Therapists' records

[Jenny22]

Recent threads have caused me to wonder about the security of therapists' records. I'm sure they take notes, and even though they, by law, cannot discuss your situation with others (Exception to child molesting, I believe), Just what kind of notes do they take, how detailed are they as to CDing, and how secure are they in their office environment so that others (staff or snoopers) don't have access to them? If there is a forum sister who's a therapist, please give your professional opinion. Ditto to any others who have such knowledge.

[Fiona123]

Im not a therapist. You ask a good question though. You feel free to ask your therapist about their security procedures including their computer security.

[Dana44]

Records are kept in a locked cabinet in their locked office. Notes generally cover discussions and only uses first and last initial or first name last initial. May include disclosure that the client has made and any information relevant for treatment. Notes may be shared for discussion with other therapist but all are bound by confidentiality and HIPAA

[tifftg]

My wife is a therapist and I have gone thru therapy. You are asking some good questions which you need to pose to your therapist. Fiona is correct and security practices are all across the board, some use locked cabinets while some rely on locked offices. The other question you want to ask is what diagnosis your therapist is using. In my case it was adjustment disorder, a VERY generic and common choice. Good luck in your therapy and never be afraid to ask.

Hugs,

Tiffany

[Pat]

My therapist keeps hand-written notes that she keeps in a locked filing cabinet in her office. People in her billing office are only notified how many sessions I've had in a billing period. The billing office is aware of a diagnosis code -- but the way mental health care works for my insurance, the company carrying my medical contracts to a company that coordinates mental health care. The mental health care company is aware of the diagnosis code assigned by the therapist. The medical insurance company is not. (They are, however, aware of the diagnosis code associated with my seeing the endocrinologist -- but you'd have to get to that point before it became an issue. And at this point they're aware that my name and gender markers changed -- can't really hide that. ) So the mental health side is pretty compartmentalized as far as I can tell. This is Massachusetts, USA. Other locations may vary.

[Kelly DeWinter]

As a side note, Take the time to review any notes or paperwork with your therapist or doctor after an appointment. Once it gets into a computer system, its almost impossible to get anything corrected once entered. I had a doctor once type in another patients notes under my name and it took years to get it removed. (Imaging having your records say you were missing two fingers when you have all ten)

[Stephanie47]

In total agreement with Kelly. By all means discuss the contents of your medical file. Your therapist should be making timely comments. I go through the VA medical system for some of my care. I swear one doctor's notes were so far off base as to be almost criminal. I don't think he and I were at the same appointment. If you are going to no longer see a particular therapist, physician, et al, you should request a complete copy of your records. In Washington State the law requires records be maintained/kept for a period of ten years. After ten years the records may be discarded. Once discarded you may never be able to get the information later. One of the therapists I see has my records entered under a five digit unique code. And, those records are not maintained in the VA data base by design.

[NicoleScott]

I always thought they were just doodling while pretending to take notes.

[Teri Ray]

Nicole you are so wrong. They are not doodling. Its a grocery list.......well so I am told.

[Kelly DeWinter]

Teri, not a grocery list ...... a list of career alternatives.

[Charla]

Some therapists deliberately do not take notes on all of the conversations with their clients, because they get subpoenas.

[Sarasometimes]

Mine doesn't take notes and her reason is that way there is no need to secure anything and if she forgets something relative to a current discussion it is easier and quicker for me to refresh her memory than her referring to notes. She also has a very good memory of what we have discussed over the years.

[docrobbysherry]

Notes? I thot they all just chuckled under their breath and grimaced!

Seriously, mine never wrote anything down while I was there.

[VtVicky]

Crossdressing -- 60 years. Shrinking -- 45 years.

My experience is that, absent dangerousness to self or others, your confidentiality will be protected.

My experience with courts asking for records is that they want information. I have always found that a narrative summery is sufficient with no need to provide the notes from which the narrative is written. Of course, some lawyers want everything because they like to go on fishing expeditions through raw notes looking for any little thing that they can use to bolster their case. (Especially if they really don't have a case.) I have had one or two cases where my notes wound up in the hands of one of the lawyers only to have them die a lovely death in front of the judge because they misinterpreted my hand writing and codes. (These cases were in the military where the medical records are discoverable, unlike civilian courts. And, even in the military my mental health notes were not given up, just the notes I put in the medical records describing individual sessions or termination summaries.)

As you have been advised by others, I recommend you ask about this with your therapist since the laws vary somewhat in different jurisdictions. Therapy can be a little frightening all by itself. Don't let fear of external ramifications make it worse.

OBTW: Don't get too wrapped up about telling your therapist about your crossdressing. Again, in my experience, the fear of telling often causes more problems than the crossdressing itself.

Good luck

[Judy-Somthing]

I hate Doctors records they keep on us!
I'm 16 pounds over what the chart says I should be for my hight, so in my Patent Record it stats "obese" YA O-kay.
Also I figured I would be honest and told them I drink three glasses of wine about four times a week.
Now my record states "Alcohol abuse"
I hate having it written in stone! The next thing they'll put on my Permeant Record" is "Compulsive Cross-dresser"!

[docrobbysherry]

I'm 70 Judy. My regular doctor told me, "Keep doing that!" When I told her I had one glass of red wine every nite.

Apparently, in a just few years my cholesterol numbers have dropped precipitously! From 230 to less than 170.

Of course, I have my diet change, weight loss, and concern for Sherry's figure to credit for that also. Which I didn't mention to my doc!

[sometimes_miss]

FWIW; despite them being legally required to keep records for a certain period of time, many providers just destroy them early, and when and if they are requested legally, they just say that the records were destroyed in a fire (flood, stolen by elves, etc.). Yep, happens all the time. One administrator openly admitted that 'That's why we carry liability insurance'. So if you want or think you might need copies of your own records, get them reasonably soon. Example: Radiology departments are legally supposed to keep the x ray films for 5 years. Local hospital changed over to computer images recently. Threw away all the old films. Why? They get money for the old films; seems there's value in old xray films. Supposedly they kept the reports, but they're stored 'off site', and it requires two weeks notice to retrieve them. What a great healthcare system we have in America.

[Jenny22]

Thanks for all of your input, ladies. I'm not planning to see a therapist. I'm very happy with who and what I am. I was just curious, and I felt that with learned and pertinent replies from those in the know that that might be very helpful to some sisters who had the concerns I questioned.

[Teresa]

Jenny,
It is an interesting point, I saw my gender counsellor through Relate which was funded by the NHS, Relate blew their budget and was temporarily shut down. My counsellor moved on so what happened to my notes, were they archived , shredded or just passed onto Google ? I joke not on the last point because the NHS did pass on some basic details for Google customer statistics .