Your Privacy is Important

This outlines your privacy rights and provides information about our privacy practices, which comply with the Personal Health Information and Protection Act to promote the Social Inclusion of Persons with Developmental Disabilities Act (SIPPDA).

If you have any questions about this information, you are welcome to contact us.
1‐888-941-1121.

In this statement, when we say ‘you’ or ‘your’, we are talking to people who are seeking or using our services and their guardians or caregivers.

When we say ‘we’, it means Sunbeam Community and Developmental Services as administrator/host agency of Developmental Services Ontario Central West Region (DSO CWR).

Developmental Services Ontario Central West Region (DSO CWR) has a professional responsibility to keep information about you confidential and to protect your privacy.

We only collect information that is reasonably necessary for us to provide service such as:

Name, phone number and date of birth
Assessment information
Health information including medical conditions
Psychological reports
Information about your family
Information about the supports and services you use or have used in the past

How We Use the Information

The information we collect is used by DSO CWR to:

confirm eligibility
provide linkages to supports and services
understand your needs and urgency for service
identify programs that may interest you
Comply with laws and regulations

DSO CWR also uses information that does not list your name for things not directly related to providing service, such as:

Developing statistical reports
Program evaluation and ongoing service improvement
Service planning

In order to match you with third party service providers who best meet your needs, it may be necessary for us to disclose your personal information to these agencies. In making these disclosures, we will balance the need to maintain your confidentiality with the need to provide agencies with sufficient information to assess their ability to provide safe and high quality services.

What is Informed Consent?

Before you give DSO CWR permission to collect, use, share and store your personal health information, staff will talk to you about the following:

What personal health information is being collected, used, shared and stored
Why personal health information is being collected , used, shared and stored
How personal health information is being collected, used, shared and stored and with whom
That you may choose to give, withhold, withdraw or place limits on the consent you provide
That you may change your mind, at any time
The positive and negative consequences of giving, withholding, withdrawing or limiting consent

If you change your mind about the decision you made.

You can talk to the DSO CWR staff to:

Give, withhold or withdraw the consent you provided
Change what information is shared

There are two types of consent:

Implied Consent: refers to situations in which it is reasonable for DSO CWR to assume you would give your permission, if asked. DSO CWR relies on this type of consent when it is absolutely necessary and the action taken is in your best interest.

Express Consent: refers to situations where you are specifically asked to provide your permission for an action DSO CWR staff needs to take. This type of consent is the most commonly used at DSO

Who Can Make the Decision to Give or Refuse Consent?

Some individuals make their own decisions about consent
If it is too difficult for you to understand and make decisions, then an arrangement is made for someone to help you make decisions or make them for. This is known as a Substitute Decision Maker
If the arrangement with the Substitute Decision Maker doesn’t work out, DSO CWR staff can ask the Consent and Capacity Board or Public Guardian and Trustee to talk to you about the situation

We Keep your Record Safe and Secure by:

Using security codes and passwords
Training staff regularly about privacy and security
Following laws about how long we must keep personal health information in your DSO record
Having staff sign agreements that state they will keep your information as private and secure as possible.

How We Share Your Personal Information

With your consent, your information may be shared with:

Other professionals such as medical specialists, family practitioners, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers or school staff
Agencies who are funded to provide developmental services and supports in Central West Region
People you identify as contacts, such as family members or friends

When parents live apart and have equal access to their son or daughter, DSO CWR is required to share information with both parents.

Information collected is stored in a Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services provincial database and is viewable by other DSOs when appropriate to support planning and provincial level initiatives.

Be advised that if there is suspected abuse, neglect, a danger of harm, urgent need for medical treatment or a court order, the law says that we must share the information with the authorities right away.

Personal information that you have provided to the DSO CWR will be accessed by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. This information is necessary to allow the ministry to forecast and plan the need for developmental services and supports and will be used for that purpose only. The collection of this information is authorized under subsection 35(1) of the Social Inclusion of Persons with Developmental Disabilities Act (SIPPDA), 2008.

Breach in Security

If something unexpected happens and your personal health information is stolen or lost, DSO CWR will contact you to let you know what is being done to address the situation.

Access to Your Information

You have the right to look at the information in your DSO record and to ask us to make corrections if the information is wrong.

Please contact us if you would like to view your information.

Questions and Complaints

Please contact our Privacy Officer:

Brian Swainson
Sunbeam Community and Developmental Services
2749 Kingsway Drive
Kitchener ON, N2C 1A7
Ph: 519-893-6200 or privacy@sunbeamcentre.com

You may also contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario: Information & Privacy Commissioner/Ontario
80 Bloor Street West, Suite 1700 Toronto, ON M5S 2V1
Ph: 1‐800‐387‐0073 or 416‐326‐3333
commissioner@ipc.on.ca

Sunbeam Community and Developmental Services is a non‐profit organization that receives funding from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services.