UNT Psychology Clinic: About the Clinic

Who Provides Services | Confidentiality | Limits to Confidentiality | Purpose | Mission

Purpose
The purpose of the Clinic is threefold: Professional Training, Scientific Research and Community Service. Professional, Competent training in clinical services and research is offered to graduate students in the applied programs of the Department of Psychology. Professional, responsible services and referrals are provided to clients who request them.

The Psychology Clinic is a non-profit clinic that serves as a supervised training facility for advanced Ph.D.-level student clinicians. Every trainee is supervised by a licensed psychologist, and all of our clients receive the benefits of a licensed psychologist’s supervisory expertise and oversight. Because we are a non-profit training clinic, we can provide clients with professional, confidential psychological services based on a reduced - cost sliding scale. We work with each client individually to determine affordable rates for our services.

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Mission
Psychology Clinic services are directed toward prevention, evaluation, and intervention.

Who Provides Services
The Clinic staff is comprised of teams of licensed psychologists and doctoral-level psychology students who provide therapy and psychological testing to adults, adolescents, children, couples and families. The doctoral-level trainees are students in the APA-accredited Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology and Clinical Health/Behavior Medicine Psychology programs at The University of North Texas. We strive to provide professional, confidential services and referrals to every client.

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Confidentiality
Texas law protects the privacy of communications between a client and a psychologist. Every effort will be made to keep your evaluation and treatment strictly confidential. In most situations, the clinic will only release information about your treatment to others if you sign a written authorization form that meets certain legal requirements.

In the following situations, no authorization is required:

Clinical information about your case may be shared fully within the UNT Psychology Clinic by the students enrolled in clinic practicum and faculty for educational and therapeutic purposes. If clinical staff present case information at professional conferences, the information will be disguised such that it is impossible to link the information to you or your family.
Personal information is also shared for Clinic administrative purposes such as scheduling, billing, and quality assurance. Clinic files are also available to program site visitors. Data contained in your file are available for archival research (i.e., reviews of records to describe clinic referrals, outcomes, and trends) as long as your identity cannot be linked to the data used. All staff members have been given training about protecting your privacy and have agreed not to disclose any information without authorization or approval of the Clinic Director in mandated reporting situations (see Limits to Confidentiality).
On occasion, the Clinic may find it helpful to consult with another health or mental health professional. During such a consultation, every effort is made to avoid revealing the identity of the client. The other professional is legally bound to keep the information confidential. If you don’t object, it is our policy to tell you about such consultations only if it is important to you and your clinician working together. All consultations are noted in the client’s Clinic record.
Disclosures required by health insurers or to collect overdue fees are discussed elsewhere in this agreement.

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Limits to Confidentiality
There are situations where the Clinic may be required or permitted to disclose information without your authorization. These situations are unusual in this clinic.

These include:

If the clinic has knowledge, evidence, or reasonable concern regarding the abuse or neglect of a child, elderly person, or disabled person, it is required to file a report with the appropriate agency, usually the Department of Health and Human Services. Once such a report is filed, we may be required to provide additional information.
If a client communicates an explicit threat of serious physical harm and has the apparent intent and ability to carry out such a threat, the clinic may be required to take protective actions. These actions may include contacting the police and/or seeking hospitalization for the client.
If we believe that there is an imminent or even, in our judgment, high risk that a client will physically harm himself or herself, we will also take protective actions (See Care during Crisis Situations).
Although courts have recognized a clinician-client privilege, there may be circumstances in which a court would order the clinic to disclose personal health or treatment information. We also may be required to provide information about court ordered evaluations or treatments. If you are involved in, or contemplating litigation, you should consult with an attorney to determine whether a court would be likely to order the clinic to disclose information.
The Clinic is required to provide information requested by a legal guardian of a minor child, including a non-custodial parent.
If a government agency is requesting information for health oversight activities or to prevent terrorism (Patriot Act), the clinic may be required to provide it.
If a client files a worker’s compensation case, the Clinic may be required, upon appropriate request, to provide all clinical information relevant to or bearing upon the injury for which the claim was filed.
If a client files a complaint or lawsuit against the Clinic or professional staff, the clinic may disclose relevant information regarding the client in order to defend itself. If any of these situations were to arise, the Clinic would make every effort to fully discuss it with you before taking action, and would limit disclosure to what is necessary.

The laws governing confidentiality can be quite complex. In situations where specific advice is required, formal legal advice may be needed.

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