See also: Emerging Minds Website Terms of Use
About us and our services
Purpose of this Privacy Policy
Kinds of personal information that we collect and hold
Children and young people
How we collect your personal information
Protection of your personal information
Location of your personal information
Use of your personal information
Disclosing, destroying or de-identifying personal information
How you may access your personal information held by us
Updating and correcting information
Complaints
Third-Party websites
Changes to this Privacy Policy
The Australian Infant Child Adolescent and Family Mental Health Association Ltd (ACN 093 479 022) trading as Emerging Minds (‘we’ or ‘us’) is dedicated to advancing the mental health and emotional wellbeing of Australian infants, children, adolescents and their families.
Emerging Minds develops mental health policy, services, interventions, training, programs and resources in response to the needs of healthcare professionals, children and their families. These include online resources, practical resources, and online and face-to-face training. We partner with family members, and national and international organisations to implement evidence-based practice into the Australian context. We do this through various programs including the National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health, which is supported by funding provided by the Australian Government.
We are committed to protecting your privacy. We collect, use, share, process, and manage personal information, including any sensitive information, only as reasonably necessary for carrying out our functions and activities subject to our legal obligations, in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We collect data from the programs and provide de-identified data to the Australian Government based upon personal or sensitive information collected from individuals using our digital channels, which include our websites, subdomains, web portals (such as https://emergingminds.com.au/ and https://learning.emergingminds.com.au/) and our mobile applications (collectively, our ‘Digital Platforms’). The purpose of providing the de-identified data to the Australian Government is so that the Australian Government can assess the current program and make policy decisions for future programs or activities. Your personal or sensitive information is not provided to the Australian Government under our existing funding arrangement.
We are committed to maintaining the trust and confidence of our users and visitors. We do not sell, rent or trade email lists or any personal data with other companies or businesses for commercial or direct marketing purposes. This Privacy Policy provides details of when and why we collect your personal information, how we use it once collected, the limited circumstances under which we may disclose it to others, and how we keep it secure.
We are committed to the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”) as articulated in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). We consider by the implementation and compliance with these principles that we can create an open and transparent structure for the management of your personal information. We are committed to protecting your privacy. We are committed to keeping secure the personal information that you provide to us. We take our obligations to protect your personal information seriously.
This Privacy Policy describes our procedures for collecting, handling, using and managing your personal information. By providing any personal information to us, you indicate that you accept the methods that we use to handle, use and manage your personal information, the terms of this Privacy Policy, and the manner in which we comply with the APPs. This policy outlines our data management procedures so you can make informed decisions when interacting with our Digital Platforms. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to tell you how we collect, use and manage your personal information and to outline our complaints handling process. This will include an explanation of:
This policy applies to you no matter how you interact with us, including when you access our Digital Platforms, or in what capacity you interact with us.
You have the option of interacting with us anonymously, or if you wish, by using a pseudonym, where practicable, which in our experience occurs typically if the interaction is general in nature. To protect your privacy when seeking general information, we actively encourage you to use only your first name, an alias, or a non-descript email address where appropriate. If the interaction is more specific, then we may need to identify you, to ensure we can respond, or interact, with you efficiently, properly or more completely.
When used in this policy, ‘personal information’ has the meaning given in the Privacy Act. Generally, it means information or an opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable for the purposes of, or in connection with, with our activities and services as mentioned above.
The type of personal information we collect and hold may vary depending on the nature of our interactions with you or our relationship with you. The information we collect and hold can include name, address, email address, mobile number, preferred means of communication, professional details (such as job titles, workplace, and professional registration or accreditation numbers), training progress and completion records, and on occasions may include specific health and sensitive information. We will collect and hold this type of information from you as we interact with you from time to time.
We interact with you in many ways including on our Digital Platforms, through learning management systems, or social media channels (for example, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and LinkedIn). This collection of personal information may be required to allow you to receive information from us, to register to become a member, to order resources or to receive information about or become involved in our work or other initiatives.
We only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities. This includes different functions and activities we conduct as part of our strategies, funding activities or programs, such as the National Workforce Centre Program. Within this program we operate an online workforce gateway to provide access to free training, practice guides, webinars, tools, information and news; workforce advisors to support workforce development, systems change, information exchange and collaboration; and a Communication and Knowledge Translation Strategy to support the diffusion of evidence into practice. By providing personal information through our Digital Platforms, you acknowledge that we collect and hold your information for these functions and activities.
Some personal information referred to in the APPs is sensitive information, for example, health information. The nature of the activities we undertake and the assistance we provide to you results in sensitive information being collected. We will only collect sensitive information with your consent, or when permissible under Australian law, and we will only use this information to the extent that you have provided such consent for its specified purpose.
To satisfy our legal obligations, we may need to retain your information after an interaction has been completed or a relationship has come to an end; however, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your personal information once it is no longer required for our function or activities, in accordance with the Australian law.
The Privacy Act does not specify an age after which individuals can make their own privacy decisions. We will determine on a case-by-case basis whether an individual under the age of 18 has the capacity to consent. We may require assistance from a parent, guardian, or qualified professional to determine whether consent can be properly provided.
As a general principle, an individual under the age of 18 has capacity to consent when they have sufficient understanding and maturity to understand what is being proposed. In some circumstances, it may be appropriate for a parent or guardian to consent on behalf of a young person, for example, if the child is young or lacks the maturity or understanding to do so themselves.
If it is not practicable or reasonable for us to assess the capacity of individuals under the age of 18 on a case-by-case basis, we will presume that an individual aged 15 or over has capacity to consent, unless there is something to suggest otherwise. An individual aged under 15 is presumed not to have the capacity to consent, and in those circumstances, we will require the consent of a parent or guardian.
Wherever it is possible and practical to do so, we will collect personal information directly from you. This may be in person, over the telephone, by mail, via our Digital Platforms, by e-mail or fax, or when you complete a form.
If you order certain resources from us, we will also collect information which will allow us to process your order. We may also request your preferences for receiving further information about our programs, campaigns or activities.
We provide training delivered using our Learning Management System (LMS). When you participate in this training, we will collect personal information from you including information about your work role, workplace, and professional accreditation details.
In limited circumstances, where it is unreasonable or impracticable to collect personal information from you directly, we may collect your personal information from a third party. The type of third party who might provide information to us will vary depending on the nature of the interaction with you. It may be that a parent, guardian, family member, support provider, or professional adviser provides us with your personal information on your behalf and with your consent. It is our preference to collect personal information from you directly and we will endeavour to do so.
We understand the importance of protecting the personal information we hold about you. Given this, we are focused on protecting your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access or modification by:
We take our obligation to protect your personal information we hold on your behalf seriously. We take reasonable steps to ensure the security of all information we collect, including that the information is protected from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. For example, your personal information is maintained in a secure environment, which can be accessed only by authorised personnel. However, no data transmission over the internet or information stored on servers accessible through the internet can be guaranteed to be fully secure.
Whenever personal information is sent via our Digital Platforms, we use reasonable technological safeguards, including encryption, to protect it.
We hold your personal information within our networking hosting services and with service providers in Australia, Ireland and the United States of America. Our hosting provider or service providers in Australia, Ireland or the United States of America hold personal information that we have collected from you. This means your personal information may be transferred to, stored, and processed by us in our facilities and by those third parties with whom we may share your personal information, being our network hosting service and service providers in Australia, Ireland and the United States of America. In terms of our service providers in the United States of America and Ireland, while data protection privacy laws vary across jurisdictions, we take strict contractual steps to ensure these providers safeguard your data. We would be pleased to provide further details to you upon your request, if you require such information.
By providing your personal information to us, you acknowledge that your data may be stored with these overseas service providers. We maintain robust data protection agreements with these recipients to ensure they handle your personal information securely and in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.
We use your personal information to interact with you. This includes managing and administering the resources, information or services we provide to you. You may be a current user, or someone we have interacted with in the past, or may interact with again in the future.
The personal information you provide to us may be used by us for the following purposes:
We will only use your personal information for the primary purposes for which it was collected and as listed above, or for closely related secondary purposes that you would reasonably expect.
Some of the functions and services relating to the purpose for which you have provided personal information may be outsourced to third party external service providers. When we contract external service providers, we may provide them with your personal information, but only to the extent required for them to fulfil that contract (e.g. to send to you the resources you ordered from us).
Where you have agreed to receive emails from us, we may use your personal information to send you emails about our resources, programs, events, training or activities.
Your personal information may also be used to advise you of resources, information or services that may be of interest to you or in inviting you to attend events organised by us. If you do not want your personal information to be used for these purposes, you should tell us so that we can action this request. We may be contacted for this purpose by emailing [email protected]. We may use your personal information to send you updates about new training modules or resources. Every direct marketing or promotional communication we send will include a prominent, functional opt-out or ‘unsubscribe’ mechanism. You may also opt out of receiving these communications at any time by contacting us at [email protected].
If you decide that you do not want us to use your personal information in the manner described, there will be an impact upon the resources, information or services that we are able to provide to you. We will not use or disclose personal information other than for the purpose for which it was collected or for a purpose reasonably related to it, except when required by law to do so or where we have your consent to do so.
For statistical, analytical, and security purposes, we collect information on platform activity such as the number of users who visit our Digital Platforms, the date and time of visits, the number of pages viewed, navigation patterns, what country and what systems users have used to access the platforms and, when entering one of our Digital Platforms from another website, the address of that website.
This information is obtained through the use of ‘cookies’ web beacons, and tools including Google Analytics.
A ‘cookie’ is a packet of information that allows a website to identify and interact more effectively with a computer. While cookie and tracking data primarily identify your browser type, device ID, and Internet Service Provider, this technical metadata may constitute personal information if it can be combined with other details to make you reasonably identifiable.
Your browser can be individually set to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify when a cookie is sent. If cookies are rejected, there may be limits on how our Digital Platforms can be used.
When you interact with our Digital Platforms, our analytical tools may log technical information including:
Access to, and use of, this information is restricted to us and our authorised service providers. No attempt will be made by us to track or identify individual users or their browsing activities, except in the event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may execute a warrant to inspect our network security or server logs.
We only use statistics obtained from cookies to ascertain and follow platform usage to enable improvements, updates and maintenance of pages on our Digital Platforms.
Personal information will only be disclosed to third parties in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Information may be provided to third parties where any functions or services relating to the purpose for which the personal information is collected are being outsourced or you would reasonably expect us to disclose it to a third party for a specific purpose.
We will not use or disclose your personal information except in accordance with this Privacy Policy unless you have consented to the use or disclosure, or where disclosure is required or authorised by or under the Australian law or a court/tribunal order, or reasonably necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual.
From time to time, we share personal information with our research collaborators and partners, as defined in the arrangement we have with funding received from the Australian Government, ensuring that such information is either permanently de-identified prior to disclosure or shared only where we have obtained your express consent. As discussed above, we are also required to provide de-identified data to the Australian Government in accordance with the arrangements we have with the Australian Government.
We may also disclose personal information to businesses which provide services to us from time to time. We require these businesses to comply with strict confidentiality requirements and the APPs.
We will take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to destroy your personal information or ensure that it is de-identified once it is no longer required for any purpose permitted under the APPs, in compliance with applicable Australian record retention laws.
You are entitled to access the personal information we hold about you. To request access, please contact us by email at [email protected].
We will respond to your request within a reasonable period (generally within 30 calendar days). We will also seek to provide you with access to the information in the manner you have requested, provided it is reasonable and practicable to do so. We will not charge you a fee for making an access request, but we may charge a reasonable administrative fee to cover the costs of retrieving and providing the information to you.
If we cannot provide you with access to the personal information we hold, we will advise you via a written notice that sets out our reasons for the refusal (except to the extent it would be unreasonable to do so) and the mechanisms available to lodge a complaint. Examples of reasons we may refuse a request for access include, where providing the information:
If you do not agree with the reasons we have given to deny access to your information, you may lodge a complaint in accordance with the mechanism referred to below.
We want the personal information we hold to be correct, complete, current, relevant and accurate. If you believe that the information we hold about you is incorrect, out of date, incomplete, misleading, or inaccurate, we would like to know so that we can promptly correct it. We encourage you to contact us to correct the information.
In certain situations, we may refuse a request to correct information we hold about you, as permitted under the Privacy Act. If this occurs, we will advise you of this and our reasons for the refusal in writing, along with details of the mechanisms available to lodge a complaint. To request that your personal information be corrected or updated, please contact us via email at [email protected] or via the postal address below.
If you wish to make a complaint about our handling, use or management of personal information, you should provide the details of the complaint to us by:
Mail Emerging Minds PO Box 2077 Hilton SA 5033 Australia Attention: Privacy Officer Telephone: +61 (0)8 8367 0888
Email [email protected]
We ask that you provide as much information as possible about your complaint so that we can understand and respond to it. We will contact you within a reasonable timeframe (generally within 30 calendar days) to advise you of our response to your complaint. We will work with the appropriate regulatory authorities to resolve any complaints regarding your personal information that we cannot resolve with you directly.
If the complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, it may be referred to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (the ‘OAIC’). The contact details for the OAIC are:
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner GPO Box 2999 Canberra ACT 2601 Australia Telephone: 1300 363 992 Fax: +61 (0)2 9284 9666 Website: www.oaic.gov.au
We welcome any enquiry or comment in relation to the practices, procedures or systems that we have in place to protect your personal information. Please contact us if you wish to discuss any such matters via email at [email protected].
Our Digital Platforms may contain links to other websites. While these links are provided for convenience, if you are navigating to these sites please be aware that the information handling practices of the linked websites may differ from ours. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are unable to guarantee the privacy practices of other websites.
This Privacy Policy does not cover the links within our Digital Platforms linking to other websites. If you have questions about how a site uses your information, you will need to check that site’s privacy statement.
This policy will be kept up to date and published on our Digital Platforms. We may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. This policy was last updated in July 2026.
Mail: Emerging Minds PO Box 2077 Hilton SA 5033 Australia Attention: Privacy Officer
Telephone: (+61) 8 8367 0888
Email: [email protected]