Why I hate seeing 30 year olds advising on how to manage your menopause symptoms!

This may be a controversial opinion!

After all, a qualified nutritional therapist is qualified to give advice on all aspects of your health - right?

Right!

However, I really do believe that until you've experienced perimenopause and/or menopause you have no idea what to expect.

One of the reasons I specialise in menopause is because I've been through it.

I've experienced first hand the havoc the symptoms played on my life and career, and I really care about helping you not go through what I went through 7 years ago.

This is why I created my 12-week 1:1 nutrition coaching programme The Menopause Method.

I'd love to know what you think? Do you agree/disagree? Let me know!

Find out more

Helen Ritchie

Windsor, UK

Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioner

BA (Hons), DipION, mBANT, CNHC

E: helen@ritchnutrition.com

M: 07884 117768

Introduction

RitchNutrition holds some information about you. This document outlines how that information is used, who I may share that information with and how I keep it secure. This notice does not provide exhaustive detail. However, I am happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to helen@ritchnutrition.com. I keep this Privacy Notice under regular review. This Privacy Notice was last reviewed in August 2021.

What I Do

RitchNutrition provides nutritional therapy services to clients to improve their health through diet and lifestyle interventions. I focus on preventative healthcare, the optimisation of physical and mental health and chronic health conditions. Through nutritional therapy consultations, dietary and lifestyle analysis and biochemical testing, I aim to understand the underlying causes of your health issues which we will seek to address through personalised dietary therapy, nutraceutical prescription (supplements) and lifestyle advice. RitchNutrition also provides corporate well-being talks and workshops.

How I Obtain Your Personal Data

Information provided by you

You provide me with personal data in the following ways:

* By completing a nutritional therapy questionnaire

* By signing a terms of engagement agreement form

* During a nutritional therapy consultation

* Through email, over the telephone or by post

* By taking credit card and online payment

This may include the following information:

* basic details such as name, address, contact details and next of kin

* details of contact I have had with you such as referrals and appointment requests

* health information including your previous medical history, dietary, lifestyle, supplement and medicine details, biochemical test results, clinic notes and health improvement plans

* GP contact information

* Bank details

I use this information in order to provide you with direct healthcare. This means that the legal basis of my holding your personal data is for legitimate interest.

Following completion of your healthcare we retain your personal data for the period defined by our professional association BANT and registrant body, CHNC. This enables us to process any complaint you may make. In this case the legal basis of our holding your personal data is for contract administration.

Information I get from other sources

I may obtain sensitive medical information in the form of test results from biochemical testing companies. I use this information in order to provide you with direct healthcare. This means that the legal basis of my holding your personal data is for legitimate interest.

I may obtain sensitive information from other healthcare providers. The provision of this information is subject to you giving me your express consent. If I do not receive this consent from you, I will not be able to coordinate your healthcare with that provided by other providers which means the healthcare provided by me may be less effective.

How I use your personal data

I act as a data controller for use of your personal data to provide direct healthcare. I also act as a controller and processor in regard to the processing of your data from third parties such as testing companies and other healthcare providers. I act as a data controller and processor in regard to the processing of credit card and online payments.

I undertake at all times to protect your personal data, including any health and contact details, in a manner which is consistent with my duty of professional confidence and the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) concerning data protection. I will also take reasonable security measures to protect your personal data storage.

I may use your personal data where there is an overriding public interest in using the information e.g. in order to safeguard an individual, or to prevent a serious crime. Also where there is a legal requirement such as a formal court order. I may use your data for marketing purposes such as newsletters but this would be subject to you giving me your express consent.

Do you share my information with other organisations?

I will keep information about you confidential. I will only disclose your information with other third parties with your express consent with the exception of the following categories of third parties:

* My registrant body, CNHC and my professional association, BANT, for the processing of a complaint made by you

* Any contractors and advisors that provide a service to me or act as my agents on the understanding that they keep the information confidential

* Anyone to whom I may transfer my rights and duties under any agreement I have with you

* Any legal or crime prevention agencies and/or to satisfy any regulatory request (eg, CNHC) if we have a duty to do so or if the law allows us to do so

I may share your information with supplement companies and biochemical testing companies as part of providing you with direct healthcare. I will not include any sensitive information

I will seek your express consent before sharing your information with your GP or other healthcare providers. However if I believe that your life is in danger then I may pass your information onto an appropriate authority (such as the police, social services in the case of a child or vulnerable adult, or GP in case of self-harm) using the legal basis of vital interests.

I may share your case history in an anonymised form with my peers for the purpose of professional development. This may be at clinical supervision meetings, conferences, online forums, and through publishing in medical journals, trade magazines or online professional sites. I will seek your explicit consent before processing your data in this way.

What are your rights?

Every individual has the right to see, amend, delete or have a copy, of data held that can identify you, with some exceptions. You do not need to give a reason to see your data.

If you want to access your data you must make a subject access request in writing to helen@ritchnutrition.com. Under special circumstances, some information may be withheld. I shall respond within 20 working days from the point of receiving the request and all necessary information from you. My response will include the details of the personal data I hold on you including:

* Sources from which I acquired the information

* The purposes of processing the information

* Persons or entities with whom I am sharing the information You have the right, subject to exemptions, to ask to:

* Have your information deleted

* Have your information corrected or updated where it is no longer accurate

* Ask me to stop processing information about you where I am not required to do so by law or in accordance with the BANT and CNHC guidelines.

* Receive a copy of your personal data, which you have provided to me, in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and have the right to transmit that data to another controller, without hindrance from me.

* Object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you

I do not carry out any automated processing, which may lead to automated decisions based on your personal data.

If you would like to invoke any of the above rights then please write to the Data Controller at 57 Albert Street, Windsor, SL4 5BT or email helen@ritchnutrition.com<mailto:helen@ritchnutrition.com>.

What safeguards are in place to ensure data that identifies me is secure?

I only use information that may identify you in accordance with GDPR. This requires me to process personal data only if there is a legitimate basis for doing so and that any processing must be fair and lawful.

Within the health sector, I also have to follow the common law duty of confidence, which means that where identifiable information about you has been given in confidence, it should be treated as confidential and only shared for the purpose of providing direct healthcare. I will protect your information, inform you of how your information will be used, and allow you to decide if and how your information can be shared.

I also ensure the information I hold is kept in secure locations, restrict access to information to authorised personnel only, protect personal and confidential information held on equipment such as laptops with encryption (which masks data so that unauthorised users cannot see or make sense of it). I ensure external data processors that support me are legally and contractually bound to operate and prove security arrangements are in place where data that could or does identify a person are processed.

RitchNutrition is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a data controller and collects data for a variety of purposes. A copy of the registration is available through the ICO website (search by business name).

How long do you hold confidential information for?

All records held by RitchNutrition will be kept for the duration specified by guidance from our professional association BANT.

Analytics

Like most websites, I make use of analytics software in order to help me understand the trends in popularity of my website and of different sections. I make no use of personally identifiable information in any of the statistical reports I use from this package. I use an analytics package called Google Analytics who provide details of their privacy policy on the Google website.

Complaints

If you have a complaint regarding the use of your personal data then please contact me by writing to the Data Controller at 57 Albert Street, Windsor, SL4 5BT or email helen@ritchnutrition.com and I will do my best to help you.

If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction and you wish to make a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), you can contact them on 01625 545745 or 0303 1231113.

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Helen Ritchie

Clinical Nutritional Therapist