Terms and Conditions
This page tells you the terms and conditions on which we supply any of the products or services listed on our website www.icommunicatetherapy.com to you. Please read these terms and conditions carefully before ordering any products or requesting any services from our site. You should understand that by ordering any of our products or purchasing services, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions, and the general Terms and Conditions and Disclaimer of icommunicate therapy Ltd. We have the right to revise and amend these terms and conditions at any time. A Glossary of terms is supplied at the bottom of this document.
Limitation Of Liability
With respect to goods or services purchased through this site, icommunicate therapy Ltd’s liability, in any case, is expressly limited to replacement of defective goods, or, at icommunicate therapy Ltd’s election, to the repayment or crediting of buyer with an amount equal to the purchase price of the goods. You acknowledge and agree that the limitations set forth above are fundamental elements of this agreement and the site would not be provided to you absent of such limitations.
General
Your use of the site is subject to the additional disclaimers and caveats that may appear throughout the site. Icommunicate Therapy Ltd assume no responsibility for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction you take based on the information, services or other material on this site. While icommunicate Therapy Ltd strives to keep the information on this site accurate, complete, and up-to-date, icommunicate therapy Ltd and its suppliers cannot guarantee, and will not be responsible for any damage or loss related to, the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the information.
Disclaimer
Telepractice (Online Consultation / Online Therapy)
The use of telecommunications technology can be an effective tool for the treatment or rehabilitation of people with speech, language and communication difficulties and disorders. Icommunicate provides a tele-practice service and is aware that some individuals and some communication disorders are not suitable for speech, language and communication therapy using telecommunications as the first and foremost intervention option. As with any communication disorder and any type of speech therapy treatment, there are no guarantees of success, whether therapy is carried out by a speech therapist/pathologist in a clinic or through the use of telecommunications equipment.
Any online speech and language therapy provided by icommunicate Therapy Limited is designed to teach, facilitate and improve aspects of communicative functioning. Unfortunately, some communication difficulties, diseases or disorders do not respond well to treatment and recovery can be slow or not happen at all. With some disorders, communication can deteriorate further over time. The therapy programs, activities, ideas and information offered by the icommunicate speech and language therapist may not lead to a cure or a guarantee that the communication difficulty will improve. icommunicate is also not responsible for homework programs being carried out incorrectly by other people. Any person purchasing a program of therapy from the icommunicate Therapy Ltd must acknowledge that, because of the nature and complexity of many communication difficulties and disorders, icommunicate Therapy Limited cannot offer any guarantees that the program will cure, “fix”, or improve the communication difficulty. Interaction with a speech therapist from icommunicate therapy Ltd and the use of online resources of icommunicate Therapy Limited, constitutes understanding and acceptance of such provisions. Icommunicate will only ever use qualified and certified speech and language therapists / pathologists when administering assessment and therapy online.
If you are currently under any kind of other medical or therapy program, we recommend that you always consult a trained medical professional before making any decision regarding treatment choice or changes in your treatment. We advise never discontinuing treatment or medication without first consulting a physician, or appropriate clinician or therapist. icommunicate Therapy Ltd and the employees of icommunicate therapy Ltd will not accept liability for personal decisions that are made without professional medical consultation with regard to any matters relating to a change treatment or medication.
Your Rights
Icommunicate may conduct an assessment or consultation during your first contact with an icommunicate speech therapist. If you are not satisfied with the assessment and diagnosis of a speech therapist from icommunicate therapy Ltd you are within your rights to seek a second opinion at your own cost.
Following assessment, icommunicate may suggest a program of therapy if it is required and if it is appropriate to carry out this therapy via tele-practice. Icommunicate will also suggest an initial number of sessions and advise you of the cost of these sessions. It is completely up to the purchaser to accept the suggested therapy program, and there is no obligation to take this program, or take part in the number of sessions suggested by the therapist. You are within your rights to discontinue a therapy program at any time.
Products from the icommunicate Therapy Ltd
All products provided by icommunicatetherapy Ltd relating to speech, language and communication difficulties, disorders, or development, are written by qualified Speech and Language Therapists / Pathologists. These programmes are not, and were never meant to be a replacement for consultation with a qualified speech therapist. The programmes do not guarantee success as speech, language and communication difficulties may have many causes and the authors of these programs are unable to tailor a programme specific to every individual. The authors of these programmes advise that you see a qualified speech and language therapist / pathologist if you have concerns regarding your speech and communication or the speech and communication of someone in your care.
The programmes that are sold on the icommunicate therapy Ltd website are designed to help those individuals who are unable to see a speech language therapist (pathologist), cannot afford to see a speech therapist, are on a waiting list to see a speech therapist, or want a program to run in conjunction with a current speech therapy schedule.
Terms of Purchase
Purchasing Tele-practice Services
Icommunicate prides itself on offering good service, and clients must understand that the speech therapist’s at icommunicate prepare for each session and that these sessions are scheduled around a busy day that involves many other clients. For this reason if you, the client, are late for a scheduled session, cancel at short notice, or do not join the session, this is a time and financial cost to the speech therapist. For this reason there are rules relating to lateness, cancellation, non- attendance or the non-compliance of the client.
For tele-practice speech therapy services and consultation, agreement will be reached between icommunicate therapy Ltd and you the client as to the nature, dates of service delivery, and the cost of the service. An invoice will be presented to you via email and this must be paid prior to the start of any service delivery. In circumstances where staff at icommunicate therapy Ltd are unable to offer services on the agreed date, then the purchaser will be informed and a new date and time will be agreed. If the service cannot be administered because of a technical difficulty, then the purchaser will be informed and a new date and time will be agreed. If the staff member is unable to provide the service on any other date once agreement and payment has been made, a refund will be provided. However, no other compensation will be offered over and above the cost of the therapy session or sessions that were agreed upon and paid for.
Please read these terms carefully, it is the responsibility of the client to be available and ready for each therapy/consultation session. Icommunicate allows a 5 minute non-chargeable window to login and coordinate online services appropriately.
The Client
If the client needs to cancel or reschedule an agreed online meeting/session, they must give at least 12 hours notice. If less than 12 hours notice is given, there will be a 25% charge of the cost of the session.
If no notice is provided and the client fails to notify icommunicate therapy Ltd that they will not be available for consultation at the agreed time (non-attendance) then the full cost of the session will apply and no refund will be provided for that session (unless there are exceptional circumstances).
If the client is late joining the session then it is at the discretion of the therapist as to whether they are willing to increase the length of that session to make up some, or all of the time lost. If the therapist is unable to make up that time, there will be no refund for the time lost due to the client’s lateness.
Clients / Caregivers should be available and ready for scheduled online sessions and should provide a quiet and distraction free environment to participate in therapy sessions or consultations. It will not be the responsibility of icommunicate to add time to a session or refund for time lost if interruptions or stoppages cause a delay to the session.
Children should always be accompanied online by an adult at all times.
Non-Compliance
When a consultation is brought to an end early because of the non-compliance of the client or child, no refund will be given. We have strict rules on child non-compliance. If your Child is non-compliant during the session and refuses to participate appropriately, the session will be abandoned, but you will still be liable for the costs of the session. If the you or your child are rude, threatening or abusive to the therapist, the session will be cancelled, with no refund, and no further sessions will take place.
The Speech Therapist
If the therapist fails to attend the session due to power failure or technical difficulties, freak weather conditions, political instability, sudden illness, then the therapist will do their utmost to inform the client, and a new session will be organized, or a full refund for that session will be provided.
Purchasing Products
By placing an order through our site, you warrant that you are legally capable of entering into binding contracts. After placing an order, you will receive an e-mail from us acknowledging that we have received your order. All orders are subject to acceptance by us, and we will confirm such acceptance to you by sending you an e-mail that confirms that the product has been dispatched. The contract between us will only be formed when we send you the acknowledgement email.
Your order will be fulfilled by the delivery date set out in the acknowledgement email or, if no delivery date is specified, then within 30 days of the date of the acknowledgement email, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
The products will be at your risk from the time of delivery. Ownership of the products will only pass to you when we receive full payment of all sums due in respect of the products, including delivery charges. The price of any products will be as quoted on our site, except in cases of obvious error. Prices are liable to change at any time, but changes will not affect orders in respect of which we have already sent you an acknowledgement email.
Our site contains products and it is always possible that, despite our best efforts, some of the products listed on our site may be incorrectly priced. We will normally verify prices as part of our dispatch procedures so that, where a product’s correct price is less than our stated price, we will charge the lower amount when dispatching the product to you. If a product’s correct price is higher than the price stated on our site, we will normally, at our discretion, either contact you for instructions before dispatching the product, or reject your order and notify you of such rejection.
We warrant to you that any product purchased from us through our site is of satisfactory quality. Our liability in connection with any product purchased through our site is strictly limited to the purchase price of that product.
Import duty and taxes
If you order Products from our site for delivery outside the New Zealand, they may be subject to import duties and taxes which are levied when the delivery reaches the specified destination. You will be responsible for payment of any such import duties and taxes. Please note that we have no control over these charges and cannot predict their amount. Please contact your local customs office for further information before placing your order. For orders made from New Zealand for both products and services, 12.5% GST is added to the cost of any purchase. All other orders made outside New Zealand are GST free. Please also note that you must comply with all applicable laws and regulations of the country for which the products are destined. We will not be liable for any breach by you of any such laws.
Guarantee and refunds policy
We try to guarantee your satisfaction. Faulty items will be replaced and any return postage paid, however please contact us before returning any item. We will replace Broken or Defective CD/DVDs for a period of 60 days from the date of purchase.
If you receive an item and then decide it is unsuitable for your needs you cannot return it for a refund. We provide a description of the every programme that we sell on our website, if you are unsure about the suitability of an item, please contact us before purchasing the item. In exceptional circumstances we may agree to refund the cost of the product, but only on return of that product and we will not be liable for the cost of postage and shipping for the return. By purchasing our products you are also bound by the information in our Disclaimer.
Goods will either be sent as email attachments for you to download, view or print, or in a DVD/CD-ROM Format. In some cases we may agree to send products that we would usually email in a DVD/CD ROM format providing the order is over $60 US dollars. Goods will be normally be despatched within 7 days. There may be periods when this is delayed due to holidays.
Credit Card Security
We use the PayPal Online Payment service for all our online credit card payments. PayPal is recognized worldwide as one of the most secure systems to use for online credit card payments. No one at Icommunicate therapy Ltd will see any of your credit card information. PayPal process your payment over a encrypted secure connection.
COPYRIGHT
For those buying products with a multiple licence, programs may be reproduced and distributed (but not sold), but the icommunicate logo and website address must remain on every page of these resources at all times. The name of the LICENSEE will appear on the printed sheets and DVD /CD-ROM downloads. All our materials are protected by copyright. The purchaser of the materials with a multiple licence is granted a licence to reproduce the materials under the following conditions:
Resources may be photocopied/printed by the licensee for use with the children/clients they are working with directly in clinic or as part of an individual’s programme. We would expect each full time clinic & each school to have their own materials. Resources on DVD/CD-ROM may only be copied onto up to 3 computers at one geographical location, and should be held in safe keeping by the Department Administrator. One copy of the CD may be made as a back-up. This digital media must not be reproduced and distributed under any circumstances.
All other purchasers must abide by our terms and conditions relating to copyright:
Any purchasable icommunicate Therapy resources, DVD/CD ROMS or programmes remain copyrighted and may not be reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, published, posted on any other web site, sold, or transferred in any form or by any means, except with the prior written permission of icommunicate Therapy Limited. Images may not be digitally modified, or used in any other product without permission.All rights are reserved by icommunicate Therapy Limited.
Use of the aforementioned will be deemed illegal as per copyright registration laws Copyright infringement is a violation of law subject to criminal and civil penalties. The icommunicate logo is the trademark of icommunicate Therapy Limited and the general public may use this logo only in approved ways.
Privacy Policy
When you become a registered member of our website, or if you purchase goods and services from icommunicate therapy Ltd, your information is secure. By registering with icommunicate therapy Ltd, or purchasing products or services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and consent to the policies and practices described.
Privacy Principles
Accountability: icommunicate Therapy Ltd is responsible for your personal information under its control and has designated Johan Langfield, Director of icommunicate, to be accountable for the organization’s compliance with the following principles:
icommunicate Therapy Ltd employees and users must abide by our privacy policy and the policies of their regulatory organizations. icommunicate Therapy Ltd is not accountable for information that is shared beyond the secure icommunicate Therapy Ltd software. This includes emails.
Identifying Purposes: Having up-to-date and accurate information helps us provide you with the best possible service. At icommunicate Therapy Ltd, we collect relevant information from two sources: 1) Our clients and 2) our Speech-Language Pathologists. You may choose not to provide specific information. At anytime, you may decline services.
Limiting Collection: The collection of personal information will be limited to that which is necessary for the purposes identified by icommunicate Therapy Ltd. Information shall be collected by fair and lawful means. If you send us correspondence, including e-mails and faxes, we may retain such information in the records of your account. We may also retain customer service correspondence and other correspondence from icommunicate Therapy Ltd to you. We retain these records in order to measure and improve our customer service, and to provide a record of our contact and related actions.
Limiting Use, Disclosure, and Retention: Personal information will not be used or disclosed for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with your consent or as required by law. Personal information will be retained only as long as necessary for the fulfillment of those purposes.
Individual Access and Accuracy: Personal information shall be as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as is necessary for the purposes for which it is to be used. You may ask to change or delete information, as allowed by law. Upon request, you can receive a copy of your file.
Safeguards: Personal information shall be protected by security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.
Consent
By agreeing to participate in tele-practice, online assessment or therapy, you consent that we may request and use information as part of our assessment and therapy. This information will only be used for assessment and therapy purposes only, will remain confidential and will never be passed to any third parties.
Clients: We will generally obtain your consent electronically on our site via email. The knowledge and consent of the individual are required for the collection, use or disclosure of personal information, except where inappropriate. However, it may also be obtained in writing or verbally. In determining the appropriate form of consent, we will consider the sensitivity of and reasonable expectations regarding the personal information. You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting icommunicate Therapy Ltd.
With your consent, we may gather personal information from you in person, over the telephone, or by corresponding with you via email or the internet. In the case of tele-practice or consultation this information will relate to assessment data, information relating to the nature of the communication disorder, relevant medical issues that may have a bearing on the communication disorder. This information will only be seen by the appropriate employees of icommunicate therapy Ltd and will never be shared with other parties. At the completion of a therapy programme, if no further services are required or requested, icommunicate will send you any of the information that has been collected or recorded during the therapy/consultation programme at your request, and/or destroy this information. If no request is made within 90 days of the termination of the programme this information will be destroyed.
It is not necessary for your Speech-Language Therapist/ Pathologist to ensure your knowledge or consent in the following circumstances:
We may communicate about your program with members of your service team, including educators, psychologists, therapists, doctors, and other relevant personnel. We are required by law to report information about you or your family if there is a risk of harm to yourself or others.
The Speech-Language Therapists supervisor or professional peer may review records to provide peer-coaching and auditing. Furthermore, the Speech Therapists casenotes may be audited by their regulatory organization and/or icommunicate Therapy Ltd. These steps support the Speech Therapists in providing quality programming for you, and they ensure that the Speech therapist is working according to his or her professional regulations. We give access to individually identifiable information about our users only to those icommunicate Therapy Ltd employees who require it to fulfill customer service requests.
We will ensure your knowledge and consent before: Initiating the communication assessment and therapy program. Sharing information, as it relates to your communication program, with people who are not considered to be within your circle of care. Allowing another individual to observe your session or video clip.
Security
There are occasionally fraudulent “phishing” emails targeting individuals who the perpetrators believe might be registered users of this site. We never send an email which requests users to place a call and provide their user ID, password or any personal information. We will never send an email requesting any bank details or account numbers. When payment for products or services is requested, we will provide links to our secure PayPal service. If you ever receive an email and are unsure of its validity please contact us as we cannot take responsibility for fraudulent emails and scams.
We work to protect the security of credit card information during transmission by using the PayPal service, which encrypts information you input. We do not receive or see credit card numbers when you place an order or pay for a service. Icommunicate therapy Ltd does not disclose buyers’ details to third parties apart from our secure PayPal payment service, when payment of goods and services are made. We use use PayPal it provides a very secure online payment service that is recognized worldwide. PayPal will not disclose any details to any other third party.
Employees are instructed to only use personal information in adherence with the principles set forth in this Privacy Policy and the laws applicable to each specific business. The only employees who have access to your personal information are administrative personnel. Employees who misuse customer personal information may be subject to disciplinary action.
The customer’s contact information is also used to get in touch when necessary and to advise of new products. None of this information is shared with any other person or organisation, other than people or organisations who are working on our behalf. If you do not wish to receive new product information or catalogues by e-mail or post please advise us. Any customer information on our computers is password protected.
Contacting us
If you have any questions about this statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this web site, we can be contacted at:
info@icommunicatetherapy.com
Glossary of Terms
Speech Therapist
Please note, the term speech therapist refers to speech pathologists, and speech language therapists / pathologists. These terms refer to the same type of professional with a qualification to practice and registration with the relevant speech-language therapy/pathology association of their country. These professionals, although having different titles, carry out the same types of assessment and administered the same types of therapy. These terms describe a professional of equal qualifications and skills (skills will obviously also depend on experience and other post graduation education). In some countries communication professionals are referred to as therapists, and in other countries they are referred to as pathologists.
Assessment
Assessment refers to information gathering and formal and informal assessment using interview, observation and various tests to draw conclusions and make a tentative diagnosis of some types communication disorder. Some assessment and conclusions can be reached during therapy session exercises or studying the results of an implemented program.
Therapy/Consultation
Therapy will involve interaction between the speech therapist and the client with communication difficulties and/or their care-giver, and the implementation and participation in any programmes that the therapist gives to the client to do in their own time.
Client
The client can refer to the individual taking part in the assessment and therapy process or the parent and/or caregiver, that works through speech, language, and communication therapy programmes with the individual.
Session
A session is the period that the speech therapist spends interacting with the client/caregiver and conducts consultation, offers advice, performs therapy exercises or assessment.
Product
A product is a physical programme (either downloaded or provided on a CD-Rom/DVD format) that the client purchases.
Service
Service refers to the purchased time the speech therapist provides for speech, language and communication therapy, advice, consultation and assessment. This service may also included the time the speech therapist takes to create any specialist programmes or resources for the client.
Tele-practice / Online Therapy / Consultation
Any reference to online therapy, consultation or tele-practice refers to the application of telecommunications technology to delivery of professional services at a distance by linking clinician to client, or clinician to clinician, for assessment, intervention, and/or consultation. With the exception of the initial free consultation/assessment, the client purchases these services when the service is provided by icommunicate therapy Ltd.
The American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) provides the following Position Statement regarding Telepractice:
This position statement is an official policy of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
Telepractice is the application of telecommunications technology to deliver professional services at a distance by linking clinician to client, or clinician to clinician for assessment, intervention, and/or consultation. It is the position of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) that telepractice (telehealth) is an appropriate model of service delivery for the profession of speech-language pathology. Telepractice may be used to overcome barriers of access to services caused by distance, unavailability of specialists and/or subspecialists, and impaired mobility. Telepractice offers the potential to extend clinical services to remote, rural, and underserved populations, and to culturally and linguistically diverse populations.
The use of telepractice does not remove any existing responsibilities in delivering services, including adherence to the Code of Ethics, Scope of Practice, state and federal laws (e.g., licensure, HIPAA, etc.), and ASHA policy documents on professional practices. Therefore, the quality of services delivered via telepractice must be consistent with the quality of services delivered face-to-face.
Telepractice for SLPs and Audiologists
Key Points
ASHA defines telepractice as “the application of telecommunications technology to delivery of professional services at a distance by linking clinician to client, or clinician to clinician, for assessment, intervention, and/or consultation.”
ASHA’s position is that “telepractice is an appropriate model of service delivery for the professions of speech-language pathology [and audiology]. Telepractice may be used to overcome barriers of access to services caused by distance, unavailability of specialists and/or subspecialists, and impaired mobility.
“Telepractice offers “the potential to extend clinical services to remote, rural, and underserved populations, and to culturally and linguistically diverse populations.”
“The use of telepractice does not remove any existing responsibilities in delivering services, including adherence to the Code of Ethics, Scope of Practice, state and federal laws (e.g., licensure, HIPAA, etc.), and ASHA policy documents on professional practices.”
“Therefore, “the quality of services delivered via telepractice must be consistent with the quality of services delivered face-to-face.”