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CA MFT Exam -- The Law
Flashcards covering The Law for the California Marriage and Family Therapist Exam
23
Health Care
Professional
05/26/2008

Additional Health Care Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term

 Tarasoff v. Regents of U.C.

Duty to Warn

Definition
Tarasoff decision: 
  • "when a therapist determines, or pursuant to the standards of his profession should determine, that his patient presents a serious danger of violence to another, he incurs an obligation to use reasonable care to protect the intended victim."
  • "the protective privilege ends where the public peril begins"
  • Mandated to disclose
Term

California Evidence Code 1010

Psychotherapist 

Definition
The term "psychotherapist" includes, among other, licensed MFTs and registered MFT interns who are under the supervision of a licensed MFT.  The term also refers to licensed clinical social workers; licensed psychologists; school psychologists; registered psychological interns who are under the supervision of a licensed psychologist or board certified psychiatrist; and associate clinical social workers who are under the supervision of a licensed clinical social worker, a licensed MFT or board certified psychiatrist.
Term

California Evidence Code 1011

Patient 

Definition
The term "patient" refers to any person who consults a psychotherapist or submits to an examination by a psychotherapist for the purpose of securing a diagnosis or preventive, palliative or curative treatment of his mental or emotional condition or who submits to an examination of his mental or emotional condition for the purpose of scientific research on mental or emotional problems.
Term

California Evidence Code 1012

Confidential Communication 

Definition
A confidential communication includes information obtained by an examination of the patient, transmitted between a patient and his psychotherapist in the course of that relationship and in confidence...and includes a diagnosis made and the advice given by the psychotherpaist in the course of that relationship.
Term

California Evidence Code 1013

Holder of Privilege 

Definition
The "holder" of the privilege is the patient unless the patient lacks legal capacity (e.g., is mentally incompetent), in which case the holder of the privilege is the legal guardian, or conservator.
Term

California Evidence Code 1014

 Asserting/waiving Privilege

Definition
The parents of a minor client can claim and waive the privilege on their child's behalf, but the law maintains that minors do, in fact, hold the privilege when they are in therapy.  The holder of the privilege, a person authorized to claim privilege by the holder of the privilege or the psychotherapist may assert privilege.
Term

California Evidence Code 1015

 Psychotherapist claiming privilege

Definition
a psychotherapist "shall claim the privilege whenever his is present when the communication is sought to be disclosed and is authorized to claim privilege."
Term

California Evidence Code 1016

Patient Litigant Exception 

Definition
There is no privilege in any proceeding when the patient's emotional condition has been raised as an issue by the patient or the patient's representative.
Term

California Evidence Code 1017

Court  Appointed Psychotherapist

Definition
  • There is no privilege if the psychotherapist has been appointed by the court to examine the patient.
  • This exception, however, does not apply when the court has appointed the psychotherapist, at the request of the defendant's lawyer in a criminal proceeding, for the purpose of determining whether the defendant should enter a plea based on insanity or base the defense on the defendant's mental or emotional condition.
  • court-appointed = court is the client, and individual is not entitled to a confidential relationship
  • court-ordered = the individual is the client and entitled to a confidential relationship
 
Term

California Evidence Code 1018

Crime or Tort 

Definition
There is no privilege if the services of the pschotherapist were sought to help anyone commit or plan to commit a crime or escape punishment for a crime.
Term

California Evidence Code 1020

Breach of Duty 

Definition
There is no privilege when either the psychotherapis or patient alleges a breach of duty arising out of the therapeutic relationship.
Term

California Evidence Code 1023

Proceeding to Determine Sanit of Criminal Defendant 

Definition
There is no privilege in a proceeding initiated at the request of the defendant in a criminal action to determine his sanity.
Term

California Evidence Code 1024

Patient Dangerous to Self or Others 

Definition
"There is no privilege...if the psychotherapist has resonable cause to believe that the patient is in such mental or emotinal condition as to be dangerous to him or hersself or to the person or property of another and if disclosure of confidential information is necessary to prevent the threatened danger."
  • Legally permitted, but not legally mandated to disclose 
Term

California Evidence Code 1025

Proceeding to Establish Competence 

Definition
There is no privilege in a proceding brought by or on behalf of the patient to establish his competence.
Term

California Evidence Code 1027

Patient under 16 is a Victim of a Crime 

Definition
  • Three is no privilege when the patient is under the age of 16 and pschotherapist has reason to believe that the patient has been the victim of a crime and that disclosure of confidential information is in the best interest of the patient.
  • in cases where child abuse reports are mandated, the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Law takes precedence over laws govering the psychotherapist-patient privilege (Penal Code 11171)
Term

Penal Code 11171

Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting 

Definition
  • there is no privilege in situations involving reports of known or suspected child abuse
Term

Bellah v. Greenson

Threats of Suicide 

Definition
  • determined that cases of self-inflicted harm (e.g., suicide) were not subject to the "duty to warn," but
  • clarified a therapist's duty, in terms fo treatment, to take reasonable steps to prevent suicide
Term

Welfare and Institutions Code 5150

Involuntary Confinement 

Definition
"When any person, as a result of a mental disorder, is a danger to others, or to himself or herself, or gravely disabled, a peace officer, a member of the attending staff...of an evaluation facility designated by the county, designated members of a mobile crisis team...or other professional person designated by a county, may, upon probable cause, take, or cause to be taken, the person into custody and place him or her in a facility designated by the county and approved by the State Department of Mental Health as a facility for 72-hour treatment and evaluation."
 
 "Such facility shall require an application in writing stating the circumstances under which the person's condition was called to the attention of the officer, member of the attending staff, or professional person, and stating that the officer, member of the attending staff, or professional person has probable cause to believe that the person is, as a result of a mental disorder, a danger to others, or to himself, or gravely disabled.  If the probable cause is based on a statement of a person other than the officer, member of the attending staff, or professional person, such person shall be liable in a civil action for intentionally giving a statement which he or she knows to be false.
Term
Welfare and Institutions Code 5250
Definition
a person detained for 72 hours (WIC 5150) may be held for not more than 14 days of involuntary intensive treatment if the professional staff finds that the person is a danger to him or herself, others or gravely disabled as the result of a mental disorder or chronic alcoholism
Term
Welfare and Institutions Code 5260
Definition
Someone who has threatened to take his or her own life may be held an additional 14 days beyond the original 14 days (WIC 5260)
Term
Welfare and Institutions Code 5300
Definition
someone whose mental disorder causes continued imminent dangerousnesss (i.e., someone who has threatened, attempted or inflicted physical harm upon another after custody) may be held for an additional 90 days
Term
Health & Safety 199.25
Definition
  • exempts physicians and surgeons from criminal or civil liability if they notifiy the spouse or sexual partner or needle sharing partner of a patient under their care that the patient has tested positive for HIV
  • the physicians and surgeons must seek the voluntary consent of the patient for the notification of these people, must discuss the results of the test with the patient, and offer psychological and educational counseling
  • NO LEGISLATION has been passed with regard to a psychotherapist's duty to warn the sexual or needle sharing partners of the client when the client reveals he or she as AIDS or is HIV positive
Term
Health & Safety 199.215
Definition
providers of health care licensed under the Healing and Arts Section of the Business and Professions Code (section 500), which includes all licensed providers, may disclose a patient's HIV status to the patient's health care providers for the purpose of diagnosis, care and treatment without the patient's written authorization
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