HANDLING CONFIDENTIALITY AND DISCLOSURE IN THE EVALUATION OF CLIENT OUTCOMES IN MANAGED MENTAL-HEALTH-SERVICES FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

In the process of examining client outcomes of mental health services, evaluators often find themselves immersed in ethical and legal dilemm as surrounding participant privacy and the confidentiality of informat ion gained in the process of the evaluation. Evaluators must be prepar ed to make decisions about disclosure of confidential information that indicates risk of abuse or serious harm to the client or by the clien t toward another. This article details the experience of the investiga tors of the Fort Bragg Evaluation Project in the development and appli cation of standardized decision algorithms for considering disclosure of confidential information obtained during the evaluation. The conseq uences of using such decision paradigms, including the number of discl osures made and the subsequent effects on family participation in the study, are also described. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd