When HIPPA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 in the United States) Law isn't your friend...

From the article posted in Treatment Advocacy Center's Blog written by Doris Fuller: 'Running Head On into HIPAA – personally speaking' So many caregivers and family members who try to get the needed help for their loved ones over the age of 18, who lack the needed insight to seek care for themselves, run into the HIPPA brick wall. Leaving them helpless in the whirlwind of the trauma and drama that an untreated or treatment resistant bio-neurological brain disorder with severe symptoms brings. Please copy and paste the article address given below to read the full and insightful post. This is one major road block we need to remove to insure that timely medical treatment can be made available to those who need it the most! "Being a professional advocate for better mental illness treatment policies and a personal advocate for a loved one with severe mental illness has both drawbacks (a 24/7 “job”) and benefits (I know exactly how the system can and should work for individuals in crisis and their families). So when I found myself in a hospital emergency room in the middle of the night after my daughter’s hard-won stability of nearly two years faltered this week, I figured I was well-equipped to handle whatever the night brought. I wasn’t... ...After the standard admonishment about the privacy act, the attending physician added that – because she was a psychiatric patient and experiencing disordered thinking – my daughter wouldn't be allowed to authorize release of her own information either. “Wait!? So you’re telling me that because you’ve decided my daughter may not be able to make decisions in her best interest right now, you are going to leave all the decisions about what's in her best interests up to her?!? Or to doctors who've never laid eyes on her before?!?” Exactly." Read more: http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/about-us/our-blog/127-va/2443-hurtling-head-on-into-hipaa-personally-speaking