Within the Fife Psychology Service, your information will be treated confidentially. It is important for you to be aware that, when you are referred to the service and throughout the course of your treatment, your information will be handled confidentially by psychology clinical and administrative staff and information about you may be shared with other health and care professionals to ensure you receive the best treatment. Your information will be stored securely on NHS systems.
It is routine practice for your psychologist/therapist to write to the person who referred you to us to share information about your assessment and treatment. It is important that you are aware of this. Usually the person we write to is your GP but if it was another professional who referred you to us (e.g. Psychiatrist) we would normally write to them and to your GP. This means that everyone involved in your care is kept informed so they can work together in your best interest. The Psychology service is also part of a wider team and we discuss our referrals with other health professionals to make sure you receive the best treatment.
The letters that we write are kept on the NHS electronic system. It can be accessed only by other professionals involved in your care. They need to have a legitimate clinical reason to access these letters. If there is any information that you do not wish to be included in these letters please let us know at your first appointment.
As part of good practice, all psychology staff receive regular clinical supervision. This involves the psychologist/therapist discussing issues relating to a particular patient with a senior colleague. Supervision consultations are held in private and only undertaken as necessary in your best interests.
Although the information that you provide is treated confidentially, there are some limits to this. For instance, if you were at serious risk of harming yourself or someone else, or if you mentioned a child being at risk or a vulnerable adult, then we have a duty to act on this information. We would of course aim to discuss this with you so that you would be aware of what was happening. It is very rare that we have to breach a person’s confidentiality.
