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Commonwealth Educational Seminars Certification Exam

Select one response for each question below.


Confidentiality of Mental Health Information: Ethical, Legal and Policy
Issues

1. Disclosure of confidential communications made during counseling
sessions may cause embarrassment or disgrace. For this reason, the mere
possibility of disclosure may impede development of the confidential
relationship necessary for successful treatment.

a. True
b. False

2. According to this report, some people have concluded that the
ultimate question when patient-specific data are transported and used
outside of the clinical context is security of the data.

a. True
b. False

3. One concern in this report was the emergence of a variety of
techniques that depend on third-party review of a practitioner?s
judgment that an individual should receive care, which have resulted in
increased demands for patient-specific information before care is approved.

a. True
b. False

4. An additional concern cited was that private health care information
may be distributed for the purpose of marketing commercial products,
such as pharmaceuticals, that many believe constitutes an improper use
of such information.

a. True
b. False

5. Regarding confidentiality, generally there is significant agreement
about the exceptions to confidentiality that the law permits or requires.

a. True
b. False

6. In the past, the stigma and discrimination associated with mental
illness were reinforced by laws that stripped people of their legal
rights upon admission to a psychiatric hospital, and by social attitudes
that often equated mental illness with potential violence.

a. True
b. False

7. Concerns regarding confidentiality may cause individuals to decide to
pay for his or her own care, withhold certain types of sensitive
information during treatment, or avoid seeking care.

a. True
b. False

8. In a study cited here, subjects who were told that confidentiality
was absolute reported that they were more willing to disclose
information about themselves than individuals who were told that
confidentiality was limited.

a. True
b. False

9. In a 1993 Harris survey 34% of respondents had decided to forego care
because of concern that information that would be generated in care
might harm their employment possibilities or other opportunities.

a. True
b. False

10. The HIPAA code was developed, in part because it also seemed clear
that there were significant gaps in the existing legal framework that
protected the confidentiality of mental health information.

a. True
b. False