Are your services confidential? What do you do to maintain confidentiality?
Yes, our services are confidential. To maintain confidentiality, all clinical information received by The Center will be kept in the client’s record. These records will be locked in metal files, filed in a locked office and/or locked storage room. Only the Center staff will have access to these files. Information found in these records will not be released to any outside agency or therapist without the written consent of the client.
Your therapy relationship is protected by laws governing confidentiality. With very specific exceptions, the information you give to your therapist will remain completely private. Your therapist cannot release any information about your treatment without your written permission, including the fact that you are a client at the Center. If friends or relations call to leave messages for you or to ask the therapist or staff questions regarding you, we will be unable to acknowledge that you are a client here unless you have given us written permission to do so.
The exceptions to these protections include therapists have a duty to warn others when there is a clear threat of harm posed by a client. Therapists are required to report to social services personnel when there is reasonable cause to believe that a minor, who is in treatment at our clinic, has been physically or sexually abused.
What insurances do you take?
We do have specific contracts with insurance companies such as WPS and Alliance. However, it is the client’s responsibility to call their insurance company to see whether they have outpatient mental health coverage with us. They also must know their deductible, co-pay and coinsurance. If they have no insurance, or their insurance will not cover them here, we can offer a grant “sliding scale.”
Do you have a cancellation policy?
Unless the client has an emergency, i.e. ill, car broke down, the clinic requires a 24 hour notice to cancel an appointment. If the appointment is cancelled less than 24 hours in advance, the client is responsible for paying for the full session fee.
How do you handle emergency situations?
The clinic will provide 24 hour 7 day a week service to address a client’s mental health emergency or crisis during hours when the clinic is closed or when staff members are not available to provide outpatient mental health services.
In case of mental health emergency or crisis, a client of the clinic can call the clinic and leave a message in the emergency page box. This box will activate the emergency pager which is covered at all times by one of the clinic’s mental health professional. The mental health professional answers all pages received. If for some reason the pager does not work, the emergency page box call s the mental health professional on their home phone. If the mental health professional does not answer the home phone, the emergency page box calls the clinic director at his home. Clients are also told if they are unable to reach someone to call 911 or go to the emergency room.
How long will treatment take? How will I know if the treatment is working?
The therapist will do a complete assessment. This is usually done in the first few sessions. After the assessment, the client and therapist will set specific treatment goals. The goals will set the direction of treatment. These goals are evaluated every 90 days, or 6 sessions. Once the goals are set, the therapist can give the client a general idea of how long it would take to complete those goals. The goals will also monitor progress in treatment.