Operations

Privacy

Inclusivity and assent were two of the main priorities that LRCSS focused on this year.  Clients have a right to be informed regarding the risks and benefits of the consent process.  Sometimes clients do not have a full understanding of the information they are given which is necessary to give informed consent.  We are taking steps to ensure that clients who do not consent for themselves, are still very much involved in the consent process. Through discussions and adapted forms, we aim to help make the conversations and consent/assent processes clearer for clients to help them understand the context of what they are assenting to. This provides clients the right to choose to agree or disagree to various details about their service.  These adapted forms, used alone, do not determine consent, it accompanies a consent form signed by the person who is authorized on the client's behalf to give consent. 

Our Privacy Officer is a part of a community of health sector Privacy Officers, which allow us to keep updated on advancements in the current legislation that help to guide and inform our decisions around confidentiality and privacy of personal information not only for our current and past clients but also for our employees. There will be multiple workshops that our Privacy Officer will be attending throughout this next fiscal year, some of the topics include: How to conduct Privacy Impact Assessments and adding gamification to your privacy office. 

We will continue to put privacy at the forefront of all of our business practices in order to provide inclusive, quality, individualized service.

Cyber Security

There has been tremendous growth at LRCSS over the last year. With this growth comes an increasing challenge to maintain a secure system to protect our client data and maintain privacy. This challenge is amplified when employees are expected to be able to work remotely, connecting to home-based networks with unknown security. 

To achieve this goal, most new devices in the agency are now Chromebooks. These devices are tightly integrated into our Google Workspace system. They are automatically protected by on-device encryption and mandatory 2-Step Verification to ensure that malicious actors cannot access our data. 

By minimizing the attack profile of our devices, we are achieving robust protection wherever a device is used while at the same time increasing integration, speed, and overall efficiency. All of this is supported by an established disaster recovery plan.

Social Media

Since 2019 Lake Ridge Community Support Services has been aggressively growing our online presence by revamping our website and growing our social media presence with a focus on Facebook. This fiscal we added Instagram as well. Our strategy is rooted in serving our community through 3 pillars: Advocate, Empower and Involve.

1. Advocate for acceptance and understanding of our clients within the community.

2. Empower clients, caregivers and the community with information on services and actionable insights.

3. Involve our community through fundraising and capacity-building initiatives.