Confidentiality

It is important that during your discussions, you feel you can talk openly with your practitioner and that your right to privacy is protected. This generally means that your practitioner cannot discuss you or your case with any third party without your consent.

Written Records

It is useful that your practitioner takes notes during your session. These tend to be brief and include information such as the dates you met, the topics covered, any problems or goals you have, and the progress of treatment. These are really just to document your meeting and ensure no important information that could be useful to treatment is lost.

Exceptions to Confidentiality

There are some situations that may arise when confidentiality codes may be broken. Although these situations are rare, you should be made aware of them:

1. If you threaten to cause harm to yourself, and your practitioner believes your threat to be serious, the s/he is ethically required to protect you in any way they see fit. In situations such as these, their intervention may involve talking to you about going to a hospital. They may also need to call a crisis team or, in some cases, the police.

2. Likewise, if you threaten to harm another person, your practitioner is required by law to protect anyone they may feel be in danger. This could include making contact with the person or people who have been threatened and, in some cases, notifying the police.

3. If your practitioner suspects that any child, elderly person, or vulnerable person is at risk from abuse or neglect, the law requires your practitioner to report this to the appropriate authorities. Laws such as these are in force to protect any vulnerable people from being hurt.

4. In order for your practitioner to provide you with the best treatments, they will need to seek advice from their clinical supervisor. All mental health workers receive clinical supervision on a regular basis for the duration of their career to ensure that best practice is maintained. When they do need to talk to their clinical supervisor about your case in order to help you, this will be done with your best interests i mind. Your identity will always be kept confidential. Furthermore, the content of what we discuss will also be treated with the same level of confidentiality and the same exceptions to confidentiality.

Cancellations

Your appointment time is reserved just for you. A late cancellation or missed visit leaves a hole in the therapists’ day that could have been filled by another patient. As such, we require 48 hours notice for any cancellations or changes to your appointment. Patients who provide less than 48 hours notice, or miss their appointment, will be charged a cancellation fee.