Our Clinic Policies

Non- Emergency Service Non- Crisis Centre
Practice Policy - Emergencies or Crisis Brilliant Minds Psychology is a private practice and unfortunately, phone support is not available in-between sessions. If extra sessions are required clients are requested to book an additional session with the psychologist. Please note we do not provide Emergency Appointments! Emergency or Crisis: In the event of an emergency call 000, the emergency department at your local hospital. Other Services:. - Call 1300 MH CALL (1300 64 22 55) for your local public mental health service. - for children younger than 18 years of age please contact The Acute Response Team based at Children's Hospital Queensland (07) 3068 2550 (Open 24 hours).

Court Reports & Mediation

Our clinic does not provide court reports. We do not take the role of mediator with parents undering court proceedings or mediation.

Medicare Expired Referrals

It is the responsibility of the client's or parent of child client's to ensure that the referral is valid if you wish to receive a Medicare Rebate. Please ensure you checking with Medicare how many sessions you have used or keep track of this yourself.

Practice Policy: Zero Tolerance for Abuse

Our Team has the right to provide services in a safe and psychologically safe environment. We have a duty of care to our team members and other clients that access our services to ensure our environment is safe. We do not accept anit-social behaviour. Anyone found to be engaging in the below conduct will be refused services at our clinic. Our Practice Policy is that we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone that is: - abusive (also includes aggressive communication verbal, written, non-verbal) - Intimidating or threatening emails - intimidating, harrassing behaviour - threatening in any way to any of our team members. This includes verbal and nonverbal aggression towards any of our team members or other clientelle. We Reserve to Right to Refuse Serivce to anyone that makes our staff feel physically or psychologically unsafe. We believe in having a kind and friendly environment and there is no excuse for aggressive behaviour. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR ABUSE!
Payment Policies
We value you and we also value own time. Appointments Full payment is required at the time of the appointment. We are unable to book further appointments until the account is settled. Clients run the risk of their appointments being removed /cancelled due to unpaid accounts. Request for Reports & Assessments Full payment is required when a report is requested in order for us to proceed. We do not start the assessment process or report writing process until the requested report is fully paid for. We are not a Bulk Billing Service. We have Eftpos and Medicare facilities. We are a NDIS Registered Provider.
Cancellation Policy & When a Client Cancels consecutive appointments & Non Attendance/No Show
We value you as a client, and we also value our own time. We also value our clients on our wait list that have been often waiting a long time to see a therapist. If you can not attend your appointment, we ask that you please email or phone us, or cancel your booking online with 48 hours notice. This gives us enough time to offer the appointment to someone else that may be waiting to see a therapist. We understand that sometimes circumstances make it difficult to cancel with enough notice, this is assessed on an individual basis.Cancellations fees will apply.
When a Client Cancels Consecutive Appointments or No Show/No Contact When our clients first book, we try when possible to reserve a number of appointments to ensure ongoing sessions with your therapist. However, when a client cancels 2-3 consecutive appointments our policy is to cancel future appointments and for the client to contact us as needed for appointments. This is to ensure we can offer these appointments to other clients on our waiting list. However, in such cases if we receive no communication we reserve the right to cancel remainding appointments and to use our own discretion. No Show/Non Attendance: If a client fails to attend an appointment without contacting the clinic or 'no show' or 'no attendance' - we reserve the right to cancel all future appointments at our discretion.

Confidentiality & Release of Information

We value our clients privacy. We are guided by Privacy Laws and do not release any information without Informed Consent for our client or unless Subpoened by a Court of Law. When a third party contacts our clinic and requests information, this message is conveyed. In the case of separated families, we encourage both parents to be involved when possible unless a Court Order has stated otherwise. However, it is not our role to share information relating to appointments or to take a mediator role between parents. We believe children have the right to have access to a safe place to share their feelings and thoughts that is safe.

Confidentiality of Young People

The Australian Psychological Society has ethical guidelines for psychologist working with young people in child and adolescent mental health. Young person means a child under the age of 18 years. The following are the legal and ethical considerations for psychologists when working with young people and are based on extracts from the APS guidelines.
  • All personal information is subject to the Privacy Act of 2002.
  • All client records are kept securely.
  • Informed Consent is required
  • Information on diagnosis and intervention suggestions is provided to the referring practitioner (GP, psychiatrist, paedatrician)
  • Confidentiality is needed between children, and adolescent and their psychologist. This means that the parent will not be told from the psychologist information shared by the child/adolescent. However, this is discussed further with the child and adolescents, in most cases a general overview of what was covered may be provided (e.g., today we focused on helpful thoughts, strategies to increase mood etc) where deemed appropriate. This is discussed in your first session with the psychologist.
  • Clinicians will encourage a teenager to talk with their parent, but will break confidentiality only when the child's safety is at risk.