Terms & Conditions

Please review the Terms and Conditions shown below.

If you agree to these Terms and Conditions, click the “Return to Get Started” button at the bottom of the page and you may proceed to our counselling service.

By using Counselling Online you agree to the Terms and Conditions described below.

Disclaimer of consequential damages
Counselling Online is a program operated by Turning Point. Our services are delivered by a team of professional alcohol and drug counsellors within a harm minimisation framework. This service is operated from Melbourne, Victoria. For detailed information regarding the Counselling Online service, please read What is Counselling Online.

This website is operated by Counselling Online for the purpose of providing alcohol and drug counselling, information and referral free of charge for the benefit of the public. The service is provided for residents of Australia only.

Our assessments and counselling are based on the information you choose to share with us. While our counsellors will make every effort to assist you with the issues or problems you identify – you are in the best position to determine how relevant this information is to your situation.

Services provided by Counselling Online are not a substitute for independent professional advice from your own or another treating health professional.

Nothing contained in this site is intended to be used as medical advice and is not intended to be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Counselling Online does not accept any liability for any injury, loss or damage incurred by use of or reliance on the information.

Privacy and security
Counselling Online operates within Australian legal requirements and Standards for Privacy and Information Management. These frameworks are intended to safeguard access and use of your information.

For further information, please read our Privacy policy.

Confidentiality
When you are using Counselling Online your personal information is kept confidential. We will not share your information with any other organisation without your express permission, except where we are required to do so under law. This may apply in circumstances where we have a ‘duty of care’; that is when you are at serious risk of harming yourself, harming someone else or there is a child protection concern. De-identified transcripts and demographic data may be used for the purposes of clinical supervision or to evaluate the services provided by Counselling Online.

Counselling Online forums
Users of the Forums must abide at all times by the standards of language and behaviour as outlined in these Terms and Conditions. Forum-users must not post or transmit any content that is inappropriate, offensive or contrary to any applicable laws or standards. This includes, without limitation, material which:

is obscene or indecent or depicts violence, sexual activity or pornography;
defames, harasses, menaces, threatens, abuses, offends or embarrasses any person or group of people;
infringes the copyright, moral rights, confidentiality rights or intellectual property rights of any person or organisation including, for example, by reproducing songs, poems, articles, logos, trademarks, pictures, photos, music or other material that is not owned by you (or which you do not have a licence to reproduce);
infringes any of our rights or the rights of any third person (including privacy rights);
breaches any laws, regulations, standards or codes as enacted, modified or updated from time to time;
impersonates any person or suggests a connection to a group or organisation which is misleading;
advocates the use of force or violence towards any person or group of people;
incites hatred on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality, sexuality or other personal characteristics;
encourages, endorses, solicits, approves or recommends the performance of dangerous or illegal acts; or
contains a virus or other code that has harmful or destructive properties.

Eastern Health (operating as Turning Point and hereinafter referred to as Turning Point) may, at any time and without notice to you, access, filter, remove, amend or refuse to post files, content or other material which it considers in its sole discretion to be a breach of these Terms and Conditions.

You are solely responsible for any content or material that you post or upload on the Forums, or which is posted by another person using your user name or password.

Turning Point excludes all liability (to the extent permitted by law) for any loss, damage or expenses suffered by you or claims made against you arising from content or material which you post or upload on the Forums, or which is posted by another person (whether using your user name or password or otherwise).

You acknowledge and agree that Turning Point may contact you via the email address you have provided for safety and engagement reasons. Turning Point may also by written notification, terminate your membership and/or suspend your access to the member sections of the Forums if you breach any of these Terms and Conditions.

By submitting content or materials to these Forums, you agree that you have read, understood and agree to abide by these Terms and Conditions and to Turning Point exercising all rights in respect of such content or materials as are set out in these Terms and Conditions even if the exercise of such rights would, but for this consent, infringe any moral rights that you may have in such content or materials.

Turning Point may impose limits on the size of files uploaded by members into their member journals. Turning Point may also access, filter, remove or refuse to post files which interfere with the technical operations of the Counselling Online service, including files which threaten to overload or crash its systems.

These terms and conditions, your use of these Forums and any disputes between you and Turning Point will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Victoria. You are solely responsible for ensuring that your use of the Forums is not prohibited and complies with these laws.

Turning Point may vary any of these Terms and Conditions at any time by placing a notice on the Forums advising that the Terms and Conditions have changed. You will be deemed to have accepted and agreed to the revised Terms and Conditions if you continue to use any member section of the Forums after notice of the revised Terms and Conditions has been placed on the Forums.

You indemnify Turning Point against any loss, liability, claim, demand, damage or expense (including legal fees) asserted by you or a third party) arising out of a breach of these Terms and Conditions.

Your Safety
Some people using the Forum may be suffering from depression, anxiety or related conditions. Some will be experiencing suicidal thoughts. For everyone’s health, wellbeing and safety, we do not publish comments that express explicitly suicidal thoughts or feelings.

If you are feeling unsafe or believe there is any chance that you may be going to harm yourself in any way, we strongly encourage you to:

call the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467, Lifeline on 13 11 14 or another emergency counselling service;
call your doctor; or
make arrangements to attend a hospital as soon as possible.

Intellectual Property
Turning Point may, in its discretion, access, monitor and review all content or material which you submit to the Forums.

For your protection, please understand that by posting on the Forums you accept full responsibility for ensuring that in your intellectual rights in posted material are not lost or diminished.

Turning Point does not warrant that any material you contribute will be protected against loss, misuse or alteration by third parties.

By posting content on the Forums, you grant to Turning Point a perpetual, royalty-free, fee-free, non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide licence (with a right to sub-license to our authorised nominees) to use, modify, copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, publish, display and broadcast any of that material on this site as well as in any promotional or communication activities of Turning Point conducted in Australia or overseas.

Confidentiality and Privacy
Turning Point will take reasonable steps to ensure the security and confidentiality of material which you post or upload onto the Forums. However, Turning Point cannot guarantee that such material will be protected against any loss, damage, alteration or misuse.

Turning Point will not be responsible for any harm that you or any other person may suffer in connection with any loss, damage, alteration or misuse of material posted or uploaded onto the Forums.

For details on how we deal with your personal information, please refer to our privacy policy.

Your email address
Turning Point will only record your email address in the event that you send us a message by email or if you register for regular assistance. Your email address will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it, including contact in response to Forum activity as listed in the Terms and Conditions.

Your email address will not be added to any mailing lists without your prior consent by way of a specific request in writing.

We will not use or disclose your email address for any other purpose without your prior written consent.

If you have any queries, concerns or require further information relating to the Terms and Conditions of Counselling Online, you are invited to email the Counselling Online Program Manager or submit feedback online.