Location: Individual Counseling - Confidentiality
Confidentiality
Your
therapy contacts with Counseling Services staff
are confidential within the limits of the law. All
staff members (professional staff, support staff, trainees,
and paraprofessionals) are expected to treat as confidential
all of their interactions with students who come to this
agency for service. UCSB students employed or in training
at Counseling Services have no access to student files. Neither your
name nor the nature of your contact with psychological services
are to be disclosed without your specific written consent.
Exceptions
to this are noted below.
Exceptions to confidentiality may be required by law.
These exceptions include
- where there is reasonable suspicion of abuse of children or elderly
persons;
- where the person presents a serious danger of violence to another;
- where the person is likely to harm himself or herself unless protective
measures are taken; and
- where release of records is court mandated
All
psychologists must adhere to state laws and professional
behaviors. The California Board of Psychology protects consumers
by ensuring high standards for the practice of psychology.
To
find out information on your rights as a client, what types
of behaviors psychologists are not supposed to engage
in, and information on how to file a complaint, see the Board
of Psychology web site.
We
credit the University of Chicago Counseling Service for
the following statement, which applies to our agency.
E-mail:
Think Before You Send
With respect to e-mail communication with psychologists, students are cautioned against this
form of communication because e-mail is NOT a confidential means of communication.
Therefore, counseling staff at Counseling Services will not respond to any e-mail communications
from students with whom they work in a counseling capacity. E-mail is not
the appropriate medium to communicate urgent or emergency information.
The risks of e-mail are that it could fail to be received and that confidentiality
could be breached. An e-mail could fail to be received if it is sent to the
wrong e-mail address or if it just is not noticed by the recipient. Confidentiality
could be breached in transit by hackers or Internet service providers and at
either end by others who had access to the account or the computer.
The alternatives to e-mail are, of course, writing a letter or a note, making
a phone call, and meeting in person.