Under the Wisconsin State Mental Health Act, each individual in treatment has rights. The patient rights are pertinent to outpatient mental health clinics.
Treatment Rights
- To receive prompt and adequate treatment.
- As a voluntary patient, to refuse treatment or medication at any time.
- To be free from unnecessary or excessive medication or drastic treatment.
Communication/Privacy Rights
- To refuse to be filmed or taped without your consent.
- To have your treatment records and conversations about your treatment kept confidential.
- To have access to your treatment record after discharge (or during treatment, if the facility director approves it).
Civil Rights
- No client is to be refused services on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, age, sex, or national origin (HSS 61.10-61.13).
Right to Complain
- If you feel your rights have been violated, you have a right to use a grievance procedure. Contact Client’s Rights Specialist Mike Mastaw.
Informed Consent
The Process of Treatment
- The benefits of therapy are to help the client meet his/her goals for treatment. These goals will be developed together with the therapist.
- Administration of treatment: The client and the therapist together determine how best to meet the goals of treatment. If the client does not think that his/her goals are being met, this should be discussed with the therapist for evaluation, re-contracting, or referral to a therapist who may better meet the needs and goals of the client.
- Side effects of treatment: Therapy helps the client work on his/her goals. In some cases this means that unhappy feelings may increase before things start to get better.
- Probable benefits of receiving proper treatment: People who choose counseling to overcome their problems in living have a better advantage at making more appropriate life choices and decisions.
- Effective time period of consent to treatment: The client’s consent to treatment will last until the client withdraws the consent and terminates treatment or the goals of treatment have been satisfactorily reached and the case is closed.
