Confidentiality
Your care at Student Health and Counseling Services (SHACS) will be confidential. We will neither acknowledge to others that you are a client here nor discuss your treatment here without your permission. There are some limits to confidentiality (see Limits to Confidentiality), but they occur only in extreme situations. Your counselor will discuss the limits to confidentiality with you during your first appointment, and you are welcome to discuss this with your nurse, as well. You, of course, are free to discuss your care here with others.
Please note that if you are 17 years of age or younger, your parent(s) or guardian must give permission for you to receive counseling services and they have legal right to be informed about your treatment. If you are a legal minor and are concerned about your privacy, you may request that your counselor speak with your parent(s) or guardian to negotiate a confidential relationship with you.
Many students find it helpful to authorize us to discuss their care here with a third party, such as their physician, faculty, or a staff member at Academic Advising. You can discuss whether such sharing would be helpful to you with your counselor or nurse. If you decide that you would like us to communicate about you with someone else, we will ask you to sign a release (authorization) form. You will determine the nature and extent of the information to be shared.
Occasionally a third party consults with our staff out of concern for a student. In those instances, unless you have already authorized us to do so, we do not reveal whether or not you are a client here nor, if you are one of our clients, information about your treatment. However, we do try to assist such third parties by providing general guidance.
