CONFIDENTIALITY

Your Rights to Confidentiality Whatever your age, ability, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief or ethnicity.

What does confidentiality mean?

When you are looking for information, advice or support for yourself you will want to make sure that the person you go to respects your privacy. An important part of protecting your privacy is making sure that members of staff do not tell anyone anything about you without asking you first.

What are your rights to confidentiality?

Young people have rights, which are laid out in the United Convention of the Rights of the Child.

• The right to information
• The right to good health and to services that help you stay healthy
• The right to go to and use services that are about sexual health
• The right to say what you think when someone is making a decision involving you

There is no law about confidentiality. However if a member of staff thought you or someone else was at risk of serious harm this would allow confidentiality to be broken. If you were having sex under the age of 13 (or ever had) members of staff have a duty to report this to protect you.

Will my parents be told?

Parents have a responsibility for your welfare. Staff will try to encourage you to speak to your parent/guardian but the staff will not tell them, if you ask them not to.

Will my GP (own Doctor) be informed?

If you do not wish your GP Practice to know, we will respect this and we will not tell them. However if you are started on hormonal contraception it maybe helpful for them to be aware of this.

If someone talks about me?

If any member of staff in the health service discloses information about you without good reason to another person they will be in serious trouble.

Nurses, Doctors, Receptionists, Counsellors and employed Youth Workers know you have a right to confidentiality. If your privacy is not protected you have a right to complain.

There are however agencies involved with the C2U / C4U service that may not be bound by a code of confidentiality e.g. shop outlets, leisure centres, libraries and museums. We also cannot guarantee the confidentiality of other young people attending these sexual health services and would hope that you would respect their confidentiality.

What about test results?

You will only be contacted if your results are positive, but you choose how to receive these results, e.g. by text, by telephone, by email or any other means that is acceptable to you.

Sharing of information?

If you are a young person (under 16) seeking advice or support the member of staff may feel that you need extra support or protection. For example:

• If you are in a sexual relationship that is not safe
• If you are being asked to do things that you’re unhappy about or that hurt you
• If you are being hurt by violence, alcohol or drugs

If the member of staff is concerned about your safety they may need to share this info with another agency. They will talk to you about this first and try to get your permission. Whatever is decided, they will continue to support you throughout.

Data Protection

Personal details will be stored on a client database accessed only by specific Sexual Health Services staff members. Anonymised information will be used for national and regional statistics.