I work at an agency that provides Community Mental Health Services to. These services are for individuals with limited assets, experience chronic mental health problems and are often either illiterate or have compromised cognitive abilities. Because of their lack of resources, 90% of the time we travel to where they are to implement a service. When service is initiated for a client, it is typically at a time of some form of crisis for the individual. The amount of paperwork the client must sign off on during their initial appointment (intake) is an enormous amount and can be a barrier to an effective intervention. (There are 12 forms to sign off on and a 20 page demographic/Ability to Pay form to be completed. Additionally, we are under a mandate that all forms and reading materials must be at a fourth grade level for our consumers. Try writing HIPAA at a fourth grade level!!! ) Many of our clients are older adults who are residing in Nursing Homes. They are often very concerned about all the paperwork and are very afraid of signing anything.
While I believe in the rights of our clients (actually our own rights) and the intent of many of the laws and regulations, I find they can be cumbersome to effective initial interventions! Yes, the laws should be there, and yes, it is a barrier for services when a client is in crisis. Theoretically the law is essential, practically it is cumbersome and not at all efficient. I think many of our clients do not read all the forms, and it is our clinicians/case managers who assist them with the reading and the comprehension. But, I have also found that the client quickly forgets the content and / or intent of the forms. To assist with this, we have a handbook that is left with the client so they can refer to it at a later date, if they need to. I have had positive feedback since I implemented this handbook in July 2002. We have not updated the handbook with the HIPAA information, but we will. Happy HIPAA (ha!), Laura Hemingway, MS, LLP Peformance Improvement Coordinator Neighborhood ServiceOrganization Detroit, MI --- The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. These listservs should not be used for commercial marketing purposes or discussion of specific vendor products and services. They also are not intended to be used as a forum for personal disagreements or unprofessional communication at any time. You are currently subscribed to wedi-privacy as: [email protected] To unsubscribe from this list, go to the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org or send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you need to unsubscribe but your current email address is not the same as the address subscribed to the list, please use the Subscribe/Unsubscribe form at http://subscribe.wedi.org
