Privacy Policy

NOTICE OF PRIVACY

Your rights and my policies as required

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)

Our legal duty to you:

I and my colleagues at Queen City Counseling & Consulting are required by law to protect the privacy of your “protected health information” (PHI), which can be identified with you.  We also have legal and professional duties to you as your therapists. But sometimes PHI may or must be released. This notice explains your rights and ours.

What to expect:

The purpose of meeting with a counselor or therapist is to get help with problems in your life that are bothering you or that are keeping you from being successful in important areas of your life. You may be here because you wanted to talk to a counselor or therapist about these problems. Or, you may be here because your parent, guardian, doctor or teacher had concerns about you. When we meet, we will discuss these problems. I will ask questions, listen to you and suggest a plan for improving these problems. It is important that you feel comfortable talking to me about the issues that are bothering you. Sometimes these issues will include things you don’t want your parents or guardians to know about. For most people, knowing that what they say will be kept private helps them feel more comfortable and have more trust in their counselor or therapist. Privacy, also called confidentiality, is an important and necessary part of good counseling.

As a general rule, I will keep the information you share with me in our sessions confidential, unless I have your written consent to disclose certain information. There are, however, important exceptions to this rule that are important for you to understand before you share personal information with me in a therapy session. In some situations, I am required by law or by the guidelines of my profession to disclose information whether I have your permission. In other situations, I am permitted by law and my profession to disclose information without your permission.  I have listed some of these situations below.

Confidentiality will not be maintained when:

• Safety Concerns for Yourself: You tell me you plan to cause serious harm or death to yourself, and I believe you have the intent and ability to carry out this threat in the very near future. I must take steps to inform a parent or guardian of what you have told me and how serious I believe this threat to be. I must make sure that you are protected from harming yourself.
• Safety Concerns for Others:  You tell me you plan to cause serious harm or death to someone else who can be identified, and I believe you have the intent and ability to carry out this threat in the very near future. In this situation, I will inform your parent or guardian, and I will inform the person who you intend to harm.  

• High Risk Situations: You are doing things that could cause serious physical, emotional, or legal harm to you or someone else, even if you do not intend to harm yourself or another person. In these situations, I will need to use my professional judgment to decide whether to alert a parent or guardian.

• Abuse and/or Neglect: You tell me you are being abused-physically, sexually or emotionally-or that you have been abused in the past. In this situation, I am required by law to report the abuse to the Department of Social Services.
• Court Mandate/Subpoenas: You are involved in a court case or a law enforcement matter, and a legal demand (such as a subpoena or a search warrant) is made for information about your counseling or therapy. If this happens, I will not disclose information without your written agreement unless the court requires me to. I will do all I can within the law to protect your confidentiality, and if I am required to disclose information to the court, I will inform you before I do so.

Communicating with your parent(s) or guardian(s):

Except for situations such as those mentioned above, I will not tell your parent or guardian specific things you share with me in our private therapy sessions. This includes activities and behavior that your parent/guardian would not approve of — or would be upset by — but that do not put you at risk of serious and immediate harm. However, if your risk-taking behavior becomes more serious, then I will need to use my professional judgment to decide whether you are in serious and immediate danger of being harmed. If I feel that you are in such danger, I will communicate this information to your parent or guardian.

Even if I have agreed to keep information confidential – to not tell your parent or guardian – I may believe that it is important for them to know what is going on in your life. In these situations, I will encourage you to tell your parent/guardian and will help you find the best way to tell them. Also, when meeting with your parents, I may sometimes describe problems in general terms, without using specifics, in order to help them know how to be more helpful to you.

Communicating with other primary adults in your life:

School: I will not share any information with your school unless I have your permission and permission from your parent or guardian. Sometimes I may request to speak to someone at your school to find out how things are going for you. Also, it may be helpful in some situations for me to give suggestions to your teacher or counselor at school. If I want to contact your school, or if someone at your school wants to contact me, I will discuss it with you and ask for your written permission. A very unlikely situation might come up in which I do not have your permission but both I and your parent or guardian believe that it is very important for me to be able to share certain information with someone at your school. In this situation, I will use my professional judgment to decide whether to share any information.

Doctors: Sometimes your doctor and I may need to work together; for example, if you need to take medication in addition to seeing a counselor or therapist. I will get your written permission and permission from your parent/guardian in advance to share information with your doctor. The only time I will share information with your doctor even if I don’t have your permission is if you are doing something that puts you at risk for serious and immediate physical/medical harm.

Other instance in which your PHI may be shared:

• For your health care treatment.  We may use and disclose PHI to provide treatment or help you obtain treatment for other providers.

• Examples: Within the practice we may discuss with other Queen City clinicians to gain alternative perspectives in treatment that may be beneficial for your care. If we feel it is  important to share your information with others outside of the practice we will obtain your written permission through a release of information prior to doing so.

• For our health care operations:  We may disclose your Protected Health Information (“PHI”) to facilitate the efficient and correct operation of my practice with your prior consent.

• Examples: Quality control – We may use your PHI in the evaluation of the quality of health care services that you have received or to evaluate the performance of the health care professionals who provided you with these services. We may also provide your PHI to my attorneys, accountants, consultants, and others to make sure that we are in compliance with applicable laws.

We will not reveal more information than we need to, and these people are also required to keep your PHI confidential.