This is a comprehensive handbook for mental health and social service providers on prevention of malpractice lawsuits and licensing-board complaints. Frederic G. Reamer provides in-depth discussion of common risk areas and steps practitioners can take to protect clients and themselves.
Risk Management in the Behavioral Health Professions is a comprehensive handbook for mental health and social service providers on prevention of malpractice lawsuits and licensing-board complaints. Frederic G. Reamer draws on his extensive firsthand experience as an expert witness in litigation and licensing-board cases throughout the United States to give readers an insiders view of practical risk-management strategies. He provides in-depth discussion of common risk areas and steps practitioners can take to protect clients and themselves.
Key topics include confidentiality and privileged communication; service delivery, including informed consent, assessment, boundary issues, suicide risk management, and use of technology; impaired practitioners; supervision and consultation; documentation; deception and fraud; and interruption and termination of services. Reamer offers pragmatic advice about how to respond to a lawsuit or licensing-board complaint. He emphasizes the challenges and risks related to remote service provision, especially during public health crises and pandemics. The book includes sample risk-management forms and templates as well as extensive case examples that illustrate fundamental risk-management concepts.
Designed for behavioral health professionals including social workers, psychologists, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, psychiatrists, and substance use disorder treatment counselors, this book is an indispensable resource on how to navigate challenging ethics and risk-management issues.
Recenzijos
This is a must-have text for all behavioral health professionals. In an increasingly litigious world, behavioral health professionals must be prepared to manage their practices in ways that ensure they are in compliance with licensure rules, ethics, and legally accepted standards. This book shows the way. -- Christine M. Heer, Seton Hall University Frederic Reamer has become a household name in social work education and practice. In his inimitable style, Reamer provides mental health practitioners with the necessary tools for risk management. To avoid the hazards of our litigious society, this book should be required reading for all practitioners of mental health services. -- Stephen M. Marson, editor of the International Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics As an attorney who defends mental health professionals before their licensing boards, I am putting this book on the top shelf of my resource library. It is scholarly yet practical, exhaustive but readable. It is destined to become the go-to guide for both behavioral health practitioners and scholars. -- David Barry, partner at Bowne Barry & Barry This book provides a thoughtful discussion of legal risks facing behavioral health practitioners, including those associated with complex and emerging issues. Reamers synthesis of legal, ethical, and practice standards that apply to the profession and his practical frameworks to assess and mitigate risks across a variety of settings are essential. -- Caitlyn Silhan, partner at Waters Kraus & Paul This book is an amazing resource for any lawyer who has a case relating to a behavioral health practitioners alleged malpractice. Reamer has a strong grasp of the ethics and practices of behavioral health, and he offers essential insight into presenting a case before a court or a licensing board because he knows so much about the law and litigation. -- Jamie M. Woolsey, partner at Sandefer & Woolsey In this well-researched and well-written book, Reamer provides behavioral health practitioners with practical guidance on how to structure their policy and practice in a way that takes various legal and ethical risks into account. Reamer is truly a leading expert on risk management. -- Allan Barsky, Florida Atlantic University Risk Management in the Behavioral Health Professions provides mental health students and practitioners an accessible and comprehensive set of practice standards in a manner that is not intimidating but yet maintains excellent depth and accuracy. -- Robert Madden, University of Saint Joseph The complex issues and ethical challenges identified in this book are not unique to social workyet rather they are common elements of any behavioral health process and therapeutic relationship. All behavioral health professionals face these ethical issues in their practice and are at risk. This is an essential text for behavioral health professionals. -- Gisele Ferreto, University of Maryland
| Foreword |
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ix | |
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| Preface |
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xiii | |
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Chapter One Professional Risk Management: An Overview |
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1 | (24) |
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Chapter Two Confidentiality and Privileged Communication |
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25 | (73) |
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Chapter Three The Delivery of Services |
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98 | (80) |
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Chapter Four Impaired Practitioners |
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178 | (30) |
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Chapter Five Supervision: Clients and Staff |
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208 | (22) |
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Chapter Six Consultation, Referral, Documentation, and Records |
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230 | (30) |
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Chapter Seven Deception and Fraud |
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260 | (26) |
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Chapter Eight Interruption and Termination of Service |
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286 | (13) |
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Chapter Nine Responding to Lawsuits and Board Complaints |
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299 | (22) |
| Appendix: Sample Forms |
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321 | (30) |
| Notes |
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351 | (28) |
| References |
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379 | (20) |
| Legal Citations |
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399 | (4) |
| Index |
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403 | |
Frederic G. Reamer is professor in the School of Social Work at Rhode Island College. He chaired the national task force that wrote the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics and served on the code revision task force. His recent Columbia University Press books include The Philosophical Foundations of Social Work (second edition, 2022), Boundary Issues and Dual Relationships in the Human Services (third edition, 2020), Social Work Values and Ethics (fifth edition, 2018), and On the Parole Board: Reflections on Crime, Punishment, Redemption, and Justice (2016).
Robert P. Landau is an attorney at the law firm of Roberts, Carroll, Feldstein & Peirce, Inc., in Providence, Rhode Island. He has decades of experience defending behavioral health providers, including social workers, psychologists, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, chemical dependency professionals, psychiatric nurses, and psychiatrists as well as hospitals, physicians, nurses, and other health-care providers in malpractice lawsuits and disciplinary proceedings.
