Do I have legal rights when working with a Psychiatrist?
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Last Updated: 10/29/2018 at 5:54pm
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Brenda King, PsyD
Psychologist
I treat life changes, women’s issues, and issues of aging using evidence-based treatments with healthy doses of warmth, empathy and humor to enhance healing and growth.
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Anonymous
October 29th, 2018 5:54pm
This question is sort of vague but to answer in a general way: there are legal and ethical practices that are in place that your psychiatrist must follow to protect you.
A psychiatrist must maintain confidentiality of your therapy, your relationship with them, and your progress. There are circumstances where this can be broken for legal reasons, however, such as: protecting someone else if you express a desire to harm someone, to protect you such as if you express suicidal ideation, mental health workers are court mandated reporters and must legally report reasonable suspicion of child/elder/vulnerable persons abuse, the psychiatrist may have their records legally requested (subpoenaed) by the law courts, or their registering organization may audit their files to make sure they are practicing ethically.
In other circumstances, some people see a psychiatrist for legal reasons such as when they are in jail, giving testimony in court, deciding parental rights, or similar situations.
A psychiatrist who works with a team may share your progress with other healthcare providers who are on your healthcare team.
At this stage it is difficult to answer your question without knowing context, but hopefully this has been helpful.
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