Security and confidentiality

You will find here answers to some of the questions you may have about how Talk Well makes sure the information you give us and the conversations you have with our counsellors are as confidential and secure as possible.
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Is the counselling confidential?

Confidentiality means not telling anyone else you’ve contacted us or about what you’ve said. We always want to keep your contact with Talk Well confidential, which means you can feel safe talking to us. Breaking a young person’s confidentiality is not something that Talk Well does easily. We will always think about this very carefully. Breaking confidentiality can be a difficult dilemma for counsellors. There are lots of things they have to think about to work out whether they need to pass your details onto someone else, or not. We want to give you the best possible help and support we can.

We would only need to say something to someone else if:

• You ask us to.
• We believe your life, or someone else’s life, is in danger.
• You’re being hurt by someone in a position of trust who has access to other children, like a teacher or police officer.
• You tell us that you’re seriously harming another person.
• We’re worried about the safety of someone who isn’t able to speak for themselves, like a young child, and we need to tell someone to keep that child safe.

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Our counsellors may also need to confidentially share what you have talked about with their Talk Well supervisor to make sure they are giving you the best possible help that they can.

Sometimes the people involved in suggesting you have counselling such as parents, teachers, doctors etc. might ask us for an update report to find out if you are still going to your appointments and how well it’s going. We will ask you at the start of your counselling if you agree to us sharing this information or not.

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Do you keep a record of the counselling conversation?

When you phone Talk Well, chat to us online or meet us face-to-face, we don’t keep a word-for-word record of what you say. We just keep a brief written summary of your call, online chat or face-to-face meeting. This means you don’t have to go through everything again next time you speak to us. The only time we might need to keep a full record of what you tell us is if we believe you or another person is at serious risk of harm.

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What information do you keep?

Talk Well is legally bound by the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR). This ensures that the information you give us is only used for the purpose for which it was requested, and that your data is held securely. Talk Well keeps a record of your contact details and other relevant information you give us when you make a referral for counselling. We keep brief notes of what you tell us during the counselling session so you don’t have to keep going over the same stuff every time you have counselling. We also collect anonymous information to help us improve our services, promote the Talk Well charity and raise funds for our work with children, young people and families.

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How do you store my personal information?

All records are locked away securely. Electronic records are stored on an encrypted database that can only be accessed by Talk Well authorised staff.

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How long do you keep my records?‍

Talk Well keeps your records for 7 years or until you reach the age of 18 whichever is the longer.

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Can I have a copy of my Talk Well counselling notes?

If you’ve ever had counselling from Talk Well, you can ask for a free copy of any personal information we have about you. It can take a while for you to receive your personal information, as we always need to make sure that records don’t fall into the wrong hands. It’s important to think about whether requesting your records is the right decision for you. Reading over a conversation you’ve had with a counsellor in the past could be upsetting, and might drag up things you would rather forget. If you decide requesting your records is right for you, you can contact us in the following ways:
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Post:
Talk Well Offices,
4th floor Building 7 Vantage Point Business Village,
Mitcheldean
Gloucestershire
GL17 0DD
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Phone: 01594 372777
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Email: hello@talkwell.org.uk.

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To help us make sure that we’re giving the information to the right person, we may need to contact you to confirm your identity.
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How can I make sure no-one knows I’ve been visiting your website?

When you visit websites, your browser remembers lots of information. It can remember which sites you’ve been to, what you’ve downloaded, and much more. This is called your internet history. You might not want other people to see that you’ve been looking at the Talk Well website. There are two things you need to do to clear your history:

1. Delete all cookies from the Temporary Internet Files on your computer. A cookie is a piece of information your computer remembers about where you’ve been online.
2. Delete the websites in your history folder. Don’t worry, deleting these isn’t difficult. If you want to go on the internet without storing any information, you can use private browsing

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Online Counselling

How secure is the online counselling?

Talk Well online counselling uses a super secure web platform that has the most advanced encryption technology you can get. This means that the conversations you have with us are scrambled when they’re sent across the internet, so it’s very unlikely that your information will fall into the wrong hands.
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How can I make sure my online chats are kept private?

If you’re using our online counselling service, you can take the following simple steps to make sure your conversations remain private:

1. Make the call from somewhere safe, where others can’t see your screen.
2. Choose a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted.
3. As soon as you’ve finished your chat with a counsellor, exit the online waiting room and close down your Internet browser. The chat conversation you’ve had with the counsellor will then disappear, so no-one else will ever be able to read it.

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Someone messaged me and told me they are a Talk Well counsellor what should I do?

Our counsellors will never approach you directly online. When you start your counselling with us, you just click on the 'Online Reception and Counselling Room' button on our website, so you can access one-to-one online counselling sessions. If you see someone trying to start one-to-one conversations using the Talk Well name anywhere else, you should tell us straight away.

Call 01594 372777, text us on 07520 634063 or send an email to hello@talkwell.org.uk.