Great Lakes Privacy & Policies

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Policy

Customer Service Standard

 Introduction

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) was passed by the Ontario legislature with the goal of creating a fully accessible Ontario by 2025.

AODA Section 1:

“Recognizing the history of discrimination against persons with disabilities in Ontario, the purpose of this Act is to benefit all Ontarians by,

(a) developing, implementing and enforcing accessibility standards in order to achieve accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities with respect to goods, services, facilities, accommodation, employment, buildings, structures and premises on or before January 1, 2025; and

(b) providing for the involvement of persons with disabilities, of the Government of Ontario and of representatives of industries and of various sectors of the economy in the development of the accessibility standards.”

One of the five standards developed, and now law, is the Customer Service Standard. This standard details specific requirements for all organizations with one or more employees. Under the Customer Service Standard, all applicable employees, volunteers, board members, contractors and family members, must be trained on the following areas:

  1. Establish policies, practices and procedures on providing goods, services or facilities to people with disabilities.
  2. Use reasonable efforts to ensure that your policies, practices and procedures are consistent with the core principles of independence, dignity, integration and equality of opportunity.
  3. Set a policy on allowing people to use their own, personal assistive devices to access your goods and use your services and about any other measures your organization offers (assistive devices, services, or methods) to enable them to access your goods and use your services.
  4. Communicate with a person with a disability in a manner that takes into account his or her disability.
  5. Allow people with disabilities to be accompanied by their guide dog or service animal in those areas of the premises you own or operate that are open to the public, unless the animal is excluded by another law. If a service animal is excluded by law, use other measures to provide services to the person with a disability.
  6. Permit people with disabilities who use a support person to bring that person with them while accessing goods or services in premises open to the public or third parties.
  7. Where admission fees are charged, provide notice ahead of time on what admission, if any, would be charged for a support person of a person with a disability.
  8. Provide notice when facilities or services that people with disabilities rely on to access or use your goods or services are temporarily disrupted.
  9. Train all staff, volunteers, contractors and any other people who interact with the public or other third parties on your behalf on a number of topics as outlined in the Customer Service Standard.
  10. Train all staff, volunteers, contractors and any other people who are involved in developing your policies, practices and procedures on the provision of goods or services on a number of topics as outlined in the customer service standard.
  11. Establish a process for people to provide feedback on how you provide goods or services to people with disabilities and how you will respond to any feedback and take action on any complaints. Make the information about your feedback process readily available to the public.

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services is committed to excellence in serving all customers including persons with disabilities.

Assistive Devices

 Assistive technology is a term used to describe the various forms of devices such as assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices used to assist persons with disabilities. These devices are used to support the needs of the individual person and specific disability by enabling them to perform tasks that they may not have been able to accomplish formerly.

Examples of assistive devices include hearing aids, speech amplification devices, white canes, wheelchairs, screen readers, etc. Ontario Employers are not responsible for providing any assistive devices under the Customer Service Standard, but rather, are responsible for ensuring all employees are properly trained.

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will ensure that our staff is trained and familiar with various assistive devices that may be used by customers with disabilities while accessing our good and services.

 Communication

Accessible customer service requires employees to overcome and find ways around different barriers that customers may have.  Employers need to ensure that their employees are trained on how to successfully communicate with customers with disabilities to ensure accessible goods and services.

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services employees will communicate with people with disabilities in ways that take into account their disabilities.

Service Animals

With certain types of disabilities, an animal may be more of an assistive form of aid rather than a device. These services animals are trained to carry out certain tasks that help people with disabilities. There are three types of assistive animals that have been categorized by the international assistance animal community:

  1. Guide Animals: Used to guide the blind
  2. Hearing Animals: Used to help signal the hearing impaired
  3. Service Animals: Used to do work for persons with disabilities other than blindness or deafness

Under the Customer Service Standard, service animals must be allowed on parts of the workplace premises (excluding certain areas such as a kitchen).  Fines for denying a service animal access in areas for the general public can be up to $3000 in Ontario.

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will welcome people with disabilities and their service animals into our workplace when it is readily apparent that the animal is used by the person for reasons relating to his or her disability or, if the person provides a letter from a regulated health care professional, confirming the need for a service animal for reasons relating to a disability.

Support Persons

Support persons are those that help persons with disabilities perform day to day tasks. Without support, the person may not be able to access your organization.  All support persons should be welcomed into the workplace.

A person with a disability who is accompanied by a support person will be allowed to have that person accompany them on our premises.

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services may require a person with a disability to be accompanied by a support person when on premises, but only if a support person is necessary to protect the health or safety of the person with a disability or the health or safety of other-s on the premises.  We will consult with the person with a disability to understand their needs.

Notice of Temporary Disruption

In the event of a planned or unexpected disruption to services or facilities for customers with disabilities at Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will notify customers promptly. A clearly posted notice will include information about the reasons for the disruption, its anticipated length of time and a description of alternative facilities or services, if available. The notice will be posted at the point of service or facility disruption.

Training

Under the Customer Service Standard all employees must be trained.  Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will provide training to all employees, volunteers and others who deal with the public or other third parties on our behalf.

Our training will include:

  • An overview of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005
  • The requirements for the Customer Service Standard
  • How to interact with people with various types of disabilities
  • How to interact with people with disabilities who use an assistive device
  • How to interact with people who use the assistance of a service animal
  • How to interact with people who use a support person
  • How to use any equipment or devices available at your workplace to assist with providing goods or services to persons with disabilities
  • What to do if a person with a disability is having difficulty accessing our organization’s goods or services

New employees will be trained after being hired, within two (2) weeks, and retrained in the event that changes are made to the policy.

Feedback Process

A process must be established for receiving feedback on how companies will provide service to customers with disabilities, and how companies will respond back and take action on any complaints.

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services customers who wish to provide feedback on the way we provide goods, services or facilities to people with disabilities can provide feedback via email info@glccs.ca, phone 519-861-9878 or mail 4077 Highway 3 East Simcoe, ON, N3Y 4K4

All feedback, including complaints, will be handled by Human Resources and you can expect to hear back within ten (10) business days in the manner within which the feedback was originally communicated.

If you require accessible formats or communication supports to give or receive feedback, please notify us using the contact information listed above.

Modifications to This or Other Policies:

Any policy of Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services that does not respect and promote the dignity and independence of people with disabilities will be modified or removed.

Commitment to Persons with Disabilities

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services is committed to treating all people in a way that allows them to maintain their dignity and independence. We believe in integration and equal opportunity and are committed to meeting the needs of people with disabilities in a timely manner. We will do so by preventing and removing barriers to accessibility and meeting accessibility requirements under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (2005).

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services has developed and made available upon request, this policy and a multi-year accessibility plan which outlines the actions we will put in place to improve opportunities for people with disabilities.

Please refer to the multi-year plan for details about how Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will address the following:

Information and Communications Standard:

  • Accessible Emergency Information
  • Feedback from Customers and Employees
  • Accessible Formats and Communication Supports
  • Emergency Procedures/Plan or Public Safety Information
  • Accessible Websites & Web Content
  • Kiosks

Employment Standard:

  • Recruitment, assessment and selection
  • Accessible formats and communication supports for employees
  • Workplace emergency response information
  • Documented Individual accommodation plans
  • Return to work process
  • Performance Management
  • Career Development and Advancement
  • Redeployment

Design of Public Spaces Standard

  • New or redeveloped existing exterior paths
  • New or redeveloped existing off-street parking facilities
  • Service Counters
  • Fixed waiting lines
  • Waiting Areas

The Transportation Standard and some of the requirements under the Design of Public Spaces Standard does not pertain to Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services at this time.  Should this change in the future, Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will ensure it meets the requirements of these standards.

Training

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will provide training to employees and volunteers on Ontario’s accessibility laws and on the Ontario Human Rights Code as it relates to people with disabilities.  Training will be provided in a way that best suits the duties of the employees, volunteers and others who represent the organization.  This training will be included in the orientation process; within the first two weeks of hire.  Training will include but is not limited to, the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation and the Ontario Human Rights Code as it pertains to persons with disabilities.

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will take the following steps to ensure employees and volunteers are provided with the training needed to meet Ontario’s accessibility laws.   The ADL Group will utilize the video program created and hosted by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Working Together: The Code and the AODA. 

The program includes sections on:

  • the Code
  • understanding the duty to accommodate
  • applying human rights principles
  • compliance and enforcement

In addition, Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services policy and multi-year plan will be reviewed during the training session. Training records will be kept as a record of who has been trained and when they were trained.

For more information on this policy or the multi-year accessibility plan, please contact Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services via email info@glccs.ca, phone (519) 861-9878 or mail 4077 Highway 3 East Simcoe, ON, N3Y 4K4

Accessible forms of this document and the accessibility plan are available upon request, please contact Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services using the contact information noted above.

Client Privacy and Confidentiality

We take client privacy seriously.

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services is in compliance with the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), and The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). The following Personal/Health Information Privacy Commitment policy details how Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services protects clients’ confidential personal/health information. Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will protect your personal/health information by adhering to the following principles:

  • Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services staff will safeguard, according to strict standards of security and confidentiality, any information you share with us.
  • Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will limit the collection, use and disclosure of client information to what is necessary to deliver comprehensive health care services.
  • Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will only permit its authorized staff members who are either providing direct health care service or providing administrative support to have access to client information. In summary, only those staff who have a need to know or a right to know will have access to client information. This will apply to information in all forms including paper client charts and administrative forms.
  • All Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services staff members will adhere to individual confidentiality and privacy commitments. This commitment will be reviewed on a regular basis. All staff will undergo rigorous privacy education and regularly review privacy policies and procedures. Staff who violate our Privacy Commitment will be subject to our normal performance management process.
  • Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will not reveal client information to any external organization unless we have previously informed the client in disclosures or agreements, have been authorized by the client, or are required to do so by law.
  • Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will not use or share, internally or externally, personally identifiable medical information for any purpose other than the provision or administration of a client’s health service or account, or as disclosed to the customer when the information is collected, or to which the customer consents.
  • Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services will strive to keep all client files complete, up-to-date and accurate. We will advise clients how and where to conveniently access their health record information and how to notify us of errors, which will be promptly corrected.
  • Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services has appointed a Privacy Officer to oversee, monitor and report all client privacy issues and concerns. You may contact the privacy officer at:

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services Privacy Officer

Tara Telfer
4077 Highway 3 E
Simcoe, ON, N3Y 4K4
Email: info@glccs.ca
Tel: 519-861-9878

Online Security – Safeguards

There are extensive safeguards built into the Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services website and the servers’ operating system it runs on. Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services ensures protected end-to-end encryption across all devices. All communication and registration information on the website is encrypted using SSL/TLS technology.

We chose partners who provide encrypted software to ensure your video talk and text counselling is private and secure. These software providers have solid security measures as they are used by other health providers across Canada. We license our technology from OnCall Health. They are committed to maintaining complete privacy between healthcare providers and their clients.

Personal Information

Your therapist is registered with their College and adheres to their privacy requirements.

Necessary personal information is collected during registration and assessment for your working file/chart in order to provide you an effective treatment plan. We protect its confidentiality and your rights regarding this information. The nature of personal information that Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services  may include is:

  • Information required to create and maintain a working file according to the standards of your therapist’s profession and their College such as your name, address and phone number. Your Provider will collect information about your online session including notes detailed enough to reflect the scope of the work and your therapist’s actions in this regard, any correspondence sent or received, any consents or other documents you have signed, copies of papers you have given your therapist, and other documentation particular to the nature of your involvement.
  • Information necessary for billing purposes which may include reference to your health insurance plans, Employee Assistance Program and their standards; third party payers; and copies of all receipts given to you including copies of electronic payments, copies of invoices and billing records.
  • Information related to the scheduling of appointments with you.

Your therapist will collect this information for the following reasons:

  • To maintain a clinical file/chart or working file that meets the standards of their College.
  • To provide this Service to you in a manner that ensures your safety.
  • To maintain a high standard of professionalism in the provision of Service.
  • To assist the process of billing for Services.
  • To meet other legal and regulatory requirements.
  • To maintain records pertaining to the operations of a business and to make these records available if requested.

There will be times when your therapist may ask if they may contact your healthcare providers. You may request your therapist to contact healthcare providers as well. On these occasions, your therapist will always discuss this information, sharing with you and will look at the benefits and consequences of speaking to others about your situation. Your therapist will then ask you for informed, written consent to share information. Information about you or your situation will not be released without your informed and written consent except in circumstances which there are legal limitations to confidentiality.

Confidentiality on the part of your therapist may be waived under circumstances wherein your therapist is bound by law to report to legal authorities under the following circumstances:

  • If the therapist is required by law to do so;
  • If the therapist assesses that there is a risk of harm to the client or others;
  • If the therapist assesses that a child may have been harmed in the past, or that a child is at risk of harm in the present or future. In all cases, the therapist has a legal duty to report this;
  • If the therapist is bound to report a colleague to their College for professional misconduct; and/or
  • If the therapist is required to defend themselves against a complaint filed with their College.
  • If the therapist assesses that there is a risk to the country; threats of terrorism.

Your Provider will make every attempt to safeguard your personal information. You need to know the following:

  • Your file contains all the personal information about you and your situation with the exception of copies of billing information such as receipts and electronic payments. Files are secured on an encrypted drive/secure database or locked in an office cabinet.
  • Your therapist will not store information about you on a computer un-encrypted.
  • Your name is maintained according to regulations set by the therapist’s profession and their College and in accordance with other legal requirements.
  • When information about you is no longer required, it is destroyed or deleted from an encrypted drive.
  • In the event of client transfer, incapacity or death, a designated therapist may have access to your information in order to assist you in a transfer to another therapist or to maintain the file according to legal and regulatory standards. This therapist would also be a member of their College and would be obligated to provide all Services to the same standard that your therapist would.

Your Rights                                                                    

You have the right to request to see any personal information that your therapist has collected about you or your situation. You have the right to view your clinical file. Your therapist will assist you to understand what has been written in your file. If you believe that some information about you is incorrect, you may request that the information be changed. They will then correct this information with any third parties who may have been given the wrong information. If you wish to view your file or if you have any concerns about the privacy of your information, please contact your therapist.

Using Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services  on Wi-Fi and Hotspot

We do not recommend using our services on public Wi-Fi networks or use Hotspots. Use your mobile provider’s data plan or an Ethernet connection at home. Your communication with us may be vulnerable when using public access networks. It is your responsibility to ensure your end of the communication is private and secure.

Cookies

The Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services web site may use “cookies” to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services ecounselling.ca pages, or register with Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services ecounselling.ca site or services, a cookie helps Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services ecounselling.ca to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses and so on. When you return to the same Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services ecounselling.ca web site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services ecounselling.ca features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services services or web sites you visit.

If you have any questions about the Privacy Policy, please contact us. 

Great Lakes Counselling & Consultation Services Privacy Officer

Tara Telfer

4077 Highway 3 E
Simcoe, ON, N3Y 4K4
Email: info@glccs.ca
Tel: 519-861-9878