Your information

Information for anyone getting support from our services

What does consent mean?

Consent means giving permission for something to happen or agreement for something to be done. In relation to our services, this means giving your permission for our teams to provide you with a range of support packages. It also means giving permission about what we do with the information we hold about you.

At the moment, it is likely that consent conversations will happen over the phone. These will be between yourself and a Change Grow Live worker.

What are you consenting to?

To ensure that the service we provide you is safe and helpful, we'll need to be able to contact you. This contact may be from different members of the team, so we can get you the best possible support. You can decide how we contact you – for example, by phone, text or email. 

If you are receiving medication as part of your treatment plan with us, we'll work with you to provide the safest medication to suit your needs. We will also provide you with a safe storage box to keep your medication in. Please use this if you live in a house with children or vulnerable adults.

Choosing to share information

You have a right to confidentiality (privacy) when accessing our services. However, this right is not absolute and there may be instances where we share your information without your consent.

We may share relevant and necessary information with other health professionals for direct care purposes. This is known as ‘Implied consent'. We will only share this information to inform and improve decisions about your health and care, and only to those who are delivering care to you or supporting that care. You can object to this, but this may limit the interventions we are able to offer.

Depending on the support you are getting from us, there may be different people, services and organisations who we may be required to share information with. For example, we need to share prescribing information with other healthcare providers (GPs or pharmacies) to keep you safe.

There may also be instances where the law means we have to share information. We will explain this to you and the reasons why. If you would like more information, please contact your service. If you are accessing the ADDER service in Hastings, please click here for further information.

If we're concerned about your or someone else’s safety, we may need to share information to keep someone safe. Wherever possible we will talk to you about this before it happens.

You can also tell us who you’re happy for your information to be shared with – this might be friends, family, or other services you are engaging with. Please know: you can change your consent preferences at any time by speaking to a member of staff.

On occasion, we're asked to share information to help improve services and research. We will ask for your consent to share this information where possible and will take steps to reduce the level of information that is shared (such as pseudonymising the data).

We will always strive to ensure that we treat your information with dignity, respect and privacy.

For services that offer drug and alcohol treatment and support

With your consent, we share anonymous information about you to show the impact our services are having. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities collects this information on a database known as the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS). You can find more information about this via your service, or in this Office for Health Improvement and Disparities document. (PDF)

For services that offer prescribed medication

If we are providing medication as part of your support from our services, we will seek your consent to do this. This means we'll tell you about all the possible consequences. This includes potential risks, benefits and side effects. Our doctors and nurses will have conversations with you that will ensure you have the information you need to make an informed decision about your medication options.

Remember, you can change your consent preferences at any time by speaking to a member of staff.