M3 Construct Privacy Guidelines
The Wallace Stevens Community Center asked you and your colleagues to construct a set of guidelines to enable the agency to protect clients' private information and comply with privacy legislation.
Construct a set of no less than 12 bulleted guidelines. The guidelines should enable your agency to implement each of the five principles of privacy:
1. Confidentiality
2. Access
3. Anonymity
4. Security
5. A
idgment
In the initial post, indicate which role you were assigned and list a minimum of 12 guidelines. My role in this assignment is to be a nurse practitioner.
The Wallace Stevens Community Center*
Agency Mission: The Wallace Stevens Community Center (WSCC) seeks to support, strengthen, and empower adults in the north country by providing them with access to a wide variety of services including medical, mental health, continuing education, housing, career counseling, and temporary financial assistance.
Agency Outcome Goals: The adults who are served by the Wallace Stevens Community Center will achieve ongoing stability as evidenced by:
· Completing client education goals within 2 years from the initiation of service
· Obtaining stable employment within 1 year from the initiation of service
· Obtaining stable housing within 3 months from the initiation of service
· Achieving physical and psychological wellness or management of chronic medical conditions within 1 year from the initiation of service
Agency Description: The Wallace Stevens Community Center (WSCC) provides a
oad a
ay of services through its multi-disciplinary staff and its community-based network of agencies and programs. The central office of the WSCC is located in Glens Falls with satellite offices throughout the north country to provide access to services to individuals in remote rural areas.
Agency Operations
Each office is staffed with a case coordinator, nurse practitioner, caree
adult education specialist, financial specialist, mental health counselor and substance abuse counselor. Each office will use the same management information system to demonstrate accountability to its executive board, its funders, its clients and other community stakeholders; to evaluate the efficacy of service delivery at the individual practitioner and organizational levels (whether services enabled clients to reach outcome goals), and to communicate within the agency and externally with key stakeholders and the community.
Agency Treatment Approach
As a staff member of WSCC, you are expected to work with clients and each other according to the principles of a strengths-based, solution-focused practice. When employing a solution-focused practice:
· Clients are given an opportunity to describe their needs and problems.
· The service provider assists the client to identify their strengths and resources.
· The service provider works with clients to develop well formed goals as soon as possible inviting the client to consider “What will be different in your life when your needs are met and your problems are solved?”
· The service provider asks clients to consider a time when their needs were met and their problems were not present.
· The service provider assists clients to consider how they can use their strengths and supports to solve their problems.
· At the end of each meeting, the service provider summarizes agreements and next steps, including activities to reach goals, and who is responsible for doing what.
Agency Treatment Teams
Throughout agency involvement, service providers and clients evaluate the progress being made toward reaching satisfactory solutions and meeting needs.
As a staff member of WSCC, you are expected to collaborate with your colleagues as a member of a treatment team. Each member of the treatment team will serve the client according to his or her role and specialty. Each member of the treatment team will collaborate with the team and client to identify client needs and strengths. Each team member will work with the client to identify outcomes and activities to achieve them and communicate the goals and progress toward them to the team. Each member of the team will refer clients to community-based agencies as needed.
Agency Refe
al Network
The staff of WSCC will supplement the direct service that they provide with refe
als to a variety of community-based services including, but not limited to the Adirondack Food Pantry and Fresh Food Network, the Lewis, Washington, St. Lawrence, Wa
en, Essex, Clinton, Herkimer Counties of Departments of Social Services and Health and Mental Health, Adirondack Community College, United Churches and Synagogues Community Services Center, Volunteers for North Country Wellness, the North County YMCA and YWCA, Volunteers in Service to America, Supporting Our Greatest Resource: Our Neighbors, the North Country Business Association’s not for profit public service agency and Pro Bono Legal Services.
Agency Staff Roles
Nurse Practitioner – Responsible for refe
ing patients to a physician for initial diagnosis and treatment. With the client, develop and monitoring a wellness plan to reduce/manage symptoms and to achieve wellness goals
Summary of Privacy Laws and Guidelines
The human service agency is responsible for safeguarding the privacy of the clients. They collect a large collection of personal data to serve their clients. On the other hand, the clients also expect that such information is held confidentially. This paper summarizes laws and ethical guidelines influencing case records management and their data. It further explores the challenges practitioners experience in complying with state and federal privacy laws and identifies when disclosure can be made without consent from the client.
Laws and Ethical Guidelines that influence or control the handling of Case Records
Ethical Guidelines
One of the ethical guidelines is confidentiality. The ethical principle of confidentiality states that social workers or other professionals might not divulge personal information about a client without the permission of the client. Only the client or an individual legally permitted to consent on the client's behalf may legitimately consent to disclose confidential client information (Sidell, n.d.). Information may be disclosed without authorization only when essential to avert significant, predictable, and impending harm to a client or other identifiable individual. Another ethical guideline is informed consent. Informed consent suggests that the client understands and is completely informed about the acts to which they are consenting, in addition to the fact that permission is granted (Sidell, n.d.). Informed consent is voluntary. A parent or legal guardian must consent on behalf of a client who cannot give informed consent. Informed consent must be a part of the client's care regardless of capacity or age.