Consultation

Purpose

To codify the Mid-Ohio Psychological Services, Inc. policies concerning the delivery of Consultation Services and establish the responsibilities of both clinical staff and support staff for the delivery of this service.

Policy

It is the policy of Mid-Ohio Psychological Services, Inc. to provide the highest quality, most cost effective consultation services. Consultation service are a formal and systematic information exchange between an agency and a person other than a client, which is directed towards the development and improvement of individualized service plans and/or techniques involved in the delivery of mental health services. Consultation may be focused on the clinical condition of a person served by another system or focused on the functioning and dynamics of another system.
Consultation services can also be delivered to a system (e.g., school or workplace) in order to ameliorate conditions that adversely affect mental health.  Consultation services shall be provided according to priorities established to produce the greatest benefit in meeting the mental health needs of the community. Priority systems include schools, law enforcement agencies, jails, courts, human services, hospitals, emergency service providers, and other systems involved concurrently with persons served in the mental health system.
Consultation services are provided and supervised by qualified mental health practitioners (as defined by the Administrative Code 5122-29-30) and supported by competent support staff, all of whom are sensitive to the needs of the consumer (including varied ethnic/cultural backgrounds, disabling condition, and social/physical environments that affect the person’s functioning).

It is the responsibility of the Executive Director, Associate Director and Operations Director, to oversee the delivery of Consultation services. The responsible staff will codify the procedures for this service and for ensuring compliance by all staff with the established procedures, reporting any discrepancies to the appropriate staff personnel and the Executive Director.

It is the responsibility of all clinical staff and support staff to provide immediate feedback to the Executive Director when any problems arise in the delivery of this service or when any areas for improvement are identified.

It is the responsibility of the Quality Assurance Committee to review the provision of this service through established procedures to ensure the thoroughness, appropriateness, and effectiveness of service delivery.  The agency shall survey periodically other community systems to determine mental health consultation needs that may be desired by the systems, persons or families being served by those other systems.

Procedures

Staff will be assigned to oversee consultation services as requested by an agency.  The assigned staff will:

• Identify the needs of the requesting agency (“Discovery”)

• Define the scope of the consultation in terms of amount of time/length of time/activities/outcome

• Assign appropriate staff/resources to the consultation

• Conduct the consultation and documenting the consultation

• Evaluating the results of the consultation

Documentation

Documentation will include the  record ID, date of the consultation, start and end time of the consultation, the time spent in the consultation, name of the person or system to which the service was provided, the nature of the consultation, and the outcome of the consultation.  This documentation will be kept under the same provisions as though the consultation were an individual client in terms of confidentiality, length of retention, etc.