Who is responsible for your information

Little Bird Psychology is a private psychology practice operated by Lisa Bird, Clinical Psychologist. Little Bird Psychology is responsible for the personal information it holds and must handle health information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles and applicable professional obligations.

Contact: hello@littlebirdpsychology.com.au

Practice location: 58 Channel Highway, Kingston, Tasmania

What information is collected

The information collected depends on the service requested. It may include:

• identity and contact details, date of birth, pronouns and relevant demographic information;

• referral information, reasons for assessment and service preferences;

• health, developmental, educational, family, social and employment information;

• information about disability, neurotype, mental health, medication, risk and support needs;

• questionnaire responses, test results, interview information and behavioural observations;

• information supplied by parents, carers, partners, relatives, teachers, schools, psychologists, medical practitioners and other informants;

• appointment, consent, communication, billing and payment records;

• clinical notes, working documents, transcripts where separately consented to, assessment reports and correspondence;

• website and enquiry information, including technical information generated when the website is used.

Little Bird Psychology only seeks information that is reasonably necessary for assessment, related clinical work, practice administration or another lawful purpose. You may use a pseudonym or remain anonymous when making a general enquiry where this is practical. Assessment itself usually cannot be provided without accurate identifying and health information.

How information is collected

Information may be collected directly from you in person, by telephone or video, through the website, email, SMS, forms, the client portal, interviews and assessment activities. With appropriate authority, information may also be collected from a parent or carer, an informant, a referring practitioner, a school, a treating professional, a previous report or another relevant record.

If you provide information about another person, please only provide information that is relevant to the assessment and that you are authorised or reasonably expected to provide. Informants are told that their information may form part of the client’s clinical record and assessment report.

Why information is used

Personal information may be used to:

• respond to enquiries and decide whether Little Bird Psychology is an appropriate service;

• plan, conduct and document psychological assessment;

• score and interpret assessment measures and integrate information from different sources;

• form clinical opinions, prepare reports and recommendations, and provide feedback;

• communicate with authorised informants, practitioners, schools and other people involved in the assessment;

• manage appointments, forms, invoices, payments, refunds, records and practice administration;

• meet legal, professional, insurance, audit, security and record-keeping obligations;

• respond to a serious safety concern, emergency, complaint, legal request or suspected data breach.

If reasonably necessary information is not provided, Little Bird Psychology may be unable to assess the referral question, reach a reliable opinion, prepare a report or provide the requested service. Where possible, this will be discussed before a decision is made.

Artificial intelligence and NovoNote

With your specific consent, Little Bird Psychology may use NovoNote, an artificial-intelligence documentation service provided by NovoPsych, to assist with clinical notes, transcription and preparation of assessment reports. There are two separate uses and you may agree to one, both or neither:

AI-assisted documentation and report preparation. Relevant clinical notes, questionnaire results, records and assessment findings may be processed to help organise or draft documentation.

Live transcription. NovoNote may temporarily capture audio from a session and convert it to text. Consent is confirmed again before recording begins at each session.

NovoPsych states that session notes and transcripts are stored on servers in Australia, audio is cached only temporarily and deleted after successful transcription, information is encrypted, and client information is not used to train NovoNote or third-party language models. NovoPsych also states that personal identifiers are redacted before de-identified information is processed by contracted third-party language-model providers. Those providers may operate outside Australia. Little Bird Psychology periodically reviews these arrangements and does not rely on a vendor’s compliance claim as a substitute for its own obligations.

NovoNote is a documentation assistant. It does not decide whether diagnostic criteria are met. Lisa remains responsible for clinical decisions and checks the source information, scores, attributions, diagnostic reasoning, recommendations and final wording before a clinical note or report is relied upon or released.

AI and transcription systems can make errors, omit context or generate wording that is not supported by the evidence. There is also a residual privacy and cybersecurity risk whenever information is processed electronically. These risks are reduced through specific consent, data minimisation, restricted access, clinician review and deletion of unnecessary working transcripts and drafts.

You can decline or later withdraw consent to NovoNote without losing access to assessment or being treated differently. Withdrawal applies to future processing and recording; it may not be possible to reverse processing that has already occurred or remove information that must be kept as part of the clinical record. If consent is declined or withdrawn, documentation will be prepared without NovoNote.

When information may be shared

Little Bird Psychology does not sell client information. Information may be shared:

• with a person or organisation you have authorised, such as a GP, psychologist, psychiatrist, paediatrician, school or family member;

• with service providers that support assessment or practice operations, including Zanda, NovoPsych and NovoNote, Google Workspace, Stripe, website and communication providers, psychometric publishers and secure technology support;

• where required or authorised by law, including in response to a valid subpoena, court order, mandatory report or other lawful process;

• where reasonably necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to life, health or safety, or for another permitted health or privacy purpose;

• with professional advisers, insurers, auditors or regulators where reasonably necessary and subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.

Only the information reasonably necessary for the purpose is shared. A full assessment report is not routinely given to a school; a brief school summary is preferred where that meets the need.

Overseas processing and cloud services

Little Bird Psychology uses cloud-based services. Some providers store data in Australia, while some website, email, payment, support or technology providers may store or process information in other countries, including the United States or locations used by their approved subprocessors. Provider arrangements can change. Little Bird Psychology takes reasonable steps to select reputable providers, restrict information to what is needed, use available security settings and assess cross-border privacy risk. Where a proposed disclosure of identifiable health information overseas requires consent or additional safeguards, these will be addressed before the disclosure occurs.

Storage, security and retention

Zanda is the primary clinical record. Final reports and relevant clinical records are stored there. Working documents may be held temporarily in approved systems while an assessment is underway. Little Bird Psychology uses reasonable technical and organisational safeguards, including access controls, strong authentication, encryption offered by service providers, device security, backups and data minimisation.

NovoNote transcripts and working AI drafts are deleted once the relevant note or report has been checked and saved to the primary clinical record, ordinarily within 30 days. Material may be retained longer where it is necessary to resolve an accuracy issue, complaint, legal obligation or clinical risk; the reason is documented. Clinical records are retained for the period required by applicable law and professional standards, taking account of the client’s age and the nature of the service. Information that is no longer required and is not legally required to be retained is securely deleted or de-identified where practical.

No system can be guaranteed completely secure. If a suspected or actual data breach occurs, Little Bird Psychology will contain and assess it and will notify affected people and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner where the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires this.

Children and young people

For a child or young person, consent and privacy are considered in light of age, maturity, decision-making capacity, parental responsibility, safety and the purpose of assessment. A parent or carer may provide consent where legally appropriate. A mature young person may consent on their own behalf. Little Bird Psychology seeks the young person’s understanding and agreement wherever practical and explains how information may be shared with parents or carers. Separate agreement is considered for each person whose conversation would be recorded or transcribed.

Access and correction

You may ask to access personal information held about you or request a correction if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. Requests should be made by email. Identity may need to be verified. Access may be provided in a form that protects test security, third-party privacy, legal privilege and the safety of any person. If access or correction is refused, Little Bird Psychology will ordinarily provide written reasons and available complaint options, unless it would be unreasonable or unlawful to do so. Reasonable administrative charges may apply where permitted, but a fee is not charged simply for making a request.

Privacy questions and complaints

Please email hello@littlebirdpsychology.com.au if you have a privacy question or complaint. Describe what happened and what outcome you are seeking. Little Bird Psychology will acknowledge the concern and aim to respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au or another relevant complaints body, including the Health Complaints Commissioner Tasmania where applicable.