a secure telehealth platform selected for health information privacy requirements. Telehealth sessions are not recorded unless you provide specific written consent and there is a legitimate clinical purpose. Office and mobile appointments are subject to the same confidentiality, consent and clinical record obligations.
8. Your rights
Under the Privacy Act and Australian Privacy Principles, you have the right to:
- Access the personal and health information we hold about you.
- Request correction of information that is inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date.
- Be informed about how your information is being used or disclosed.
- Make a privacy complaint (see below).
- Withdraw consent for specific uses of your information, subject to legal and clinical record-keeping obligations.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@wiserminds.com.au.
9. Complaints
If you believe your privacy has been breached, please contact us first at info@wiserminds.com.au. We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 days and aim to respond within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992) or the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (ahpra.gov.au).
10. Website cookies and measurement
Most pages on this website automatically load Google Analytics 4 and the Google Ads base tag when they open. The interactive resources page does not load either Google measurement tag. On measured pages, these services help Wiser Minds understand website use and evaluate whether paid search produces genuine enquiries. Google may set or read cookies and may process website-use data on servers outside Australia, including in the United States, under Google's privacy policy.
The website code disables Google Signals and advertising-personalisation signals. It does not implement remarketing audiences or enhanced conversions, and it does not send names, email addresses, phone numbers, NDIS numbers or form answers to Google as part of the accepted-enquiry event. Those account-level features must also remain disabled in the connected Google accounts.
The website does not manually store landing-page addresses, full query strings, campaign referrers, UTM parameters or gclid values and does not attach them to Formspree submissions. A referral-specific contact link may add a fixed service-routing marker, such as “support coordinator,” but no source address or campaign attribution is included in that field. On the contact page, audience, purpose, funding and referrer routing details are removed from the page address sent in the site's Google measurement configuration; this does not alter the address used by the enquiry form or remove standard advertising attribution. Google's base tags may still process page and advertising-click information as part of their standard operation.
While the enquiry wizard is used, the site sends fixed Google Analytics events for the first form interaction, the numbered step displayed and a technical submission error. The step event contains only a positive step number. It does not include answers, field contents, names, contact details, funding or service selections, health information, free text, page addresses, query strings or advertising click identifiers. After Formspree confirms that an enquiry was accepted, the site sends a fixed Google Analytics lead event and the fixed Google Ads “Website enquiry accepted” conversion. A contact-page view, button click or visit to the public thank-you page is not treated by the website code as a successful enquiry.
You can prevent or remove Google cookies using your browser's privacy settings or the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. Blocking measurement will not prevent you from reading the website or submitting an enquiry.
11. Children's privacy
Wiser Minds does not currently provide services to children under 12. Where we provide services to adolescents (12 to 17), we follow Australian clinical and legal guidance on informed consent, confidentiality, and parental involvement. These will be discussed transparently at the outset of any engagement.
12. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, practice, or technology. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page indicates when it was most recently revised. Material changes affecting existing clients will be communicated directly.
13. Contact
For any question about this policy or your privacy:
Wiser Minds Psychology
Andrew Bechara, Registered Psychologist (AHPRA PSY0002506656)
Email: info@wiserminds.com.au
ABN: 42 316 794 702