Effective date: September 10, 2026. Last updated: September 10, 2026.
In short
We are Design in Mental Health Network – North America. This notice explains what personal information we collect through this website, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what you can ask us to do with it.
We collect information only when you choose to give it to us, by contacting us or by registering your interest in membership or Founding Sponsorship. We do not sell your information. We do not share it with sponsors or partners for their own marketing.
If you would rather speak to a person than read a policy, write to president@dimhn-na.org and we will answer you directly.
1. Who we are
Design in Mental Health Network – North America (“DiMHN-NA”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is a charitable corporation incorporated in the State of New York.
We are the controller of the personal information described in this notice. That means we decide what is collected and why, and we are accountable for it.
Postal address
Design in Mental Health Network – North America
Attention: c/o Francis Pitts
297 River Street, Suite 400
Troy, NY 12180
United States of America
Person responsible for the protection of personal information
Francis Pitts, President and Chair
president@dimhn-na.org
Quebec’s Law 25 requires us to name a real person, not an inbox, and to publish their title and contact details. Francis Pitts holds that role. Any question, request or complaint about your personal information can go to him at the address above.
DiMHN-NA and the Design in Mental Health Network in the United Kingdom are distinct organizations with separate governance and separate privacy notices. Information you give to us is not shared with the UK Network unless you ask us to share it.
2. Who this notice covers
This notice applies to this website and to the enquiry and registration forms on it.
It does not cover other websites we link to. If you follow a link to LinkedIn, to the UK Network, or to a partner organization, that organization’s own privacy notice applies from the moment you arrive.
3. What we collect
3.1 Information you give us
We collect personal information through three forms. Each one tells you at the point of collection what it is for.
| Form | What we ask for |
|---|---|
| Contact us | First name, last name, email address, your message, country or region, how you heard about us. Optionally: organization, job title, phone number. |
| Register your interest in Membership | Name, email address, organization, role, country or region, which description best fits you, and whether you want to receive updates. |
| Register your interest in Founding Sponsorship | Name, organization, role, email address, area of interest, and whether you would like someone to contact you about sponsorship. Optionally: phone number. |
Fields marked optional on the form are genuinely optional. Leaving them blank will not stop us responding to you.
If you email us directly, we hold that correspondence too.
3.2 Information about you that you may choose to share
The membership registration form asks which description best fits you. Some of the available answers, for example lived experience or family member or caregiver, may tell us something about your own or a relative’s experience of mental health services.
We treat that answer as sensitive personal information. It is optional, it is never required to register interest, and you can register without answering it. We use it only to understand the make-up of the emerging Network and to make sure a range of perspectives is represented. We do not use it to make any decision about you, we do not share it, and we do not publish it.
We do not ask anyone to evidence or prove lived experience, and we never will.
We do not ask for and do not want any other health information, diagnosis, treatment history or clinical detail. Please do not include any in a message to us.
3.3 Information collected automatically
When you visit the site, some information is collected by technology rather than by asking you:
- Server and security logs. Our web host records IP addresses and request details to keep the site available and to defend it against attack. These are technical records, retained briefly, and are not used to build a profile of you.
- Cookies and similar technologies. Some are strictly necessary to make the site work. Others, set by our forms provider to recognise a returning visitor and measure how forms perform, are not necessary, and we do not set them until you agree.
Our Cookie Policy lists every cookie by name, says what it does and how long it lasts, and explains how to change your choice at any time.
3.4 What we do not collect
We do not take payments through this website. There is no online membership purchase, no card processing and no member login.
We do not knowingly collect information from children. This site is intended for professionals, researchers, organizations and adults with an interest in the design of mental health environments. If you believe a child has given us information, contact Francis Pitts and we will delete it.
4. Why we use your information
We use personal information for the purposes below, and for nothing else.
| What we do | Why | On what footing |
|---|---|---|
| Answer your enquiry | You asked us a question and expect a reply | Your consent, given by submitting the form |
| Record your interest in membership | So we can tell you when membership opens in 2027 | Your consent |
| Record your interest in Founding Sponsorship | So a member of the team can discuss it with you | Your consent |
| Send you updates about resources, learning and events | You ticked the box asking for them | Your express consent, and in Canada CASL express consent |
| Understand the make-up of the emerging Network | To make sure a range of perspectives is represented | Your consent, and only where you chose to tell us |
| Keep the website secure and available | To protect the site and the people who use it | Our legitimate interest in running a safe website |
| Meet our legal and regulatory obligations | Because we have to | Legal obligation |
Each purpose stands on its own. Asking us a question does not sign you up to our mailing list, and declining our updates does not stop us answering you.
We do not make any decision about you by automated means, and we do not profile you.
5. Consent, and how to change your mind
Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. Withdrawing consent does not undo anything we did lawfully before you withdrew it.
- To stop receiving emails: use the unsubscribe link at the foot of any email we send you. It works immediately and we do not ask you why.
- To change your cookie choices: open the cookie settings from the link in the site footer.
- To withdraw any other consent, or to have us delete what we hold: email president@dimhn-na.org.
6. Who else sees your information
We use a small number of service providers to run the website and manage our correspondence. Each acts on our instructions, is bound by a written data processing agreement, and may not use your information for its own purposes.
| Provider | What it does | Where the data is held |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot, Inc. | Hosts our forms and holds enquiries and registrations as our CRM | United States |
| Intuit Mailchimp | Sends our email updates and manages subscriptions | United States |
| Google (Google Workspace) | Our dimhn-na.org email | United States |
| Melted House Digital Ltd | Builds, hosts and maintains the website, and holds its server logs | United Kingdom |
Because our forms are embedded directly from HubSpot, information you type into them is sent from your browser to HubSpot in the United States. It does not pass through the web server that serves this page.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
We do not give Founding Sponsors, partners or any other organization access to our enquiry lists, registration lists, contact lists or member lists. Sponsorship supports the Network. It does not buy access to the people in it.
We may disclose information if the law requires it, or to establish or defend a legal claim. If that ever happens we will tell you, unless we are legally prevented from doing so.
7. Information held outside your country
DiMHN-NA is a United States corporation and our providers are principally in the United States. If you are in Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area or elsewhere, your information will be held in the United States.
Before using each provider we assess whether the information will receive adequate protection, taking account of how sensitive it is, what it is used for, the provider’s own safeguards and the legal framework where it is held. Each provider is engaged under a written agreement containing data protection terms and, where relevant, standard contractual clauses.
If you would like a summary of that assessment for any of our providers, ask Francis Pitts.
8. How long we keep it
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Enquiries submitted through the contact form | Three years from our last contact with you, then deleted |
| Registrations of interest in membership or sponsorship | Three years from our last contact with you, then deleted |
| Email subscription records | Until you unsubscribe, and then a minimal suppression record so we do not email you again by mistake |
| Records of consent, meaning what you agreed to and when | For as long as we rely on that consent, and a reasonable period afterwards, so we can show it was properly given |
| Website security logs | A short period set by our host, then overwritten |
“Last contact” means the most recent point at which you engaged with us, such as a reply, an event registration, or a click in one of our emails. We do not keep personal information indefinitely, and we do not keep it just in case.
9. Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask us to:
- Tell you what we hold about you, and give you a copy.
- Correct anything inaccurate or incomplete.
- Delete what we hold, where there is no lasting reason for us to keep it.
- Stop using it for a particular purpose, or stop sending you email.
- Give you a copy in a portable, structured format, or send it directly to another organization where that is technically feasible.
- Explain how a decision about you was reached. We do not make automated decisions, so in practice this means explaining our reasoning.
If you are in Quebec, Law 25 also gives you the right to ask us to stop disseminating your information, or to de-index a link to it, where it causes you serious injury. Requests are handled by Francis Pitts as the person responsible for the protection of personal information.
If you are in a US state with a consumer privacy law, you may have rights to know, delete, correct, and to opt out of sale, sharing and targeted advertising. We do not sell or share your information for advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of, but you can still exercise the other rights.
To exercise any right, email president@dimhn-na.org. We will confirm receipt within a few days, and answer within 30 days. If a request is complex enough to need longer, we will tell you why before the 30 days are up. We may ask you to confirm your identity, but only enough to be sure we are not disclosing your information to someone else. There is no charge.
If you are not satisfied
Please tell us first, because most problems are quicker to fix directly. If you are still not satisfied:
- Quebec: Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec, cai.gouv.qc.ca
- Elsewhere in Canada: Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, priv.gc.ca
- United States: the Attorney General of your state
- United Kingdom: Information Commissioner’s Office, ico.org.uk
10. Emails we send
We send email updates only to people who have asked for them.
Every email we send identifies DiMHN-NA as the sender, includes our postal address, and carries a working unsubscribe link that we act on promptly. This is what Canada’s anti-spam legislation requires, and we apply it to everyone on our list, not only to Canadian recipients.
If you registered your interest in membership or sponsorship, we will also send you the information you asked for about that. That is a reply to your request, not marketing.
11. Keeping your information safe
We use reputable providers and require them to maintain appropriate security. Access to enquiries and registrations is limited to the small number of people who need it. Accounts holding personal information are protected by multi-factor authentication. The website is served over an encrypted connection.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach occurs that presents a risk of serious injury to you, we will notify you and the relevant regulators, including the Commission d’accès à l’information for anyone in Quebec, without unreasonable delay, and we keep a register of any confidentiality incident as Law 25 requires.
12. Changes to this notice
If we change how we use personal information we will update this notice and change the date at the top. Where a change is significant, we will say so on the website and, if we hold your email address and the change affects you, tell you directly.
13. Contact us
Francis Pitts, President and Chair
Person responsible for the protection of personal information
president@dimhn-na.org
Design in Mental Health Network – North America
c/o Francis Pitts, 297 River Street, Suite 400, Troy, NY 12180, USA
General enquiries: hello@dimhn-na.org