Privacy Policy

1.    Our Commitment to Privacy

The Buttery (we, our and us) understands that your privacy is important to you.

 This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and disclose your personal information, including your health information, when you use our services, donate to us, or interact with our website. It is freely available on our website and on request.

 In this Privacy Policy, people who participate in programs or treatments offered by The Buttery are referred to as participants.

2.    Kinds of Personal Information We Collect and Hold

The kinds of personal information that we may collect and hold about you will vary depending on the nature of your interaction with us, and may include the following types of information:

2.1      Contact Information and Other Key Details

  • Name, address, email, phone number, date of birth

  • Demographic information

  • Emergency contact details

  • Participant concession information

  • Housing support information

2.2      Health and Other Sensitive Information

  • Medical history, medical information and health assessments

  • Treatment plans, support and services provided and progress notes

  • Mental health information

  • Information relating to alcohol, drug, or behavioural support services

2.3      Donor and Financial Information

  • Donation history, value, and designated funds

  • Billing or payment information (processed via third-party payment processors)

  • Private health insurance and Medicare information for residential participants and home-based detox service participants

  • Centrelink and NDIS information, including in respect of entitlements, supports and payments

2.4      Employment Information

  • Information from permanent, temporary, and casual employees, as well as secondees, work experience students and volunteers, as well as applicants for those roles and individuals who formerly held those roles

  • Information collected in connection with prospective, current or former employment may include:

    • personnel name, address, email address, phone number, date of birth, payroll, attendance and leave records

    • personnel bank account details

    • personnel training records, performance management and evaluation records

    • personnel qualifications, certifications, resume

    • records of gender, ethnicity, and disability of personnel for equal employment opportunity reporting purposes

2.5      Video Images and Audio

  • Video footage, including CCTV footage (without sound), at our residential sites

  • A photograph of each residential participant to enable The Buttery’s staff to identify the participant, only with approval of the participant

  • Voice recordings including digitised copies of phone messages left on The Buttery’s phone system

3.    How We Collect and Hold Information

We generally collect your personal information directly from you, including when you:

  • Register to participate in a program or treatment

  • Submit an enquiry or feedback form

  • Donate to The Buttery

  • Subscribe to our newsletters

  • Participate in surveys or online resources

 Personal information may be collected in a variety of forms, including by telephone, in writing (email, fax or otherwise) or in person.

 We may collect your personal information from third parties, including:

  • Any health or other referring organisation or person, including your GP and psychologist

  • Government departments and agencies, including Centrelink and NSW Mental Health

  • Housing support organisations

  • NDIS providers

  • Where you have applied to work at The Buttery, referees, educational or vocational institutions and the police (if we determine that a police check is required).

4.    Purposes for Collection, Holding, Use and Disclosure

We may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for purposes including to:

  • Provide health and support services

  • Manage appointments and communications

  • Maintain clinical records

  • Process donations and issue receipts

  • Update supporters and donors

  • Improve our website and services

  • Conduct quality assurance activities such as monitoring, evaluating and auditing

  • Protect residents’ safety at The Buttery’s residential sites

  • Ensure the safety of The Buttery’s staff

  • Investigate a breach of one of The Buttery’s policies or procedures

  • Determine a person’s suitability for appointment or employment

  • Instruct a debt collection agency to collect a debt on behalf of The Buttery

  • Provide a participant the details of outstanding debts and payment arrangement options e.g., HASI Plus

  • Comply with legal and regulatory obligations

  • Report to funding bodies (in a de-identified form unless otherwise required)

  • Conduct, publish and report on research to evaluate and improve our programs and to contribute to a broader understanding of addiction, mental health and related issues, and as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law.

 We will not use your information for direct marketing without your express consent, and you may opt out of receiving direct marketing from us at any time by contacting us using the details set out in this Privacy Policy or in a direct marketing message.

 If we do not collect your personal information, we may be unable to provide you with health and support services, manage your appointments and communications, maintain your clinical records, process your donations and issue you with receipts, and/or provide you with updates on your treatment or our activities.

5.    Disclosure of Personal Information

We may disclose your information to third parties including to:

  • Qualified staff and health professionals, including third party professionals, involved in your care

  • Third-party IT and service providers who support our operations

  • Funding, accreditation, and regulatory bodies where required

  • Research partners and academic institutions

  • Emergency services if there is a serious threat to your health or safety

  • Government agencies or other government bodies, including:

    • as part of your case management

    • to resolve a complaint by a participant

    • to SafeWork NSW in the event of a work health and safety investigation

    • in order to conduct, publish or report on research

    • Independent agencies to resolve a complaint by a participant

    • Superannuation trustees and/or administrators in relation to The Buttery’s staff

  • Persons described above or other persons as authorised or permitted by law or court order, including:

    • to prescribed bodies under Chapter 16A of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW)

    • where police have a warrant

    • where a subpoena or notice to produce has been issued.

  • 5.1      Overseas Disclosure

Some of our third-party cloud or IT providers may store data overseas (such as in the United States, European Union, or Asia-Pacific regions).

6.    Data Security

We treat the protection of your personal information seriously. We take all reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. Security measures include:

  • Taking all reasonable steps to secure servers and use encryption where appropriate.

  • Role-based access control.

  • Staff confidentiality agreements.

  • Regular cybersecurity reviews.

 We may use AI-enabled tools (including tools provided by our service providers) for functions such as analytics, content personalisation, detecting spam or fraud, and assisting our support teams. We do not use automated decision-making to significantly affect rights or interests of an individual without appropriate human review.

7.    Cookies and Website Analytics

  • Our web servers may automatically collect information when you visit our website, including:

  • your IP address

  • the browser that you are using

  • your website usage data, including the date and time of your visit, the parts of our website you accessed during your visit and your actions on our website.

 In using our website, your personal information may be collected through the use of cookies. These are small text files placed on your mobile device or computer by our website which automatically collect information about you without you providing that information to us directly. We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience and collect anonymous usage statistics. Most browsers are set by default to accept cookies. However, if you do not wish to receive any cookies you may set your browser to either prompt you whether you wish to accept cookies on a particular site, or you may disable cookies through your browser settings to reject cookies by default. Please note that some website functions may not work if cookies are disabled.

 We may use analytics and advertising technologies to understand usage of our website. These technologies may set their own cookies or similar identifiers and may collect information about your device, interactions and approximate location for these purposes.

8.    Access and Correction of Your Personal Information

You may have the right to:

  • Request access to the personal information we hold about you

  • Request corrections if that personal information is inaccurate, out of date, irrelevant, misleading or incomplete.

Where a request is made for access to, or correction of, health information, the request must:

  • be in writing

  • state your name and address

  • sufficiently identify the health information sought access to or claimed to be inaccurate, out of date, irrelevant, misleading or incomplete

  • identify the form in which the health information is to be provided.

You may be permitted to provide written authority for a named third party to access requested health information in your place, or if you lack capacity, your authorised representative may make such an access request.

 We may charge a reasonable fee for providing access to your personal information. Any such fee will not be excessive and will be communicated to you before access is provided. We do not charge a fee for making a correction request.

 We will respond to requests for personal information within the period required by applicable law.

 We may require proof of identity prior to providing access to or correcting personal information.

9.    External Links

Our website may contain links to external sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these third-party sites.

10. Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us using the details below. We will respond within 30 days.

 If you are not satisfied with our response you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or the Privacy Commissioner in NSW (as appropriate) as further described on their respective websites.

11. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. The updated version will be posted on our website with the effective date. Please see above for the date on which this Privacy Policy was last updated.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions or wish to access, update or correct your information, withdraw a consent you have given us, or make a privacy complaint, please contact us using the following details:

 Email:           info@buttery.org.au

Phone:          02 6687 1111

13. Acknowledgment

By using our services or website or donating to us, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.