Increasingly PES professionals are expected to assist in evaluations of people who may be at risk for serious violence including targeted violence and mass violence. Some of these clinical scenarios are initiated by our partners in criminal justice, some originate in the clinical sphere. Neither law enforcement nor behavioral health professionals alone can reasonably evaluate people at risk for violence. One evidence based approach to handling these high risk cases is called Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM). BTAM is an interdisciplinary approach involving behavioral science, law, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals. Suffice it to say that not all of these disciplines adhere to clinical ethics – thus working in threat management can create ethical and legal challenges for PES professionals.This presentation will help attendees understand the limits and allowances of major privacy rules under HIPAA and FERPA and explain how they can apply in interdisciplinary efforts to prevent serious acts of violence, including on guidance for receiving information from law enforcement authorities for use in clinical settings. Basic considerations for ethical analysis of ambiguous situations will be discussed. The primary aim of this presentation is to help the PES clinician successfully navigate interactions with law enforcement in terms of information sharing in ways which are ethical, legal, and clinically useful, understanding that some scenarios will be relatively straightforward and others will be proverbial wicked problems.
Learning Objectives:- Identify permissible disclosures of behavioral health information under HIPAA.
- Apply a risk benefit analysis to ambiguous situations where disclosure may be appropriate.
- Identify two ways to learn local duty to third party standards.
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