A Patient Is Sued, and His Mental Health Diagnosis Becomes Public
When a New Jersey lawyer named Philip received legal papers last year informing him that his former psychologist’s practice was suing him over an unpaid bill, he was initially upset they could not work out a payment arrangement outside of court.
It was only later, Philip said in an interview, that he scanned the papers again and realized something else: The psychology group to which he had confided his innermost feelings had included his mental health diagnosis and treatments he received in publicly filed court documents.
The greatest fear of many patients receiving therapy services is that somehow the details of their private struggles will be revealed publicly. Philip, who requested his last name not be used to protect his privacy, said he felt betrayed by his psychologist. He worried that his legal adversaries would find the information and try to use it against him in court.
“It turned my life upside down,” he said.
Short Hills Associates in Clinical Psychology, the group based in New Jersey that treated Philip, has filed dozens of collections lawsuits against patients and included in them their names, diagnoses and listings of their treatments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/24/nyregion/a-patient-is-sued-and-his-mental-health-diagnosis-becomes-public.html?_r=0
I smell an invasion of privacy countersuit in this clinic's future.
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