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Thrive = to prosper, flourish, grow or develop well

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Chris’ Corner

Thank you to all of our awesome providers who participated in last week’s Provider Self-Care meeting. It was enlightening to hear Tina share information regarding credentialing. Chris and I will be having a presentation 7/13 on the Mandatory Reporting of Abuse. While this seems like a straightforward principle, determining when and how abuse has occurred can often be confusing and stressful for providers. Please join us on Friday for a round table discussion to review NC law and Thrive's policy regarding this impactful statute. I look forward to seeing all of you there. Thanks again to all of our awesome providers who attended last week. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

THRIVING

¡ ISSUE IV ¡ JULY 2018

Kelly Jo Writes:

Greetings Thrive Family! I trust this week’s newsletter finds you well. Tomorrow's Provider Self-Care will focus on our new Mandated Reporting Policy and what our responsibilities are in the state of North Carolina. In some ways this is one of the "easy" policies. We will introduce a new form tomorrow that we will ask you to use in order to document any mandatory reporting action you may take as an employee, contractor, or intern with Thrive. This is an important issue, because often once we start this process, a freight train is going to run through the associated family system connected with our client. So we want to sort things out fairly well prior to making any report. First, what do we need to report? We know from our Darkness to Light training that everyone is a mandatory reporter of suspected child abuse. As therapists, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard of awareness and discernment of what might be happening in a child's or disabled adult's life. Some areas are easily defined: rape, obvious physical or sexual abuse, gross behavior modification behaviors, human trafficking, etc. (cont. p.2)

We hope to see you at our next Provider Training meeting tomorrow (7/13).

UPCOMING PROVIDER TRAINING: Mandatory Reporting

Policy

Chris’ Corner (cont.)

The harder ones are when we suspect these things, but the child is unable, often out of fear, to share what's happening to them. Helping a child or disabled adult find the words to communicate any abuse that may be happening is not an easy process, and we can undermine success by not having clear, tangible narrative from our client. "My daddy ate my Oreo cookie" is not clear enough to make a report. "My daddy put his mouth on my private parts (or points to a body location)" is a much clearer and reportable type of statement. What information needs to be reported and to whom is it reported? We have designed a nifty documenting form that will ask you for the information necessary to make a report. Most of the information is intuitive, but this form will guide you through the process of gathering what's needed to document the report for the client's records. Please use it. This form, the “Mandatory Report Documenting Form” will be found on Thrive’s employee/contractor webpage. Simply print and use it to guide your reporting process.

Let's make sure we handle these types of situations with care. Final note: I was talking with a couple of people this week and it was reported to me (again) that Thrive is well respected in the community for the ways in which we do our work. We get a lot of feedback on our professionalism and the kindness with which we treat our clients, and that is a reflection on everyone at Thrive. I was also told that other professionals have heard about how we treat our therapists and we are known to be place that cares for its therapists. I love to hear that! It is important to me that our clients and therapists don't just feel valued, but actually are treated that way! So I thank you not only for what you do but for the way in which you do your work. "Helping you Thrive...not just survive" is our vision for our clients and our therapists! Warmly, Chris

“Helping you Thrive…not just survive” is our vision for our clients and our therapists!

If you are an alpha or intern, you should coordinate this with your supervisor. In the event your supervisor is not available, get input from one of our fully licensed therapists. This is a process we don't want to do in a vacuum. Get counsel, and document that you got counsel in your client's notes. Upload this form into your client's file once you have made the report, ensuring that a licensed person has signed, dated, and listed their credentials somewhere on the form. Good faith reports are immune from liability. False reports and failing to make reports both are prosecutable. We, Thrive, do not want to be in the business of making "willy nilly" reports based on innuendo or weak information—so get counsel, talk with others, and document that counsel. With counsel comes wisdom and good discernment. Mandatory reporting does not violate HIPAA for either a child or disabled adult when it’s made in good faith. The law protects you there. Nonetheless, don't forget the freight train that comes with reporting.