Policies

INFORMED CONSENT FOR TELEPSYCHOLOGY

This Informed Consent for Telepsychology contains important information focusing on doing counseling/counseling using the phone or the Internet. Please read this carefully, and let your counselor know if you have any questions.  This document represent an agreement between you and the counselor at HAP.

Benefits and Risks of Telepsychology

Telepsychology refers to providing counseling services remotely using telecommunications technologies, such as video conferencing or telephone.  One of the benefits of telepsychology is that the client and clinician can engage in services without being in the same physical location. This can be helpful in ensuring continuity of care if the client or clinician moves to a different location, takes an extended vacation, or is otherwise unable to continue to meet in person. It is also more convenient and takes less time. Telepsychology, however, requires technical competence on both our parts to be helpful.  Although there are benefits of telepsychology, there are some differences between in-person counseling and telepsychology, as well as some risks.  For example:

• Risks to confidentiality.  Because telepsychology sessions take place outside of the counselor’s private office, there is potential for other people to overhear sessions if you are not in a private place during the session. On our end, we will take reasonable steps to ensure your privacy. But it is important for you to make sure you find a private place for your session where you will not be interrupted.  It is also important for you to protect the privacy of your session on your cell phone or other device.   You should participate in counseling only while in a room or area where other people are not present and cannot overhear the conversation.
• Issues related to technology.  There are many ways that technology issues might impact telepsychology.  For example, technology may stop working during a session, other people might be able to get access to your private conversation with the counselor, or stored data could be accessed by unauthorized people or companies. 
• Crisis management and intervention.  Usually, we will not engage in telepsychology with clients who are currently in a crisis situation requiring high levels of support and intervention.  Before engaging in telepsychology, we will develop an emergency response plan to address potential crisis situations that may arise during the course of your telepsychology work with your counselor.
• Efficacy. Most research shows that telepsychology is about as effective as in-person counseling. However, some counselors believe that something is lost by not being in the same room. For example, there is debate about a counselor’s ability to fully understand non-verbal information when working remotely.

Electronic Communications

We will decide together which kind of telepsychology service to use.  You may have to have certain computer or cell phone systems to use telepsychology services. You are solely responsible for any cost to you to obtain any necessary equipment, accessories, or software to take part in telepsychology.

For communication between sessions, we only use phone calls (preferred), and email communication and text messaging (SMS or WhatsApp) (secondary) with your permission and only for administrative purposes unless we have made another agreement.  This means that email exchanges and text messages with our office should be limited to administrative matters.  This includes things like setting and changing appointments, billing matters, and other related issues. You should be aware that we cannot guarantee the confidentiality of any information communicated by email or text. Therefore, we will not discuss any clinical information by email or text and prefer that you do not either. Also, we do not regularly check our email or texts, nor do we respond immediately, so these methods should not be used if there is an emergency. Please note that we will not respond to any messages via text, email, WhatsApp or in any other form, except for setting and changing appts or administrative issues.

Treatment is most effective when clinical discussions occur at your regularly scheduled sessions.  But if an urgent issue arises, you should feel free to attempt to reach us by phone.We will try to return your call within 24 hours except on weekends and holidays.  If you are unable to reach us and feel that you cannot wait for us to return your call, contact your family physician or the nearest emergency room at your local general hospital or psychiatric hospital and ask for the psychologist or psychiatrist on call.  If your counselor will be unavailable for an extended time, we will provide you with the name of a colleague to contact in the counselor’s absence if necessary.

Confidentiality

We have a legal and ethical responsibility to make our best efforts to protect all communications that are a part of our telepsychology.  However, the nature of electronic communications technologies is such that we cannot guarantee that our communications will be kept confidential or that other people may not gain access to our communications. We will try to use updated encryption methods, firewalls, and back-up systems to help keep your information private, but there is a risk that our electronic communications may be compromised, unsecured, or accessed by others.  You should also take reasonable steps to ensure the security of our communications (for example, only using secure networks for telepsychology sessions and having passwords to protect the device you use for telepsychology). 

The extent of confidentiality and the exceptions to confidentiality that we outlined in our Informed Consent document still apply in telepsychology.  Please let us know if you have any questions about exceptions to confidentiality.

Appropriateness of Telepsychology

From time to time, we may schedule in-person sessions to “check-in” with one another. We will let you know if we decide that telepsychology is no longer the most appropriate form of treatment for you.  We will discuss options of engaging in in-person counseling or referrals to another professional in your location who can provide appropriate services. Counselors at HAP are located in different locations and thus if a face to face meeting is not possible with the counselor assigned, we will try our best to provide you with a referral to counseling services in the city/closest city you live in if face to face services are deemed necessary.

Emergencies and Technology

Assessing and evaluating threats and other emergencies can be more difficult when conducting telepsychology than in traditional in-person counseling.  To address some of these difficulties, we will create an emergency plan before engaging in telepsychology services.  We will ask you to identify an emergency contact person/s who is near your location and who we will contact in the event of a crisis or emergency to assist in addressing the situation.  We will ask that you sign a separate authorization form allowing us to contact your emergency contact person/s as needed during such a crisis or emergency.

If the session is interrupted for any reason, such as the technological connection fails, and you are having an emergency, do not call us back; instead, call 100, 108 or any other person who can assist you immediately at your location, or go to your nearest emergency room. Call us back after you have called or obtained emergency services.

If the session is interrupted and you are not having an emergency, disconnect from the session and we will wait two (2) minutes and then re-contact you via the telepsychology platform on which we agreed to conduct counseling. If you do not receive a call back within two (2) minutes, then call us on the phone number we provided to you (94939-75140).
If there is a technological failure and we are unable to resume the connection, you will only be charged the prorated amount of actual session time.

Fees

The same fee rates will apply for telepsychology as apply for in-person counseling. If you are seeking services via your workplace’s Employee Assistance Program, then the services will not be charged to you.

Timelines

Please try to be on time for your appointments to make the most use of your time with your counselor. If you are running late, please contact HAP via phone to let us know how late you might be. If you log in more than 15 minutes late for a counseling session, there may not be sufficient time for a productive session and the appointment may be cancelled and charged at our full rate. Please note that we always bill for full sessions, even if you are late. Further, please note that if you do not show up for 20 minutes past your appointment time and we do not hear from you till then, the counselor will log out and the session will be considered a no-show session. You will be charged the full for this session as per our cancellation policy.

Records

The telepsychology sessions shall not be recorded in any way unless agreed to in writing by mutual consent.  We will maintain a record of our session in the same way we maintain records of in-person sessions in accordance with our policies.

Informed Consent

This agreement is intended as a supplement to the general informed consent that we agreed to at the outset of our clinical work together and does not amend any of the terms of that agreement.

The above form was adapted for HAP’s use and was originally obtained from https://parma.trustinsurance.com/Resource-Center/Document-Library