Without the proper legal awareness needed to stay in compliance, you may face grave legal and financial consequences.

This recording will show you how to continue to help the people you’ve been trained to help while still protecting yourself from many legal pitfalls. If you attend only one live webcast this year, make it this one.

Watch attorney Lois Fenner for an entertaining and enlightening day and leave with a greater understanding of the latest South Carolina laws as they relate to behavioral health.

You will take home practical strategies to minimize and manage legal and ethical risks and you will learn how to immediately implement these risk reducing strategies into your practice.

1. Establish practices for ensuring HIPAA compliance to protect client’s privacy and minimize risk of litigation.
2. Compare the different requirements for release of protected health information via subpoenas and court orders.
3. Explore the legal and ethical considerations for the treatment of minor populations in South Carolina with regard to age of consent, confidentiality and custody concerns.
4. Differentiate between the processes for voluntary and involuntary commitment for treatment and determine the clinician’s role in each.
5. Develop policies on ethical issues such as restraints, seclusion and informed consent.
6. Designate the treatment provider’s responsibilities relating to mental health issues and duty to warn law in South Carolina.

Lois Fenner – Legal and Ethical Issues in Behavioral Health in South Carolina

Overview/Confidentiality of Mental Health Records

• When and to Whom Records Can Be Released
• Mandatory Disclosure Requirements Alcohol/Drug and AIDS/HIV Treatment Records
• Necessary Documentation

HIPAA 101 – Federal Confidentiality Regulations

• What Is HIPAA Today?
• How Do I Comply with the Regulations?
• What Are “Psychotherapy Notes”?
• When May I Release Records?
• How Much Paperwork Will This Be for My Office?

Responding to Subpoenas, Court Orders and Law Enforcement

• Subpoenas; Types of Subpoenas; Duty to Respond; Time Limits
• Search Warrants & Court Orders
• Authority to Obtain Information
• Investigations
• Development of Policies and Procedures to Respond

Balancing the Rights of Minors & Parents

• Minors’ Rights
• Age of Majority
• Access to Records
• Rights of Minors to Refuse/Consent to Medication and Treatment
• Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Treatment Issues for Minors
• Parental Rights
• Custodial and Divorce Factors
• Child Abuse Allegations
• Custodial vs. Non-Custodial Parent’s Rights to Records

Voluntary and Involuntary Mental Health Commitments

• Reasons to Use a Voluntary Commitment or an Involuntary Commitment
• Grounds for an Involuntary Commitment: Dangerousness (as Defined by Statute)
• Mental Illness
• Procedures

Professional Ethics and Boundary Issues

• Consent Elements and Competency Issues
• Medication: Right to Refuse
• Restraints and Seclusion
• Individual’s Legal Rights
• Informed Consent
• Boundary Issues: Where the Lines Are Blurred
• Prescribing Practices
• Board of Health Professionals Investigation – Disciplinary Proceedings

Legal Liabilities of the Professional

• Duty to Warn Issues
• Professional Obligations and Standards Fraud & Abuse Issues
• Billing & Coding Errors
• Documentation
• Compliance with Contradictory Laws