Psychology Services and Confidential Information

As part of your child’s treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a number of Psychology staff members will be available to work with you, your child, and other family members. These staff members include psychologists, psychological examiners, and psychology trainees.

This handout will offer you general information about Psychology Services at St. Jude. Please talk to a Psychology staff member if you have more questions.

Who can benefit from Psychology Services?

The primary goal of each Psychology staff member is to help you and your child identify, cope with, and learn from the challenges you and your family will face or have faced as a result of your child’s illness.

We understand that other relationships, problems, and interests don’t stop because you’ve come to St. Jude. You may find yourself discussing other personal issues with the Psychology staff member. Those personal issues may or may not have anything to do with your child’s treatment. Because of this, we want to explain the relationship between patient family members and Psychology staff members.

Our Psychology staff is here to support and provide needed services to St. Jude patients. We can also provide support to family members during your child’s medical treatment. Even so, it is important to note that Psychology staff members do not provide individual psychology services to the family members of St. Jude patients. If family members have specific mental health needs, our staff will help them find supportive services at St. Jude or offer referrals to community resources.

Will the Psychology staff keep information private?

Psychology staff member notes are part of the St. Jude patient’s medical record. For this reason, those notes may be available to other members of the St. Jude clinical staff who have reason to view your child’s medical record.

In general, the Psychology staff will treat information shared with them as confidential (private). There are a few exceptions that could limit privacy. Limitations to privacy may include:

• Psychology staff members or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital may be ordered by a judge or otherwise required by law to disclose information.
• Psychology staff members are required to report if a patient or family member might be a danger to themselves or to others.
• Psychology staff members must also report if you disclose information about the abuse of a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person who may require protection.

Will the Psychology staff share information from a patient’s individual therapy with family caregivers?

Sometimes a Psychology staff member will provide therapy to a child without family members in the sessions. It is important for both the child and caregivers to understand which information discussed with the Psychology staff member will remain confidential (private) and which information will be shared with the caregivers. Keeping in mind the child’s age and level of development, the Psychology staff will discuss this privacy issue with the child and caregivers. Which information will be shared and not shared with caregivers will be agreed upon before individual therapy is provided to the child. 

Questions?

Please let a Psychology staff member know if you have questions about the services provided by the Department of Psychology or if you have questions about confidentiality.