In the video, Whose Records, the client demonstrated frustration with her current counselor and made a request for her medical records in order to transfer to another counselor. During the conversation, the counselor remained calm and respectful to the client regardless of the clients’ disrespectful approach. I do not agree with the challenge approach made by the counselor regarding the client seeing a different counselor every three to four weeks. That seemed to increase the level of tension on behalf of the client. I feel a better approach would have been to allow the client to express her concerns regarding her current treatment. After which, the counselor could explain the process of obtaining her medical records along with requesting the client to sign the appropriate release of information to acquire her records. Remley and Herlihy (2014) indicated the client has the right to obtain their records providing they are competent and we as the clinician do not feel the release of their records would cause harm to the client. The American Counseling Association Standard B.6.e …show more content…
The counselor indicated that she spoke with the client via phone and explained that the sessions would not be covered by his insurance. Remley and Herlihy (2014) indicated we should provide the client informed consent at the onset of treatment, including insurance coverage and payment expectations. It may have been beneficial to both the client and counselor to discuss this prior to the clients’ self-disclosure in order to minimize frustration on behalf of the client. Additionally, I can certainly see the challenge of counselors in managed care situations. In this case, the client may only be experiencing expectable bereavement, however without a diagnosis it may not be possible for this client to receive needed
Mrs. Hylton is a 45 year old female who presented to the ED via LEO under IVC by her therapist, Melanie, from ADS. Per documentation Mrs. Hylton denies suicidal ideation and homicidal ideation to nursing staff and MCM before the evaluation. She also contracted for safety with MCM. Dr. Horton requested a mental health assessment on Mrs. Hylton. Before the assessment Ms. Melanie and her supervisor Melissa were contacted. Ms. Melissa reports Mrs. Hylton verbally contracted for safety, however left before ADS could type up terms of verbal agreement. Melissa reports afterwards she was not aware of Mrs. Hylton symptoms of psychosis when speaking with her until being informed by Melanie of findings after conversation with Mrs. Hylton. Melanie upon
Although doctor-patient confidentiality is standard today, a caveat about this privilege is that it does not protect all statements made to therapists and only applies to regularly scheduled appointments. Additionally, if a patient reveals that they intend to harm someone, it is the therapist’s duty to report this fact to the proper authorities.
This case study is an interpretation of a problem or situation that has occurred within a LPC’s (License Professional Counselor) care. As information is gathered, the depiction to this specific problem in this case study may also include additional information that may deem so to be necessary, in order to place possible solutions or actions that could have or will arise from the situation. This document will consist of a step by step analysis of the factors which impact the case, mostly in the order of what appears to be the most ethically sound decision. This document involves Stephanie’s (therapist) treatment of Martha Rose (client). The therapist, Stephanie, has been given a case through referral from an unknown source; Stephanie is working with this new case in SC (South Carolina).
...rt of the medical profession, the therapists are expected to maintain the confidentiality of their clients. A psychologist must be able to acquire a client’s trust in order to keep quality confidentiality amongst the two parties. Only on seriously occasions should the patient’s records be shared, under certain other conditions the psychotherapy records of a minor can be reviewed by others without prior written consent. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), psychologists can usually give way the patient records to parents or legal guardians. Some of the ethical rules that apply to the practice of child and adolescent psychiatry are clear and generally agreed upon For example, rules against sexual contact or harsh or abusive treatment are encoded as boundary violations. A psychotherapist must be able to respect the boundaries of the client.
There are a lot of ethical standard that can be apply to this scenario, the most and most important one avoiding harm (Standard 3.04). The psychologist should take a reasonable step to avoid harming the patient especially when it is foreseeable. Before referral, the psychologist has known that the patient was abusing Xanax, she had taken 17 mg in the 30 hours when she should have only taken 2.5 mg, her behavior is very unreliable and she was not overtly suicidal or homicidal but the tendancies were there. Practicing within the boundaries of competent (Standard 2.01), the psychologist was knowledgeable enough to know that the client was in danger of harming herself or others. The psychologist took the necessary precautions to avoid harm by referring her to an inpatient facility. The psychologist cooperated with another professional (Standard 3.09) when it was needed which was in the best interest of the client. The psychologist should be aware of HIPPA rules when cooperating with the other professional. The patients written authorization on release of PHI should be communicated to the other professional. This brings us to the pressing issue for the psychologist right now; the psychologist wants to check on the status of the client, but the facility will neither confirm nor deny her stay there. The psychologist can fax the release form but, with the condition that it should be communicated to the inpatient clinic as confidential on the fax cover. The mistake the psychologist made was not getting a full release from the client, this should have been discussed during informed consent (Standard 3.10). This should also have been done as early as feasible before services and the psychologist had ample time since the client has been coming for several weeks. Even though this patient might be in a heightened emotional state due to her unreliable state before
If a client was threatening to sue myself and the agency, I would simply provide him with a photocopy of his clinical record. He is the client and has the right to see and be aware of his progress or maybe not progress. There is not a reason that the client should not be able to see their records and just like the book says, social workers should write their notes in anticipation that either the client, a third party or both will be viewing the notes. In addition, standard 1.08 of the NASW code of ethics says that social worker should be able to provide their client with their records. If there is information in their file the social worker thinks might be harmful, he or she is to go over that information with the client to process and discuss the meaning and reasoning behind why that was said. In regards to having access to records, I do not see this affecting my faith as
There are a number of problems that present in modern practice that can significantly affect or compromise confidential client information. Primarily, these types of problems are usually categorized as belonging into one of two areas of violation that provide unauthorized access to confidential information. The first area of disturbance of confidentiality occurs when the professional boundaries of the client-therapist relationship are breached, such as when practitioners partake in multiple relationships or decide to access public information about a patient online.
There is much debate about how psychiatric patients should be cared for and treated. Especially in an in patient setting, many healthcare providers will choose to care for mentally ill patients in their own way. Patients who are mentally ill have restrictions on certain aspects of their care such as access to certain things along with the environment they are in. Although confidentiality is important and should be maintained in all aspects of medical care, I do think that psychiatric patients should have the same have the opportunity to keep as much information confidential as they wish. Given the circumstances there are reasons to breach that confidentiality in mentally ill patients in order to keep the patient safe and out of harms way.
Regardless of what issues a client presents in session a counselor should first identify if the client’s issue will cause an issue for them. For example, if a counselor is in recovery from alcoholism and a client needs to address their own addiction issues this may be too close to home for the counselor to handle in an unbiased and professional way. Therefore a counselor should always ask themselves, ‘will this be an issue for me’ when presented with a client issue. Secondarily as counselor should identify if they are competent in their abilities to address the client’s issue. Is the topic something the counselor is comfortable with, educated on, or has experience with? It is unprofessional, unethical, and potentially harmful to the client to agree to address issues that one is not competent to address. If a counselor finds that they are competent and the client’s issue does not cause an issue for the them than the counselor can proceed to identifying new go...
Licensed mental health counselors have many ethical and legal issues dealing with interacting with clients in a way that leaves them in a better place. It is crucial that counselors act within the b...
Mental health professionals have an ethical duty to protect a client’s confidences. In fact, most view confidentiality is paramount to the hel...
Informed consent. Counselors, whether in a group or individual counseling setting, must obtain informed consent from their clients. Counselors must disclose information about themselves to their clients. They also need to share with potential clients how long counseling will last and the topics that will be discussed in each session. According to the ACA code of ethics (2006), “informed consent is an ongoing process, and counselors appropriately document discussions of informed consent throughout the counseling relationship” (p. 236). Informed consent in group counseling is tricky because you have multiple clients; however, counselors have the option to meet with each group member individually in order to gain consent from their
These ethical concerns must be addressed with every client. This is where closed ended questions may be considered, the best approach is to intertwine these questions into the normal flow of conversation so that the client does not feel like they are being judged. One of the ethical concerns the clinician needs to address is suicide, since those dealing with the crisis have no ability to cope and are vulnerable and overwhelmed, suicide may feel like their only option to end the crisis (Kanel, 2007). The clinician needs this information to keep the client safe. Another ethical concern the clinician must address is the possibility of abuse towards a child or the elderly or any harm to others. It is always a counselor or mental health workers ' duty to report any suspicion of this kind of activity to the proper authorities (Kanel, 2007). Organic or medical concerns are one of the other ethical considerations which must be addressed in the second stage. This includes making evaluations about any mental health or behavioral disorders as well as making any necessary referrals (Kanel, 2007). Substance abuse is another ethical concern that must be addressed by the clinician. Since substance abuse is commonly used to treat stress for those in crisis the clinician must be assertive in gathering information about drug use (Kanel, 2007). This information will direct the clinician in the
Understanding the counseling session from the client’s perspective is a very important aspect in the development of a therapeutic relationship. A clinician must be an excellent listener, while being to pay attention to the client’s body language, affect and tone. The dynamics in the counseling session that is beneficial to the client include the recognition of the pain that the client is feeling. The detrimental part of this includes a misunderstanding of the real issues, a lack of consideration of the cultural aspects of the client, and a lack of clinical experience or listening skills. In this presentation, we will discuss the positive and negative aspects of the counseling session from the client’s perspective which includes the client’s attitudes, feelings, and emotions of the counseling session. We will next examine the propensity of the client to reveal or not reveal information to the counselor, and how transference, and counter-transference can have an effect on the counselor-client relationship.
Doctor patient confidentiality, is a fundamental element of the practice of medicine. Patients can expect that doctors and their support staff will hold confidential information about them in confidence, unless the release of the information is required by law or for public interest reasons. Ensuring confidentiality is retained allows doctors to examine their patients and receive all relevant information about their condition without a worry of judgement or sharing of the information.