Legal and Ethical Issues

HSE 340 Milestone Two Guidelines and Rubric
In Milestone One, you created an introduction to the case study. Your introduction required you to examine the basis for the laws and ethics related to releasing
confidential information. You reviewed strategies to assist with prevention of ethics and law violations related to protected health information (PHI).
For this milestone, you will utilize knowledge learned from your work on the introduction, and you will place yourself in the role of a human services professional
(HSP) who is facilitating discharge from a psychiatric hospital. Unique to this case is that the patient is a parolee who was admitted for care in the facility for a
crisis involving an accidental overdose of street drugs. The federal regulation, 42 CFR Part 2, will greatly assist you in completing this milestone, as will the
module readings and resources provided up to this point.
Consider the following scenario.
Stephanie is a human-services policy analyst who works with the state-run psychiatric hospital system. Her job is to facilitate discharges of patients to the
community by coordinating with local mental-health centers and providers of care to make sure that the patient has adequate and immediate post-discharge
care. Stephanie received a call from a parole officer of a 25-year-old undocumented-immigrant patient named Kevin, who was in the hospital. The parole officer
indicated that Kevin violated parole by abusing illegal substances prior to the admission to the state hospital. The parole officer asked questions about Kevin’s
diagnoses, where he was being discharged to, and the staff involved in his care while hospitalized. You have been asked to determine if Stephanie can legally and
ethically answer these questions and provide confidential health information about Kevin to the parole officer.
For this milestone, you will submit a draft of the review of the case, including all critical elements listed below. Using the information reviewed for Milestone
One, discuss information that can and cannot be released to a parole officer, particularly information about an individual who has a substance abuse diagnosis
along with mental illness, and is being discharged from a psychiatric facility to the community. A state statute from your state of residence can provide
information related to parole of individuals previously incarcerated. Provide an example of how an inappropriate release of confidential information can be
remediated in order to prevent a lawsuit against the human services professional (HSP) and/or the agency. Some State Departments of Health and Human
Services have information related to this issue. Make sure to review both federal and state statutes to gain a more comprehensive viewpoint.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
II. Review of the Case
Based on your analysis of the codes of ethics and legal considerations in human services, create strategies to address questions about the case.
A. What information can be released to the parole officer? What information should not be released to the parole officer? Justify your responses.
B. If information is released that should not be, what are the legal ramifications for the human services professional and her organization? Justify
your claims with relevant, scholarly research.
C. What are the ethical issues that would arise for the policy analyst and her organization due to releasing information that should not be
released? Recommend appropriate legal strategies to mitigate identified ethical issues.
D. Include other issues that should be considered that are specific to this case scenario and related to compliance with NOHS ethical standards and
laws that govern in the human services field. Justify your claims using concrete, relevant examples.
Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Milestone Two must be submitted as a 3- to 4-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font,
one-inch margins, and at least five sources cited in APA format.
Critical Elements Proficient (100%) Needs Improvement (75%) Not Evident (0%) Value
Review of the
Case: Parole
Officer
Accurately identifies what confidential
information can and cannot be released to a
parole officer and justifies responses
Identifies what confidential information can
be released to a parole officer, but does not
justify responses or identification is
inaccurate
Does not identify what confidential
information can be released to a parole
officer
22
Review of the
Case: Legal
Ramifications
Comprehensively evaluates the legal
ramifications if information is released that
should not be, justifying claims with
relevant, scholarly research
Evaluates the legal ramifications for the
human services professional and her
organization if information is released that
should not be, but does not justify claims
with relevant, scholarly research or
evaluation is not comprehensive
Does not evaluate the legal ramifications for
the human services professional
22
Review of the
Case: Ethical
Issues
Comprehensively identifies the ethical issues
if information is released that should not be,
and recommends appropriate legal strategies
to mitigate identified ethical issues
Identifies the ethical issues if information is
released that should not be, and
recommends legal strategies, but
recommendations are not appropriate or
lack detail
Does not identify the ethical issues if
information is released that should not be
22
Review of the
Case: Other Issues
Identifies other issues that should be
considered that are specific to this case
scenario and related to compliance with
ethics and laws in the human services field;
justifies claims using concrete, relevant
examples
Identifies other issues that should be
considered that are specific to this case
scenario and related to compliance with
ethics and laws in the human services field,
but does not justify claims or does not use
concrete, relevant examples
Does not identify other issues that should be
considered
22
Articulation of
Response
Submission has no major errors related to
citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or
organization
Submission has major errors related to
citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or
organization that negatively impact
readability and articulation of main ideas
Submission has critical errors related to
citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or
organization that prevent understanding of
ideas
12
Total 100%