Consent for Services Delivered by Phone or Video

 
The use of telephones or video conferencing can come with some unique risks, and it is important to be familiar with these.
 
We only use video platforms (eg, VSee, VirtualCare, Owl Practice) that are designed for healthcare, use end-to-end encryption, and do not record and store the session.  Only the people on the call can access it, and once terminated, there is no audio or video record of the call’s contents.  However, you will be asked to consent to the service’s privacy policy, and will need to provide some information such as your email address.  The service will also maintain a record of the time and date of the call, as well as any messages sent via the secure messaging service in the app.

Instructions on using our video system can be found here.
 
As most sessions are now taking place via phone or video, you may be asked to provide a credit card number which we can keep on file. This will be charged only after services have been rendered, if you are responsible for paying for those services. If so, please contact the office to provide your credit card information. 

While we can research the security of a particular online tool, we are not internet security experts. The internet is constantly evolving and changing in terms of online security and threats to such security. Therefore, clients should bear in mind that there is some loss of control over issues of confidentiality and privacy, in that your clinician cannot guarantee complete security of information exchanged.  However, we can assure you that we consider our online security to be of paramount importance, and that we are reasonably assured of the security of our systems, which is described as bank-level encryption.

(Note that telephones are rarely encrypted, putting them at hypothetically greater risk of hacking or tapping, though this appears to be quite rare. However, if you are anxious about using encrypted video services, it might be worthwhile considering whether a telephone is actually providing greater security--realistically, it is probably less secure.)

It’s important for us to know where you are during the session, so that we can take action in the event of an emergency. 

Because loss of communication could happen at any point during online service (eg, loss of the internet connection), it is important to have a plan in place. This will usually involve us calling the phone number we have on file for you; please let us know if any other arrangements are necessary.

To benefit from phone or video sessions, you will need to ensure that you have a private space in which to make contact with your therapist. If none is available in your home, you might consider doing a phone session from inside a parked car. Video sessions will consume a considerable amount of cellular data, so you might want to consider using video only when you have access to a wireless network.

In addition, we have some expectations of our clients during video sessions.  Please consider this to be a professional interaction; we ask that you be safe (not driving), sober (not consuming alcohol or other impairing substances before or during sessions), and appropriate (not engaging in behaviour, nor dressing in a way, that would be intolerable in an office environment). If we have concerns, we will raise them with you. If the concerns are severe (e.g. grossly inappropriate behaviour) we will terminate all services and consider any other actions as appropriate, up to and including a police complaint.