Sarah
I have just been in a meeting with the Head of our Counselling Service and so was able to ask the questions directly.
The Head of Counselling was clear that they provide clinical care for the students and therefore would fall under section a) of the quote below. However, this would not mean that they could not or would not contact a GP if they felt it necessary.
We both agreed that counselling notes relate to a person's mental health therefore making the infomration sensitive personal data.
Hope this helps
Samantha Hill
Complaints & Information Disclosure Officer
University of Portsmouth
Tel: 02392 843642
>>> Sarah Wickham <[log in to unmask]> 09/12/2010 14:33 >>>
Dear colleagues
Grateful for thoughts on the following.
The University provides counselling services to staff and students on a self-referral basis. The counsellors keep a record of appointments/contact details for the client, and separately case notes. In some instances, depending on the counsellor's personal practice and counselling processes, these case notes may be very detailed although in many cases they are merely a note of the topics raised in a session. All counsellors are on the UK Register of Counsellors.
We have a case currently where a former client wishes to see their case notes. Because of the issues raised and the length of time the client was in counselling (much longer than the standard 8 sessions we normally offer) the counselling team are extremely concerned about the risk of causing harm or distress to the client by releasing the case notes "cold" - they normally arrange a session with a client around access to their case notes and usually clients wish to avail themselves of this. In this case the client does not want to attend.
So I have two queries:
First, under S.I. 2000 no.413 Data Protection (Subject Access Modification) (Health) Order 2000, could a counsellor be defined as “the appropriate health professional” who can take a decision about witholding information on the grounds it would be likely to cause physical or mental harm or distress?
The SI says
“a) the health professional who is currently or was most recently responsible for the clinical care of the data subject in connection with the matters to which the information which is the subject of the request relates; or
b) where there is more than one such health professional, the health professional who is the most suitable to advise on the matters to which the information which is the subject of the request relates; or
c) where—
(i) there is no health professional available falling within paragraph (a) or (b)
[ii) not relevant to us]
a health professional who has the necessary experience and qualifications to advise on the matters to which the information which is the subject of the request relates;”
My issue is whether counsellors are responsible for the clinical care of the data subject?
And if not, and only IF the client's consent form covers it, could they be in touch with the client's GP for this purpose?
Second query, the order only applies to information as to the physical or mental health or condition of the data subject. I think counselling notes would be classed as information about mental health. Any thoughts?
Many thanks
Sarah
M Sarah Wickham, MA, MA, Registered Practitioner
University Archivist & Records Manager
University of Huddersfield
+44 (0)1484 473 935
Web: http://www.hud.ac.uk/cls/archives
http://www.hud.ac.uk/cls/recordsmanagement/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/msarahwickham
Twitter @msarahwickham
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