Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a big part of the role of school counselors and social workers.

We believe that confidentiality is a critical piece in creating a trusting and working relationship with students. We want to keep confidentiality of our students as much as possible. However there are certain scenarios where confidentiality must be broken in order to best serve students. In most cases we would want to gain the student's permission and involvement in this process. Some examples where confidentiality cannot be kept are listed below:

  • Because student are minors parents and legal guardians have legal rights to information

  • In the event that a student or another person is in any danger such as they are going to hurt themselves, hurt someone else, or someone is hurting them our first priority is their safety

  • On rare occasions courts may require some information from the school

  • Counselors may also participate in supervision with another professional counselor which is confidential and is to maintain their best practice

We are very careful about the information that is shared and who it is shared with. Our goal is to have safe and successful students.

TeleMental Health Services Disclosure Statement

In the event that MSAD60 and/or Lebanon Elementary Schools need to switch to remote learning, our school counselors and social workers may need to provide services and/or communicate with students through the use of telecommunication technology. This may include what is defined as TeleMental Health services.

TeleMental Health means the delivery of healthcare services via technology-assisted media. This may include but is not limited to, a telephone, video, internet, smartphone, tablet, PC desktop or other electronic means. There may be expected benefits and potential risks associated with the use of telemental health.

The expected benefits of TeleMental Health include improved access to services by enabling a student to remain at their own location along with the ability to maintain social distance and reduce physical contact.

Potential risks of telemental health include technological failure such as unclear video, loss of sound, poor connection, or loss of connection. Nonverbal cues are less readily available to both the provider and the student. In rare cases, security protocols could fail, causing a breach of privacy of personal information. Communication that is sent during non-school hours may not be received until school hours resume.

A possible limitation of Telemental Health includes the lack of ability to decrease the likelihood of disruptions. Disruptions can interrupt the normal flow of personal interactions and impede confidentiality. Staff will take every precaution to ensure a technologically secure and environmentally private location. As the family/student, you are responsible for providing/finding a private, quiet location for the communication to happen.

No video or voice recording is kept from the TeleMental Health sessions. Students/families may not record or store video conference sessions or face to face sessions.

To review:

  1. There is a risk that the video check-ins are not as confidential as sessions are in the school setting. Since we are both connecting from our homes, the conversation could be unintentionally overheard. I will do everything I can to protect confidentiality, but some aspects may be out of our control.

  2. School social work sessions are not clinical therapy sessions, even though they are similar in some ways.

  3. There will be no recording of the check-ins and I ask that you also refrain from recording.

Please contact your school counselor or social worker to schedule a session.

In the event of a mental health crisis, staff will contact the parent/guardian or emergency contacts listed for the student. Staff may also contact local crisis services, local law enforcement to do a well check or 911. The information provided will include the nature of the crisis and the immediate needs of the client. Staff are mandated reporters and as such will report incidences where there is a concern of potential imminent risk of harm.

If you are concerned about yourself or about somebody else please call the

Maine Crisis Hotline

1-888-568-1112

Available 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week

- OR -

Text 741741 for crisis help via text

- OR -

Chat with a crisis counselor online:

Lifeline Crisis Chat

You can also dial 211 or go to 211maine.org to get connected to different helpful resources in Maine.