The Keys to Successfully Documenting Mental Health Services for Social Workers and Other Practitioners

• Overview

Never underestimate the power of documentation.

Learn the best practices for documenting in social work, including ethical risks, legal risks, and management issues. This topic will provide you with a comprehensive overview of ethical, malpractice, and risk-management issues pertaining to documentation of services and critical incidents in mental health settings. The content will include state-of-the-art guidelines pertaining to documentation (a) purposes, (b) content, (c) wording, (d) storage, retention, and access, consistent with prevailing ethical standards. The material will focus especially on emerging challenges related to electronic health records, including documentation errors, access in integrated health settings, and cybersecurity.

Authors

Agenda

Documentation in Social Work and Mental Health: Overview of Ethical and Risk-Management Issues

• The Role of Documentation: Assessment, Planning and Delivering Services, Accountability, Continuity and Coordination of Services, Supervision, Evaluation

• Core Documentation Issues: Content, Wording, Storage, Retention and Access

Ethical Risks

• Documentation Mistakes

• Ethical Judgments

• Ethical Misconduct

Key Concepts in Risk Management

• Standards of Care

• Ethical Standards

• Negligence and Malpractice

• Liability

Documentation Tips

• Documentation Do's and Don'ts

• Case Examples

Emerging Challenges: Electronic Health Records