Your Counselling and Mandatory Disclosures

Your Counselling and Mandatory Disclosures

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Created: July 30, 2025

IMPORTANT: This document serves to formally outline the specific circumstances under which a Foremind-appointed Counsellor may be legally or ethically obligated to report or disclose your confidential ‘client’ information. This notice is provided to ensure your full transparency and understanding of the limits to confidentiality within the scope of our Services. Please read it carefully before commencing your first Counselling session.

If you have any questions about these disclosure obligations or how they may apply to your circumstances, we encourage you to raise them with your Counsellor before or during your sessions. Our goal is to ensure that you feel safe, informed, and empowered when using our Services.

1. Overview

Foremind Pty Ltd ACN 615 400 612 (t/as Foremind) (“we”, “us”, “our”) provides mental health and wellbeing services (“Services“), including 1:1 counselling (“Counselling Services“) provided by Foremind-appointed counsellors (“Counsellors”). These Services are offered to individuals (“you“, “your“) whose employing or contracting organisation (“Employer“) is a customer of Foremind’s ‘Employee Assistance Program’. Counselling Services may be provided online, via telehealth, or occasionally, in person.

Our provision of Services is subject to certain mandatory disclosures in accordance with local applicable laws, and these mandatory disclosures are set out below (“Mandatory Disclosures”).

2. Mandatory Disclosures

You acknowledge that in certain circumstances, our Counsellors are legally and ethically required to disclose information, overriding the general duty of confidentiality. This includes, but is not limited to the following areas.

2.1 Preventing Serious Harm

In certain circumstances, our Counsellors may be required to notify relevant emergency or public safety authorities in order to prevent serious and imminent harm to you or another person. This may occur without your consent where legally permitted or required. Disclosure to your Employer will not occur without your consent unless expressly required by law or necessary to prevent an immediate risk to life or safety.

For example, if you disclose an intent to cause serious harm to yourself or others, we are required to inform relevant authorities (such as emergency services) to prevent that harm.

For example, if you disclose an intent to cause harm to your self or others at your place of work we are required to inform your workplace in order to prevent harm.

2.2 Reporting Child Abuse or Risk of Harm

Our Counsellors are legally obligated to report to relevant child protection authorities where there is a reasonable suspicion or belief that a child is at risk of significant harm or has been abused. The specific reporting requirements, including the definition of harm and the professionals mandated to report, vary across Australian states and territories. For the purposes of our Services, we adopt a broad and consistent definition of “harm” across our Services, encompassing physical, psychological, sexual, mental, emotional abuse, or neglect. Our counsellors are bound by the reporting obligations relevant to the jurisdiction in which you reside.  

For example, if you disclose that a child is being physically harmed at home, our Counsellors are legally required to report this to child protection services.

2.3 Criminal Law Obligations:

In certain circumstances, our Counsellors may be legally required to disclose information to law authorities regarding any information that may be of material assistance in securing the apprehension, prosecution or conviction in relation to a serious indictable offence.

For example, if you disclose information about a serious crime that has been committed, such as a major assault or fraud, and our Counsellors have a legal obligation to report it, they may be required to disclose this information to law enforcement.

2.4 Court-Ordered Disclosure

In some circumstances, a court or tribunal may compel the production of counselling records (e.g., via subpoena). Where this occurs, we are generally required to comply, even if this overrides your right to confidentiality. We may notify you (where lawful) if such an order is received.

For example, if your counselling records contain information relevant to a child custody dispute, a court may issue a subpoena compelling their production, and our Counsellors would be required to comply.

3. De-identified Employer Reporting

You acknowledge we provide regular statistical and anonymised reports to your Employer.  

We do not provide individualised recommendations or advice that would permit your identity to be reasonably ascertainable, unless you have expressly consented. This reporting is conducted in a manner that protects your personal information, consistent with our Privacy Policy and applicable law.  

All data handling and disclosures are conducted in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, including principles relating to use and disclosure (APP 6), anonymity and pseudonymity (APP 2), and data security (APP 11).

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