Tag Archives: Avoiding Liability For Mental Health Professionals
Practicing Across State Lines – An Interesting but Limited Example?
A California statute (part of the Psychology Licensing Law) allows psychologists who are licensed at the doctoral level in another [...]
Violation of Ethics Code – Notification of Licensing Board?
Can your license be revoked or otherwise disciplined by the state licensing board for a violation of the code of ethics of the [...]
Conviction of a Crime
Do you believe that a licensed mental health professional should lose his or her license (and perhaps a successful career) after the [...]
Mandatory Reporting, Confidentiality When Communicating With Other Health Care Professionals and Access to Records vs. Subpoena for Records
Most licensed mental health practitioners are aware of their duty to report knowledge or reasonable suspicion of child abuse, elder [...]
Patient Suicide and Death by Rational End-Of-Life Decision
While a patient’s suicide and a patient’s rational and legally supportable decision to end his/her life both result in the death of the [...]
Contact with Patients Between Sessions Curtailed in California: A Dangerous Precedent
At the beginning of the professional relationship between psychotherapist and patient it is important for practitioners to think about [...]
Patient Access to Treatment Records
While mental health treatment records are owned by the practitioner (assuming a private practitioner/sole proprietorship), patients [...]
Cyber Liability: Laptop Theft and Other PHI Breach Risks
Mental and allied health providers, especially business entities, have a heightened cyber security risk exposure because we're not just [...]
General Topics / Considerations for Mental Health Professionals to Prevent Exposure to Licensing Board Complaints
Below is a second outline to the previous article, "An Outline of Commonly Encountered Litigation Issues for Mental Health [...]
Treatment of Children – Joint Legal Custody
In the September 2017 issue of this Avoiding Liability Bulletin, I raised a number of questions concerning situations involving the [...]
Know Your Risks: Family Law, Fictitious Business Names, Privilege / Confidentiality, Subpoenas / Privilege, Testimony Under Oath and Child Abuse Reporting
One of the most important things for practitioners to know about family law involves the issue of child custody. More specifically, it [...]
Breach of Confidentiality Claims
Therapists and counselors are expected to be keenly aware of their duty of confidentiality, but it is often the case that confidential [...]