Privacy policy.
Mentina Therapies Limited is registered as data protection compliant with the Information Commissioner’s Office. It adheres to current data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/2016/679) (GDPR), the Data Protection Act (2018) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
Mentina Therapies Limited collects information about you for the following purposes:
(A) to be able to contact you to book, cancel, or rearrange sessions, as well as liaise with you about topics directly related to our therapy work together, such as onward referrals.
(B) to be able to refer you on to other services or organisations, either as per your agreement with your clinician (only with your consent) or else in the case of risk of harm to you or someone around you – see section ‘confidentiality’.
The information that Mentina Therapies Limited holds about you, is the information that you provide on the new client form. That includes:
(A) your first and last name and date of birth. This, to be able to identify you in case of referrals to other services.
(B) your GP information, to be able to contact your GP in case of need for onward referral to them for urgent psychological support.
(C) your email address and your telephone number. This, to be able to contact you to arrange and manage sessions.
Your information is stored on a secure, password-protected, GDPR-compliant online platform. Your clinician is the only person who has access to this password. Your personal information, together with your clinical notes, make up your clinical record. .
Confidentiality policy.
Your Clinical Record is confidential information. This means that your clinician will not discuss any information you share with them, with a third party (see section ‘Supervision’ in relation to this).
1.1. Risk of Harm
There are exceptions to your right to confidentiality. If you share information with Mentina, which raises concern about your safety or wellbeing, or the safety or wellbeing of somebody around you, adult or child, your clinician will escalate this to appropriate organisations to ensure that your safety and wellbeing, or that of someone around you, is maintained. If it is safe to do so, your clinician will discuss with you before contacting any additional organisation. There may be situations where your consent cannot be sought prior to sharing of information, such as:
it is not safe to contact you to gain your consent – i.e., it may put you or the Mentina Therapies clinician, at further risk.
Your clinician believes that you are you being coerced or under duress.
it is necessary to contact the police to prevent a crime, or to report that a serious crime has been committed.
Mentina Therapies Limited retain the right to choose which entities or organisations to contact in this situation. This may include your GP, the police, social services, and/or your local safeguarding team, but may also include others. In our first session, your clinician will capture your GP details. Your clinician will only contact your GP if they have an immediate concern about your wellbeing. Mentina will share information with these entities and organisations on a need-to-know basis; this means that only the minimal information necessary to ensure the safety of you or others is shared.
Your Clinical Record is private and confidential, and will not be shared with a third party, unless you request this, or if there is a legal obligation for it to be shared – see section notekeeping.
1.2. Safeguarding
Mentina Therapies Limited has a legal obligation to ensure the safety of children, defined as anyone under the age of 18, and adults at risk. Adults at risk are defined in the Care Act (2014) as an individual aged 18 and over who:
(a) has needs for care and support (whether or not the local authority is meeting any of those needs) AND;
(b) is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect, AND;
as a result of those care and support needs is unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of abuse or neglect. Abuse includes the following forms: physical, sexual psychological, neglect, and financial. Abuse can take place in any relationship.
If Mentina Therapies Limited learns about abuse taking place toward an adult at risk, we are obligated to act on this to protect that individual. In this instance, the risk management policy (2.1) applies.
Cancellation policy.
We fully understand that sometimes, our needs and availability changes. If you do need to cancel or reschedule your appointment, please make us aware of this as soon as is possible for you. The easiest way to do this is via emailing contact@mentinatherapies.com
You must provide at least 24 hours’ notice for all cancellations. Appointments which are not cancelled, but not attended, or which are cancelled within 24 hours of the booked time, will be viewed as a “no-show”. No-shows incur a full fee for the missed session. If you do not attend your session, and do not notify us of this, this will be viewed as a “no-show” and will incur the full fee for the missed session.
Cancellations will not impact your ability to book in sessions in the future. However, if you do not pay an invoice, you will be unable to arrange a further session, until the outstanding amount has been paid.