[pathway2FREEDOM]

I wanted to know my legal rights and the ethics within the mental health profession. I was called by an abusive relatives' mental health professional this week (no children or spouse involved). She told me that I had to speak to her on the phone and I had to come in to talk with her. It was an order from this person. I have not receive anything in writing about this matter, again this mh professional called me out of the blue. I was taking aback and i did speak to her and answered some questions. I regret it. I never signed anything with this person and never met her. Can I just hang up the phone? Say no? I want to know what to say to her that protects my rights.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by pathway2FREEDOM

I wanted to know my legal rights and the ethics within the mental health profession. I was called by an abusive relatives' mental health professional this week (no children or spouse involved). She told me that I had to speak to her on the phone and I had to come in to talk with her. It was an order from this person. I have not receive anything in writing about this matter, again this mh professional called me out of the blue. I was taking aback and i did speak to her and answered some questions. I regret it. I never signed anything with this person and never met her. Can I just hang up the phone? Say no? I want to know what to say to her that protects my rights.

different locations, countries have different standards on this kind of thing, my suggestion would be contact a legal aid department and ask them what to do in this situation because in some locations an "order" is a legal matter, in some situations a person is not allowed to defy an "order" example military people must not ignore a situation like this.

one thing is that here in america no matter who the person is anyone can report anyone if they are a danger to their self or others, for example if someone who knows me feels Im being a danger to myself or others they can tell someone (a treatment provider, police....) and those people by law are called mandated reporters, which means they must follow up on it when they receive information that someone may be a danger to their self or others. but usually what happens is the police are contacted and the police do a well check. usually treatment providers do not call people who are...not....their clients out of the blue and say hey this is an order you need to come see me.....unless the order is a court order...

my point something like this cant be figured out online, only you can answer your questions. Im assuming right now at this moment you are not still hanging onto the phone given the time stamp on the post so that right there says you already did hang up on this person. we cant tell you what to say to her because we are not you, we are not in the situation we do not know what lead up to this phone call... so many issues that we online are not privy to.

again my suggestion would be contact a treatment provider or law enforcement or legal aid and ask them what your rights and responsibilities are. they will be able to track this treatment provider down, figure out why they called you and then figure out what you are legally obligated to do.

[avlady]

i never even heard of such a thing where you are called to come in to see someone. maybe someone else thought you were going to hurt yourself and got in touch with someone else? i don't even know if it's legal to do so. good luck

I would think that without a copy of a court order delivered to you, you have every right to decline. Sounds like bullying tactics by that therapist that contacted you. They don't have a right to "order" you to do anything. That can only be done through legal means. I'd be tempted to report that professional to their licensing board if this is just a means to bullying you into contacting an abuser. Really odd situation.

They can't do this - unless they had the clear permission of the patient to do so.

[pathway2FREEDOM]

Thank you all for getting back to me. I did call the licensing board and they said the same thing. Cannot do it and I can report them, though the person in the office that deals with it is not in this week. I am kind of scared. The women at the board said she has never heard of such a thing. I really want to know what I can say. Anyone ever report a MH professional?

[pathway2FREEDOM]

Originally Posted by rcat

They can't do this - unless they had the clear permission of the patient to do so.

Hi, thanks for getting back to me. I am not her patients at all, nor do I want anything to do with this MH professional. I was caught of guard and scared into answering some questions that were personal and private. Is this protected information? I have to wait for a week till the license board experts comes back from vacay.

[thecrankyone]

I know here in the US unless you have a court order, you cannot be forced to come in.

However professionals such as doctors, psychologists, teachers, child care providers and possibly clergy( among others)
are mandated reporters who must turn you in if you are believed to be a danger to yourself or someone else. This includes suspected child/elder abuse.

However HIPPA laws prevent them from discussing your medical information with anyone who you haven't provided written permission, with the exception of the above ( or a court order) and anonymous statistics to agencies such as the cdc.

Unless there is a court order, or someone is in danger, I wouldn't talk to them.

[pathway2FREEDOM]

Thank you all for getting back to me. I think I am going to report this person. Everyone I have told are shocked and never heard of such a thing. I am scared. The things this person said to me scared me. I have another crazy thing to deal with now. I guess abusive people seek out abusive therapists. again, i am shocked to my core.

IS anyone familiar who the process of reporting a MH expert?

[Permacultural]

Originally Posted by pathway2FREEDOM

I wanted to know my legal rights and the ethics within the mental health profession. I was called by an abusive relatives' mental health professional this week (no children or spouse involved). She told me that I had to speak to her on the phone and I had to come in to talk with her. It was an order from this person. I have not receive anything in writing about this matter, again this mh professional called me out of the blue. I was taking aback and i did speak to her and answered some questions. I regret it. I never signed anything with this person and never met her. Can I just hang up the phone? Say no? I want to know what to say to her that protects my rights.

Unless there's a court order involved I don't think anyone's required to talk to a therapist. It just doesn't make sense. I mean, anybody can make a phone call and claim to be a therapist, but it might not be true.

[salix]

Just a thought - MH professionals sometimes have a 'duty to warn' potential targets (/police) if a client is violent or has made threats. Is it possible they were trying to warn you about your relative?

It might be worth calling them back and explicitly asking if that's what's going on. You wrote that you were shocked and scared from the previous phone call, so I'm guessing that might be difficult to do, though.

Originally Posted by Permacultural

Unless there's a court order involved I don't think anyone's required to talk to a therapist. It just doesn't make sense. I mean, anybody can make a phone call and claim to be a therapist, but it might not be true.

I hadn't even thought of that. That's a scary thought, but one worth keeping in mind.

[salix]

Originally Posted by salix

Just a thought - MH professionals sometimes have a 'duty to warn' potential targets (/police) if a client is violent or has made threats. Is it possible they were trying to warn you about your relative?

It might be worth calling them back and explicitly asking if that's what's going on. You wrote that you were shocked and scared from the previous phone call, so I'm guessing that might be difficult to do, though.

On second thought, I don't know why a professional would ask questions that were "personal and private" in that situation. That is very strange. What sorts of things did they ask you about?

Thinking of you *hugs*

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pathway2FREEDOM]

Originally Posted by rainyday107

Thinking of you *hugs*

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi rainy, Thanks for thinking about me. She, the therapist, actually called me again. What a psycho!

[yagr]

"Please direct all future contact to me through Attorney John Smith."

*click*

Note that you did not indicate explicitly that you have retained this attorney, which makes it legal. If this attorney does receive a call or correspondence regarding you in this case, they will contact you. At that point you can either choose to hire them or indicate that you do not wish to retain their services. In the event that you do not wish to retain their services, they must forward the information to you. They won't be pleased you used them as your answering service but it is legal.

I suspect, however, that this will stop before it gets to that point. Usually 'attorney' stops silly matters.

What kind of questions did she ask you on the phone?