Ace the Addiction Counselor Exam With These Documentation Techniques

Welcome to the Addiction Counselor exam review. This presentation is part of the addiction counselor certification training. Go to HTTPs www.allceus.com certificate tracks to learn more about our specialty Certificates starting at $149. Hi, everybody, and welcome to this presentation of documentation principles and what you're supposed to do in documentation over the course of the next hour or a little bit more. Yeah, buckle in, guys. It's going to be a while. We're going to discuss the elements of good documentation. We're going to talk about different types of documentation that you need to know how to do. This is not a instructional manual or presentation on how to write good treatment plans or good progress notes. This is really hitting the highlights. So if you hit or you get to a place where you hear about a type of documentation you don't feel comfortable with, especially treatment planning. From what I've been told on the current certification exams, treatment planning plays a big role. So you want to make sure that you know how to identify effective interventions. But that's a different class. Today we're just going to hit the highlights of what you need to know about documentation. So documenting the treatment process, the client record is the most important tool to ensure continuity of care. That's going to help every person on the treatment team collaborate and coordinate. That's going to help you track progress. Remember what you did last week and what you're doing in the future, you know what your goals are. It's going to help the client visualize what's going to happen. So documentation is really important. And remember, if it doesn't get documented, it didn't happen. And that's true in terms of billable services. You know, don't not document something because you make a mistake, because that'll still come back to bite you. But in terms of reimbursement and, you know, showing that you did what any good therapist would do in order to prevent liability. Document, document, document. It's your best friend. There are ways to shorten documentation. There are a lot of times that you can use check sheets and things, create check sheets in private practice to make it a little bit easier for yourself. But it is important to have that documentation. Documentation contributes to service delivery by reducing the replication of services. So if I look and I see that Jimbo already been referred to a psychiatrist, well, then I don't need to make a referral for Jim Bob to a psychiatrist. If I look and I see that he's already interacting with workforce development services, then I don't need to refer him there because it's already been done. So it saves some effort on everybody's part. It presents a cohesive, longitudinal record of clinically meaningful information, which is gibberish for saying you can see the client's progress, you can see what's worked, you can see what hasn't worked. You can see incremental changes. And more importantly, sometimes the client can see incremental changes. So they can look back six weeks at what you were talking about back then and how they were presenting and how they were feeling. And then look at today and you can compare and contrast so they can see that, yeah, everything may not be coming up roses, but there has been a significant improvement. Documentation helps ensure reimbursement for services. You don't ever want to say it's going to insure because the people who are reimbursing have the right to not reimburse. You know, they can deny claims. So, but you know you're not going to get paid if you don't document. So you have to document in order to have any hope of reimbursement. And good documentation will reduce the number of denials that you get. And it assists in guarding against malpractice because you're documenting what was done by whom and if they were adequately credentialed. You know, if you're referring somebody for a nutritional assessment to a dietitian, a registered dietitian, you're going to note that in the record. If you are providing nutritional assessment and information yourself, you're probably not a registered dietitian, which means you're not adequately critical credentialed. So, you know, you could see the difference. But you're showing that you're referring to other professionals and you're taking adequate precautions in the event that somebody's in crisis or, you know, needs some other sorts of assistance. Clinical documentation, records, professional services. You do an intake. We all know what intakes are. Differential diagnosis. It shows how you arrived at your conclusion that this person, substance induced depression or whatever. You're going to show how you ruled out some of the medical conditions. You're going to show how you ruled out underlying mental health pathology. Placement criteria are used in decision making. So you have the asam. Generally, sometimes it's the locus and you can use that to show the powers that be. If anybody ever comes and look at, looks at the record why you made the recommendation for residential or outpatient or whatever recommendation you made, you can show your clinical justification by the patient placement criteria, which is really awesome. Now sometimes the client is going to say no, you know, you're recommending residential, but I'm not willing to do that. And you're going to document that in the chart, what your recommendation is and what the client chooses to do, because they do have the ability to choose. But again, you're showing that you made a good, honest effort to put them in what appears to be the best placement. It documents treatment and other services provided so we can see what's going on. If I'm looking at a record of somebody and I'm hearing that they're on medications, but I have no record of any sort of a doctor and I've read assessments before and it just drives me batty where they talk about a client being on antidepressants, for example, but then the client never gets any sort of mental health diagnosis. And I'm like, well, what are they on the meds for? If the doc is prescribing meds, the doc clearly thinks that they have some sort of mental health issue. So you want to identify what's going on, what services you're providing, what referrals you're making, the response to any interventions. Think about it this way. If that client comes back for another episode of care, and we know in recovery oriented systems of care that treatment is episodic and you may not be there the next time Jim Bob comes back, but the next therapist can go back and review the record and figure out what's worked, what didn't, kind of where you left off and build upon that instead of having to recreate the wheel, which saves a lot of frustration, a lot of time, and it enhances client engagement if they feel like they can go in and kind of hit the ground running instead of having to, you know, start back at square one. It identifies referral services and the outcome. Not all referrals are going to go swimmingly, but generally they do. And you want to document that you're attending to the client's biopsychosocial needs. If they need housing, you're referring to the appropriate agency that can help them get housing. If they need, you know, food stamps, you're referring to the appropriate agency where they can get that. There's a little bit of case management sort of stuff going on here because a lot of times you don't have a case manager. But it's important because a client who is homeless, hungry, in pain and sick is not going to do really well on dealing with their depression or their self esteem because they're not getting their basic needs met. So you want to show that you're taking Everything into account. It shows the clinical course. The record can help you identify and look back retrospectively and see what things may trigger an episode, what things may trigger a relapse, what things tend to mitigate it and help it not become so severe, what sorts of interventions worked. Looking at the course, you can see when it started and whether it's continuing to get worse or whether it's starting to get a little bit better. And instead of having long relapse periods, you have shorter episodes maybe of lapses, and it shows reassessment and treatment plan reviews. People change, you know, as they get better. That's awesome. They're changing. And the treatment plan will need to be updated to reflect their current needs and wants. We want to do reassessments at least every 90 days, but preferably every 30 days. A lot of insurance companies, and if you look at the level of care guidelines, it's really important because they can deny payment if you're not doing a treatment plan review every single week. For people who are in intensive, outpatient, partial hospitalization, or residential. That's not true of every insurance provider, but it is true of a lot of them. So you need to know how frequently you need to do these things in order to prevent denial of payment records, compliance with state accreditation and payer requirements. So, you know, clinical documentation helps you document exactly what's going on. In Florida, for example, the state tells you certain services that have to be provided at the IOP level and at the residential level, and you need to be able to document that. If you're getting state funding, you need to be able to document certain things. If you're accredited by Jaco or carf, you're going to have to be able to show in the record that your treatment is in line with their guidelines. They're going to look around at what's going on now, but they also want to look at the charts to see how you actually follow through an entire course of care and it helps you maintain payer compliance. I can't state this enough, and we are in it to help people. Don't get me wrong, and I hate to harp on reimbursement. However, if you don't get reimbursed, you don't keep your doors open. So it's important to know what each payor requires in terms of, you know, how quickly does the intake need to be done? How quickly does the treatment plan need to be done? Some payers say three days, some people payers say a week. How frequently does the treatment plan need to Be updated. Does the person have to see a psychiatrist within a certain period of time? For your high levels of care, the answer is yes. So all this stuff is in what's called the level of care guidelines. And each independent insurance provider has their own level of care guidelines. So my recommendation and what I do in my practice is identify all of the providers that I accept, and then I take the most stringent requirements for everything from all the different providers. So I'm going above and beyond for some, but I'm at least meeting every single provider's minimum requirements. And it takes a little while to do the crosswalk, but it is well worth it because it helps you have a clinical record that applies, whether it's Blue Cross and Blue Shield or Aetna or United or, you know, whomever. Documentation eases the transition to other programs and to referral sources. If you call up a referral source and say, maybe you're working with a client who has trauma issues and you're referring to an EMDR therapist, and you call them up and say, hey, I got this person coming over who's going to need EMDR services, sending them your way, well, that doesn't give them anything to work on. So instead of, again, having them rip open that wound and go through, you know, a bunch of stuff that they've already talked about with you that was painful and distressing, the clinical record can help ease that transition. So the receiving therapist, the EMDR therapist, can review it and kind of know what they're dealing with and then start a little bit ahead of the game. And it prevents duplication of information gathering when possible. You know, everybody seems to have to get demographic information. Well, if there's a centralized clinical record that has the demographic information, then everybody can add to that instead of having to get the same demographic information from clients every single time. It facilitates quality assurance. It documents the appropriateness, clinical necessity, and effectiveness of treatment. When you are writing your integrated summary, you are going to identify things in the intake that you did that support your diagnosis and support your intervention. So you're going to identify, I'm doing this because in order to meet this need, we're going to use this intervention. So it identifies the clinical necessity. You'll talk about appropriateness, and that's in terms of diagnosis, that's in terms of treatment setting, and that's also in terms of age and culture. So you're going to, if you use different interventions, maybe use cognitive, behavioral for some things, and you use experiential for something else, or maybe you refer to iop for one thing, for one client, and you refer another client to outpatient or residential, the appropriateness can be defended with your integrated summary and your patient placement criteria. And then the effectiveness of treatment is going to be seen in your progress notes and your reassessments. So you're going to be identifying, okay, we accomplished this goal, accomplished that goal, accomplish the next goal, and you're going to hopefully be marking them off. And if you're not marking them off, you're going to have addendums where you did, you know, an adjustment to the treatment plan in order to help the client start making progress towards that. Sometimes you're going to scrap a goal because something else comes up that's more important. I worked with one client who was just an amazing woman, but she found out when she was in treatment with us that she had breast cancer. Well, you know, getting housing and getting a job, those kind of goals kind of went out the door when that came up. And one of the main focuses of treatment for a while became remaining clean and sober, managing her anxiety and managing her feelings, and recovery from the breast cancer. And she went into significant chemotherapy. And we were blessed enough to be able to keep her on our unit while she was going through chemo because she didn't have any family. But you can see how sometimes there's a great treatment plan, but then life happens and you got to drop back and punt, and the treatment plan is going to show and the reassessment is going to show why you changed gears or change directions. So nobody goes, well, what in the world happened there? You know, I thought she was going to discharge, and then three months later, she's still on the unit. What's going on? Well, you know, we can. We were able to justify why that was important. It substantiates the need for further assessment and testing if you have a client who comes in who may have fetal alcohol spectrum issues. Because we know that alcoholism runs in families, it's not uncommon for clients to have a mother who was an alcoholic. Now, I'm not saying that every mother is an alcoholic, and every person who has an addiction has a parent, a mother who's an alcoholic. But I'm saying the likelihood is higher if you're working with somebody with an addiction that their mother. And for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, this has to be the mother because it's damage to the fetus that's done in utero. So, you know, dad doesn't have anything to do with that. So if you think the person has FASD or an FASD you can refer because you need to get neurocognitive testing and all kinds of other things done. But that will help them get set up for higher level services and reimbursement on multiple levels through ssi. Potentially if they have significant impairment, documentation supports termination or transfer of services. If they've reached maximal gains at this level of care, it's going to show or, and kind of along the same thing, if something happens and they can't participate in this level of care right now, they need to be transferred to a crisis stabilization unit. Documentation will show why they were discharged from one place and sent to another. It identifies problems with service delivery by providing data to support corrective actions. When I worked at the facility I worked at, we had multiple programs. We had case management and outpatient, residential and detox and crisis stabilization and yada yada yada. And sometimes there would be too many cooks in the kitchen so referrals wouldn't go off as planned. Or one person would think they were running the master treatment plan while another program would think they were running the master treatment plan and then reimbursement would get messed up. So we were better able to figure out who was the single point of contact for this client and what the treatment plan was, adding to methods to improve and assure quality of care. So if we figure out that yeah, this is working really well, but you know, we have this great intensive outpatient program, but our aftercare program is really non existent and it's, it's imperative to have an aftercare program. Let's look at how we can do this in order to help people stay clean and sober. It provides information that's used in policy development, program planning and research. Another example that we used, during the time that I was working at the, at that clinic, we realized that there was a need for a mother baby unit. There wasn't one in our 13 county region. So we wrote a grant and we created a unit that reached out to mothers who were still pregnant, ideally didn't have to be, but ideally still pregnant. We helped them stay clean and sober until they delivered and then they stayed with us for another six months. So we identified a gap in services, you know, because pregnant and postpartum women were really not getting a lot of services and we met that need. And documentation provides data for use in planning professional development activities. It helps you see what might be a need. If you've suddenly got a lot of people coming in who have trauma issues, then staff maybe need to be trained on trauma focused, cognitive, behavioral or cognitive processing therapy in order to better serve that particular population. Or you may have an influx of clients, a different culture. You know, right now in Florida, there are a lot of people that have come into Florida from Puerto Rico after the hurricane. So there's a need for services that are culturally sensitive to people from Puerto Rico. So it helps you identify who's coming through our doors, what are their needs, and what kind of training would benefit our staff so they can serve them more effectively. And it fosters communication and collaboration between multidisciplinary team members. A lot of times I would never see the doctor or the psychiatrist when they would come to see the clients that were on residential. But I knew that they were reading my notes and they knew I was reading their notes because we had to initial. So it made sure that all of the people in the team are at least communicating via the chart, if not a team meeting. Unfortunately, when you get into documentation, you also get into big sticky issues with confidentiality and with substance abuse. You need to be really aware of the Code of Federal Regulations 42 Part 2 or CFR 42 Part 2. And this handles the confidentiality of alcohol and drug abuse patient records. 42 CFR Part 2 applies to all records relating to the identity, diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment of any patient in a substance abuse program in the US So this is in addition to HIPAA and hitech and all of those substance abuse clients have additional protections. There's a prohibition data that would identify a patient as suffering from a substance use disorder or is undergoing substance use disorder treatment. You can't identify that information unless you have a specific release of information. So if you're seeing somebody for mental health issues, but they've also got, you know, a substance use disorder, you can't divulge that. That's separate information and their record is extra protected. 42 CFR Part 2 allows for disclosure. Where the state mandates child abuse and neglect reporting, sometimes the child abuse and neglect is directly related to the substance use or you're the only provider and you're in a substance abuse treatment program and you have to make a mandated report. Yeah, it's allowed. It allows for disclosure when cause of death is being reported. So if you have a client in your program who dies and you have to report the cause of death, you can disclose at that point or if the client passes away when they're on your facility. And unfortunately it happens sometimes, then obviously people are going to know where that person died because everybody's going to come pick them up and do the investigation, and you can disclose. When there's an existence of a valid court order. Sometimes the courts will say, this is important to know. And that varies by jurisdiction. So in order to release information, you have to have a written release. And a written consent requires 10 elements. And this is so important because so often I see releases of information that don't contain all 10 elements. Number one, do not ever have a client sign a blank release of information. You know, saying, you know, just in case we need it, just sign it so I have it. No, that's a big, big, big, big no. No. So anyway, the release of information to be valid, and if it's not valid, then technically you can't release the information. So it has to have all 10 of these elements. The names of the programs making the disclosure, the name of the individual or organization that will receive the disclosure, the name of the patient who is the subject of the disclosure. You know, that's all pretty standard. The specific purposes or need for disclosure. That gets a little bit, you know, why are you making this disclosure? Because the client requested it because of a court order in order to coordinate care, what's the need? A description of how much and what kind of information will be disclosed? Generally, it's not everything. You need a special release of information, according to hipaa, in order to release progress notes as opposed to release other information. So, you know, on ours, we have little checkboxes so you can identify whether it's assessment, attendance, drug testing results, etc. You have to have a patient's right to revoke the consent in writing and the exceptions. So there has to be a paragraph somewhere that lets the patient know that they have the right to revoke consent in writing, you know, at any time, unless, and there are a few exceptions, but they're few and far between. And your legal department will handle that. Some agencies say clients can revoke consent verbally. However, the requirement is only that it has to be done in writing. So if a client wants to revoke consent, they need to write it down and give it to you, showing that they want the consent revoked. And then, you know, if they're there, you cross through the. The consent form, you write void, you date it, you put your initials on it, and they put their initials on it. That's the ideal situation. They can mail in a letter revoking consent as well. You have to have the date or condition when the consent expires, if not previously revoked. Now, my program, we always did a standard one year or 90 days, depending on the program, unless the Client revoked consent. However, your program may be different or the client may choose the timeframe, the signature of the patient and or other authorized person. So if the patient is a minor or is not able to sign for themselves and they have an authorized representative, you know, you need those signatures, your signature and the date on which the consent is signed. So generally you have a witness there, you have the date that the witness and the person signed it. So it has to have all 10 of these things. When used in the criminal justice setting, expiration of the consent may be conditioned upon the completion or termination from a program. So when Jim Bob gets released from jail, this consent expires. It can happen. Information can be shared within an agency on a need to know basis only with people on the treatment team only. So need to know, you know, if you're not on the treatment team, then you don't need to know. So we used to have this big medical records room and you would walk into it and there were literally thousands of files. Could I have pulled a file off the off the rack and looked at it and read it? Yeah, I could have, but that's not okay. That is a violation of HIPAA as well as a bunch of others because I have no need to know about any random patient that is being seen. So it's important to make sure that you've got good control over who can access records. Information sharing can be done with a release. It can be done to the client. You don't have to have a release to give the information to the client or under specific circumstances and that goes into confidentiality. We'll talk about a little bit later. Agencies generally have policies for who is allowed to release information. So the lady at the front desk probably can't release information. It probably has to come from the therapist or from the risk manager. Clients have the right to review and amend their records. If they request to view or amend the record is denied, then we must provide a written explanation to the client. So, you know, generally write your notes and write your everything, assuming the client is going to read it. Use objective information, don't be, you know, derogatory in any sort of way. Explain your findings and, you know, keep the client involved. If they request to amend the record and the agency denies it for some reason and says no, you can't see your record or no, you can't amend it, there has to be a really, really good reason. We had some circumstances where the client wanted to amend the record and our executives decided that the amendment they were going to make was not, didn't seem to really have a good grounding. In reality, the client was allowed to submit their amendment in their handwriting and it was added to the case file and noted that this was a client amendment to the case file. So your agency may handle it multiple ways, but unless you provide them really good reason, they have the right to review and amend the record. Now, that doesn't mean take out something that you put in there, because once something's in the record, it's in the record henceforth and forevermore. But they can add an addendum, and so can you. All Right, HIPAA and HiTech, these protect insurance coverage of workers when they're, when they change or lose their job. This is the, the idea what it was supposed to be for. It safeguards the privacy of their information. So if you're changing jobs or whatever, you know, nobody can really access your information to find out anything about you before they hire you, et cetera. It combats waste in healthcare delivery because it ensures, or hopefully ensures that we're communicating. And the portability part of HIPAA means clients can take their record from one place to the other. So you don't have to duplicate the intake and a bunch of the other stuff necessarily. And it simplifies administration of health insurance. Those were the. That was the hope of hipaa. It kind of ballooned out of that. So what do we need to know about hipaa? Medical records are legal documents. All states have policies regarding record retention. Medical records of adults are retained for seven years. Medical records of minors may be retained for longer. So you need to know what your state requirements are. Agencies and solo practitioners should have policies identifying retention and storage policies. So how long do you store it? How do you store it? How do you keep it safe? Who has access to it? Yada, yada, yada. Back to CFR 42. All records must remove patient identifying information and sanitize software. Printer ribbons, fax hard drives, and printer hard drives. When you're talking about disposing of files, you need to dispose of them in a way that removes patient identifying information. And if you use hard copy still, if you have software and this includes the hard drive in your copier, a lot of people forget that one. That has to be wiped. And printer ribbons have to be destroyed. Fax hard drives have to be destroyed, and printer hard drives have to be wiped. And I guess wiping is really what we're calling it. You don't have to actually physically destroy it, but it has to be completely wiped. Don't just delete the file. If you Delete the file. It goes in bits and pieces into your computer's never never land, so to speak. But people can put those pieces back together. That's actually what my husband does for his, you know, career is find those pieces that have, have been lost or somebody tried to delete something and he gets it back. All client records and identifying information must be kept out of sight of unauthorized personnel. Well, we know that. So we keep our records behind two closed and locked doors. Okay, that's great. We have passwords in order to get into computer systems. That's great. But there are other things like lists and rosters. You know, sign in sheets technically are supposed to be kept out of sight and people aren't supposed to see identifying information. Attendance records. You don't want to have clients coming up and signing their own attendance record where they can see who in their group's been there for the past five days and who hasn't. Appointment schedules. You don't want a client to be able to see what your schedule is for the week and who's coming in to see you. Computerized information must be on an encrypted hard drive. Full encryption of the whole hard drive, not just that one folder. Client records need to be kept, you know, secure. And phone messages, you don't want to have the secretary sitting there with 17 phone messages across her desk while other people are coming in and checking in and they're looking and going, oh, I didn't know Bob Jones was the client here. So you need to make sure that phone messages are kept. You know, if they have the little message sheets, keep them in a, like a cigar box or a pencil box and then disseminate them to the therapist as appropriate. Therapists do the same thing. Don't have receipt books or phone messages just out where any client can see them. If you discontinue your program, you decide to close your practice or your practice gets bought by somebody else, you must remove patient identifying information from your records or destroy your records, including sanitizing any associated hard copies or electronic media to render the patient identifying information non retrievable in a manner consistent with the policies and procedures established under CFR 42, Part 2, unless the patient gives written consent to transfer the records to the acquiring program. So if somebody buys your program, your practice, you have to keep those files for that seven year period or whatever. But. And you're not going to transfer those unless you have written release from the client or if there's a legal requirement that records be kept for a period specified by Law which doesn't expire until after the discontinuation or acquisition of the program. So again, if you haven't met your seven year requirement, that's generally a legal requirement. You still have to hold on to those records, but you're not going to pass them on. And definitely not pass them on with patient identifying information to the new program unless you have a written release. Records which are paper must be sealed in envelopes or other containers and labeled as follows. Records of insert name of program required to be maintained under insert the statute or regulation until a date no later than insert the appropriate date. So basically it says I have to hold on to the everything in this box or in this envelope that is sealed until xyz, date and time at which time it will be destroyed. All hard copy media from which the paper records were produced also need to be sanitized in order to render the data non retrievable. Records which are electronic must be transferred to a portable electronic device with implemented encryption. So a hard drive that has that is encrypted, so there's a low probability of assigning meaning without the use of confidential processes or key. So you know what's on that hard drive. It's encrypted so nobody else can access it. Even if you know they were to put it into a computer, but you still have the client information there. The electronic records must be transferred along with a backup copy to separate electronic media so that both records and the backup have implemented encryption. So you don't want to just have one hard drive because hard drives can fail. You need to have backups in order to say you're securely, securely saving the data within one year of the discontinuation or acquisition of the program. All electronic media on which the patient records or patient identifying information resided prior to being transferred must be sanitized. So again, you want to check with your legal department to see where the seven year rule falls. But if it's outside of that seven year rule, then definitely within a year after that the information needs to be destroyed. Portable electronic device or the original backup electronic media must be sealed in a container along with any equipment needed to read or access the information. This is important because technology moves quickly. And you know, back when I started working on computers, we had those, you know, five and a quarter floppy disks. You can't find a computer now that can read those. Most computers don't even have CD drives in them anymore. Everything has to be on a thumb drive. So you need to make sure that not only is the information there, but it will be readable in the future. And then there's a special thing. Records of this program required to be maintained under this legal authority until a date not later than duh. So you want to label everything so you know what it is when it's to be destroyed. Okay. So many agencies govern the content, scope and quality of documentation. The single state authority or SSA in your state has state service and licensing rules. So it's important to communicate with your SSA and that's generally also the agency that does your licensing. So when you get licensed as an independent provider, you'll know what the regulations are. The SSA may set forth timeframes for documentation completion and who needs to sign and credential the documents. So if you're a registered intern or you're not certified yet, who has to co sign on your documentation? Accreditation bodies also put their two cents in about documentation and they address quality from an organizational leadership and client care perspective. So generally accreditation bodies are looking at quality of care and quality of documentation. So good quality documentation will hopefully show good quality care. Many agencies govern the content, scope and quality of documentation, including third party payers who set the guidelines through their level of care guidelines and other provider agencies. So if you are. When I worked with the Department of Corrections, for example, they had certain very specific requirements for the documentation of my clients. So what types of documentation are there? There's lots. Screening is the first type of documentation. And good screening identifies the referral source, the presenting problems, background biopsychosocial information. And this isn't going to be an in depth everything, but it's going to get a general idea about what's going on. So we can rule out or rule in physical issues, social relationship, interpersonal issues, as well as psychological issues. It's going to note the person's emotional and mental status at that time. It will note their strengths and preferences for treatment, for recovery, for interventions, and it will make a recommendation for assessment or other referral as needed. So sometimes screenings just happen, like at workplace fairs, the screening happens and it's like, yep, you seem to be fine, no further action needed. Bada bing. And that chart is closed. For others, you may determine that the person may need a physical to rule out, you know, things like hyperthyroid that may be causing symptoms that look like hypomanic symptoms or look like stimulant intoxication. You may need to refer to detox. You may. There are a lot of referrals that may need to be made. But a screening is not a Diagnostic interview. It's when you identify whether there's a likelihood that the person may have a problem that needs further assessment. Intervention documentation. So intervention is like your entry level services. Intervention documentation includes client identifying information, the source of the referral, client placement information. You know, why were they put into your program, when were they put in, how long are they going to be there, the screening information that got them to that point. Informed consent for services, including any drug testing that may be required. And drug testing has its own form that needs to be signed, dated, credentialed by the client and counselor and witnessed. And if you've done drug tests, you know all this. But it's important to get that informed consent. For intervention services, there's a release of information that has all the 10 necessary components as needed. So if you need to talk to a referral source, get a release of information signed. The intervention plan, which is a lot broader or whatever you want to say than a treatment plan, is signed, dated and credentialed by the client and counselor and witness. So you know this with your documentation. You've probably done this already, you know, with intakes and everything else. The client signs it, you sign it, you both date it, and you have to make sure your credentials are on it. If you're not already certified or licensed, then you have to have somebody who is certified or licensed co sign on it most of the time. Intervention documentation also includes copies of correspondence or reports with referral sources, a transfer or discharge summary at the end of the intervention service. Administrative documentation in general, this is going to be the stuff that's used for billing. It's not the clinical. It needs to be accurate, concise, include recommendations, referrals, case consultations, legal reports, family sessions, and discharge summaries. You're like, well, that's kind of clinical, isn't it? A little bit. But in order to get reimbursed the administrative side of things, we have to have good documentation in all of those areas. Administrative documentation is conducted at admission and specified intervals throughout care. So your administrative documentation is going to be your reassessment, it's going to be your treatment plan updates, it's going to be all of those things. So types of administrative documentation, your client, identifying and demographic information, referral source, name and address, financial information assigned client rights document assigned informed consent for treatment document, any releases of information that you need assigned orientation to the program indicating that the client did receive orientation. Outcome measures that help identify whether your program is being successful and when. You know, when Jim Bob meets these criteria, he or she is going to be ready for discharge and client placement information that goes back to your ASAM or your locus. Medical documentation, which is often in another section of the file, includes the medical history, the nursing assessment, the physical examination, the lab tests, which almost always have to include a TB and pre admission physical records of medical prescriptions and changes in medications that occurred. What prescriptions were the person on when they got there and what did they take while they were in your program. Even if you're not residential, you need to know what meds they're on and any changes that their doc may make or your document, what are they discharged with? Your medication administration records. So if you're in residential, then the client is probably going to or may receive medication while he or she is there. So the medication administration records need to become part of the chart to show, you know, when Jim Bob took his medication, who administered it, and yada yada. And nursing notes. So any notes that your staff nurse makes regarding the client's progress. Now, clinical documentation is the stuff that we enjoy doing. Screening, assessment, treatment planning, progress notes, and your discharge summary. So we're going to get into those in a few minutes. I do want to mention electronic health records really quickly because, you know, you have all this administrative medical and clinical documentation. A lot of times now it's going into an electronic health record. Health information technology is the secure management of health information on computerized systems. It helps track data over time, track progress of those who leave treatment, and monitor quality care within practice, just like documentation does. But when it's on a computer, it's a whole lot easier to run a program and get pretty little charts spit out. Behavioral health lags in adoption of these electronic health records because of cost, technical limitations. You know, there's a lot of different players who want different things. So creating a standardized electronic health record for behavioral health has been really difficult. Lack of standardization of data elements, lack of interoperability of systems between, you know, doctors and therapists, and whatever you know, you have to have. If your doctor has a system made by XYZ and you have a system made by acme, they still have to be able to talk. It's kind of like getting an Apple or a Mac computer and a Windows computer to talk doesn't always happen. So we need to make sure that the different electronic health records out there can communicate with one another. Attitudinal constraints. We don't like change. An organizational lack of expertise in health information technology management. Most programs don't have a technology director, especially smaller programs. So Integrating this is really overwhelming and it can be really costly if everybody has to have a computer in order to put in their client information. General elements of clinical documentation, whether it's administrative, clinical or medical, must be clear, concise, accurate, written in ink, timestamped, or dated. So you have to have all that information in there. If you write. I've had some staff members, their handwriting was atrocious. You could not read their notes or their assessments to save their life. That is not good clinical documentation because it doesn't help anybody. Documentation is an ongoing responsibility for all professionals and should be completed as soon as possible after the contact. Don't wait until Friday to do all your notes for the week. Ethically, you need to do it as soon as possible. And I'll give you a little hint. When I do groups, oftentimes I will have a sheet that I pass out at the end of group that has the client identify three things they got out of group, and then, you know, a couple other questions about, you know, how they're feeling, if they feel like they need a treatment plan, reassessment, and just a few other things to give me information. Then I have something in the client's handwriting to put in the chart. But I also have the brunt of the progress note kind of done already. And if you use SOAP notes or DAPP notes, you can kind of put that on there and, and have the client fill out what they think they would put for their notes. That's helpful in group. For individual. Individual sessions are generally supposed to be 45 to 50 minutes. So I end right about 45 minutes, maybe a little longer. I tend to run late, and the client and I create the progress note together. That way they review what we talked about, they review the progress they've made, they review what they're supposed to be doing in the upcoming week. And they know what's going in the chart. So it's not mystical and magical. You know, they are an active participant. And I have the note done before the end of the hour. So it's kind of a win, win, win all around. Okay? Documentation assures accountability. The responsibility for accurately representing the client's situation rests with the counselor and the clinical record, not the client. So, like I'm saying, we can get all of this input from the client, but making sure that it's accurate when we put it in there and, you know, pulling it all together is incumbent upon us. Good clinical documentation spares the client from repeating painful details. So we're not going to have them, you know, if you're talking with a client about a trauma situation, you're going to put enough in your clinical record that you don't have to have them remind you. Remind me again about what happened when your house burned down or what? No, that's rude. So you want to have enough documentation that gives you an overview or the next counselor sort of an overview of what happened. And then if they need to delve into details later, they can. Language must be objective but descriptive. So if you're saying that the client is decompensating, well, that doesn't tell me anything. In what way? As evidenced by, you know, the client is I diagnosed with the client with depression because they have these symptoms, as evidenced by. That is your best friend phrase. As evidenced by documentation must identify persons, places, direct quotations and sources of information. So if the client says, you know, I'm really feeling off my game, you can put that in there. So we know kind of where the client's coming from. We want to use direct quotes from collateral sources that we get and identify who gave us this information. Clinical documentation is a legal record, and the clinician's signature and credentialing indicates the truthfulness of it. So if you sign it, then it happened. The treatment plan. Good treatment plans are hard to come by. They're really easy to write if you don't overthink it. But I find that most people overthink it. So there's a whole. There's actually a couple of classes on treatment planning because it is so important not only to guide treatment, but to help clients learn how to set goals and achieve them. Treatment plans are a contract between the client, counselor and treatment team, each being responsible for its development and implementation. The clinician needs to recognize that treatment occurs in different settings over time. So, you know, treatment may be happening, but, you know, counseling is only part of what's going on. They're also in maybe case management or vocational rehabilitation or, you know, so treatment occurs medical in different settings, and we need to be able to integrate all that into the treatment plan. Much of the recovery process occurs outside of or immediately following for formal treatment. When people do their homework assignments and they have their aha moments, when they generalize their progress, when they create that support system on the outside. Treatment is often divided into phases. Engagement, stabilization, primary treatment, and continuing care. Treatment planning plots out a roadmap for the treatment process. Treatment plans are completed once a diagnosis is made, a level of care is determined, and the client is admitted to the program. Now, after the initial assessment, there's usually an initial treatment plan done, but the real treatment plan generally needs to be completed within three to five days after admission, once the clinician has finished the assessment, paperwork and everything. Level of care is determined based on diagnosis and the client's strengths and assets. So if you're familiar with the asam, for example, recovery environment is one of those dimensions that we look at. And if they've got a really strong recovery environment, then the option may be, or decision may be made to refer the person to IOP instead of residential, whereas if they have a really poor recovery environment, then we may opt to refer the person to residential so they have a better chance in the first 30 to 60 days of getting a handle on things. Treatment plans address all biopsychosocial needs, not just mental health. They establish what changes are expected through achievable goals, clarifies what interventions and counseling methods will be used to help the patient achieve those goals, sets the measures that will be used to gauge success. And that's where we go with as evidenced by Again, so if the client says, you know, instead of saying, I'm going to quit using drugs, they may say, I'm going to develop a healthier lifestyle. So how do we know when the client has developed what he or she defines as a healthier lifestyle? Well, as evidenced by I'm going to develop a healthier lifestyle, as evidenced by getting eight to nine hours of sleep a night, eating a relatively nutritious diet, as decided upon between myself and the dietitian, developing healthy support systems, yada yada, you see what I'm getting at. So you're going to be able to go through and anybody would be able to go through and mark off and say either yes or no. Achieved it. Achieved it. Achieved it. Achieved the goal. So it's kind of a yes or no thing. Treatment planning incorporates the client's strengths, needs, abilities, and preferences. And I'm big on this. Y' all probably know that if you took our addiction counselor certification training course. Temperament is huge. Extroverts and introverts have different needs. Judgers and perceivers have different needs. Auditory and visual learners have different needs. And people in general, based on their culture and just their cognitive aptitudes, are going to have different strengths and needs. So we want to form the treatment plan around the client's strengths and build off what's already there. What already works. Referrals are made to other agencies as needed. When referrals are made, collaboration is essential to keep clients from falling through the cracks. So treatment planning is going to identify you know, client will get enrolled for Medicaid. Well, you're probably not going to do that. So you're going to identify who the client is going to see at whatever office they've got to go to in order to get enrolled in Medicaid. But that's going to be part of the treatment plan. Treatment planning information even within the agency is restricted to need to know. And treatment plans may have to be co signed by a clinician who is already certified or licensed. The function of the treatment plan. Well, treatment planning is an action oriented process that lays out logical, goal directed strategies for making positive changes. Just like if you're going to make lasagna from scratch and you're going to follow a recipe, same sort of thing here. And based on your preferences. You know, when I make my marinara sauce, I use Roma tomatoes. That is my preference. I know other people who use different kinds of tomatoes, so different preferences. I know that I want to do it in a shorter period of time. So I'm not going to make the noodles from scratch. That's a need that I have because I don't have the time to make noodles from scratch. So my recipe is going to be slightly different than my stepfather's recipe, but that's okay. And treatment planning is the same way. Just think of it very, very simplistically like a recipe. Don't get too overwhelmed and try to trying to make it too complex because clients aren't going to be able to make complex treatment plans. And treatment planning establishes a collaboration between you and the client so you can mutually prioritize agreeable goals. You figure out, what do you want. I've worked with clients who were involuntary and you know, they didn't really want to quit using. However, they were on probation and they wanted to get off probation. Well, I wanted them to get off probation, but I wanted them to quit using. In order to get off probation, they had to be clean during the time they were in treatment. So that became our goal because that was mutually agreeable. I was like, well, your goal is to get off probation. In order to do that you got to stay clean. So let's work together to make that happen during the next 16 weeks. And generally it worked that way. Achievable goals are selected by assessing and prioritizing client needs and taking into account their level of impairment. If you've got a client who is significantly impaired, they've got major clinical depression, they're detoxing from five years of stimulant abuse, they're not going to Be going out and getting a job next week that's, you know, well down the road. So the goals we're looking at now are more like stabilization and engagement. You want to take into account motivation. What does the client want to achieve? Because they're not going to be real motivated to achieve what you want to achieve unless they want to get out. They want to get discharged from the program successfully. In order to do that, they've got to meet your goals. But ideally, help them identify goals that are meaningful to them and you're going to look at the real world influences on needs. So if they're going to be discharged in 30 days, even though they may not be quite ready to start looking for housing, if they need to have housing when they get out in 30 days, then that's probably going to be a high priority treatment plan goal because you don't want them being discharged to the street. Treatment plans consider client needs, readiness preferences and prior treatment history. Looking at what did and didn't work, because there's no sense repeating something that you've done four times that hasn't worked yet. We're going to look at their personal goals and then we'll look at obstacles like transportation and childcare and those sorts of things that might preclude someone from going into residential or make it difficult for them to get to evening. Iop, for example, treatment plans have smart goals, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time limited. These goals are broken down into smaller objectives. So, you know, think about it like you want to climb a staircase. Well, that's great. That's your goal. You want to climb a staircase in the next 45 days. Wonderful. You're going to be taking a little while at each step, but each step is an objective. So your end goal is the top of the staircase. What is the first thing you need to do to start moving towards the top of that staircase? What's your first step? All right, once you get that done, what's the next thing you got to do? Again, think of the recipe. First thing you've got to do is find the recipe. Then you've got to figure out what you've got on hand. Then you've got to figure out what you need from the store. Then you've got to go shopping. One step at a time. Don't make it too complex. Treatment plans anticipate the type, duration and frequency of services. So, you know, a lot of times we may say, if they're an iop, there's going to be three hours a day, five Days a week for the first month and then once they accomplish certain goals, then they can step down to three hours a day, three days a week, etc. Treatment plans identify who's responsible for what. So if the client has to go do something, it's going to be clearly indicated that the client needs to make the appointment with social services to get enrolled in programming versus the counselor will make the appointment for the client to go to social services. Whoever's supposed to do it, it needs to be noted and there has to be a timetable. You know, this needs to be accomplished by X date. If it doesn't get accomplished by X date, it's not the end of the world. However, you need to do a reassessment and go, okay, why didn't this happen? What do we need to adjust? It incorporates client input and participation in development. It helps the client prioritize presenting issues. So I mean, they come in and generally there's a whole litany of stuff that they need to work on. And it can feel really overwhelming. But I liken it to a woven blanket for clients. That woven blanket is over your head right now. You can't breathe, you can't see, it's miserable, it's hot. Any string you pull on is going to start making air holes in that blanket and making it lighter and eventually you will unravel the whole blanket. So let's figure out of the issues that you've got going on right now, which you think are most important to work on and which are you most motivated to work on. What string are you willing to pull? First you get input from client on their goals and objectives. So what does their as evidenced by look like? You know, if I am happier as opposed to being depressed, what is that going to look like? If I am healthier as opposed to unhealthy, what is that going to look like? How am I going to know when I'm living a healthier lifestyle? Both the counselor and client sign the plan. The clinician may also facilitate and manage referrals because oftentimes we don't have case management that we can rely on. At minimum, the plan is a flexible document that uses a stage match process to address identified substance use disorders. So stage match process. If you think back to the stages of readiness for change, pre contemplation, contemplation preparation, action and maintenance, each stage requires different interventions. So that's tip 35 from SAMHSA. If you need to refresh, it looks at the recovery support environment. It addresses potential mental health conditions based on readiness for change for that issue. Somebody may be in the action stage of readiness for change on their substance use, but not ready to do a lot about their anxiety. It's usually the opposite, but whatever. So you need to make sure that you stage match by issue because the person is not just going to be globally in the action stage of change. There are going to be some things that they're not really that ready to work on yet. You want to identify potential medical issues, employment, education, spiritual issues, social needs and legal needs. And there are other things like child care and other wraparound services that can go into this too. But these are the big ones. Initial treatment plans are done in admission or within 24 hours based on information from the assessment and screening and serves as the initial roadmap. They include presenting problems, preliminary goals, type, frequency and duration of service, the signature and date of the client and counselor with counselor credentials. So again, this is the initial treatment plan. As you get into treatment and start to know the client a little bit better, you're going to formulate a more in depth treatment plan. This one has to be done either at admission or within 24 hours. An individualized treatment plan has the problem and the problem description. That answers the question, why are you here? That's the problem, not the goal. I'm here because I have a substance use disorder. What's my goal? To not have a substance use disorder. It identifies the client's strengths. You know, we are going to build on strengths so client will build on his ability to stay clean and sober, yada yada. It has concrete, measurable goals. Concrete means you can observe them, you can see them. You can either say yes, it was done or no, it wasn't not. Yeah, it was probably accomplished. It's yes or no. The objectives are there. So that big goal is broken down into those smaller steps. It has strategies for achieving those smaller steps. So you know, if the first step is to start building a recovery support network, well, that's wonderful. How are you going to do that? Strategies answer how? Start going to AA meetings, you know, start going back to church, call up your five closest friends that are healthy, supports, whatever the treatment plan includes the diagnosis, usually that's up at the top. The signature of the client and counselor and the signature of the clinical supervisor if required. Ongoing assessment and collaboration is used to regularly, regularly review the treatment plan and make necessary modifications. Many IOP and residential programs have to review the treatment plan once a week with the client and get the client to sign off. Sometimes you get a 30 day reprieve. But you need to know what your payers and your state requires. Review should be completed at minimum at major or key points in the client's treatment course, including admission. Obviously you're going to develop it. Readmission. Maybe they discharged and they were out for three months and then they relapsed and they're back. Well, you may be able to look at their treatment plan and see where they're supposed to be because they were in an IOP program and work with that. But you're going to need to reassess it at readmission, at transfer, at discharge if there's a major change in their condition. So, such as they have a manic episode or they're admitted to the crisis stabilization unit for suicidal ideation, you're going to do a reassessment. And after 12 months, regardless of what's going on after 12 months, progress notes document the client's progress in relation to the treatment plan goals and objectives. Each progress note should have the problem name and number because most clients will have like three treatment plan problems, then multiple, like say eight objectives underneath it. So maybe substance abuse recovery is the first treatment plan problem. Okay, so that's problem number one and goal number A, if you will. The first goal is to start developing a recovery support system. So in the treatment plan, if I talk with the client about developing that recovery support system, then I'm going to identify that we Talked about problem 1A and what we addressed. The progress note identifies what the client says and does generally. I mean, you're not going to do it verbatim. It puts in counselor observations and assessments. If the client seems to be doing really well, as evidenced by and the client's observations and assessments. I always put those in there too. How do they think they're doing and what's their evidence as evidenced by and continued plans to address the presenting problem. You also may need to document any new information if they get into a new relationship, get a new job, break up, whatever that will go in the progress notes. The format for most people is the SOAP format. The first part is the specific objective information and the last part is the assessment, the interpretations and the plan for how to proceed. You want to document the client's progress. Progress notes are based on what the client says and does, what the clinician observes, the client's attitude, demeanor, non verbals, you know, how compliant they are with treatment, the counselor's knowledge and experience. So counselors are going to be able to differentiate between a lapse and a relapse. For example, they're Going to be able to differentially diagnose. If the client starts presenting with some symptoms of depression, for example, the clinician is going to rule out the use of depressant substances. They're going to rule out detoxification from stimulants. They're going to rule out hopefully medical conditions and they may rule in mood disorders or something. So differential diagnosis is important to look at the physical and other potential causes for symptoms and danger to self or others. I encourage my staff at every single treatment meeting to identify whether the client had any suicidal or homicidal ideation espoused. I mean, if they said I'm suicidal or I wish I could end it all, that needs to be documented and to identify if the client had future plans, was oriented to place and time. You know, just a general mini mental status exam at every contact is really good to protect you. And even in group, I mean, you're looking at people and are they bright and are they oriented and are they talking about future things or are they withdrawn and sad and tearful and talk about how, you know, there doesn't seem any point in being there? Well, you know, if you hear that, you probably need to pull them aside and talk to them more in depth. So, you know, get some documentation that you had good contact with the client and you have a good kind of idea about the pulse of things. Progress notes are not a verbatim transcript, but a cohesive summary. So one page, you know, don't write a dissertation. The discharge summary. Discharge planning begins at admission. Discharge planning begins at admission. Okay, I know I said it twice because it's that important. You see client Jim Bob and you know, things are going well, but then client Jim Bob goes out and relapses and never comes back. Well, he's discharged at that point. You don't know when the client is going to discharge necessarily. So if you begin discharge planning at admission, which actually is required by most insurance companies, then you have a plan and you and Jim Bob have made a plan for this is how you're going to progress. These are the options and resources available to you. So Jim Bob has something to work off of in case he never returns. You want to summarize in your discharge summary services delivered. You know, the discharge summary is done when Jim Bob is actually discharging. Discharge planning begins at admission. So the discharge summary summarizes any services you did deliver, how well the client accomplished goals and objectives, and any discharge recommendations, including referrals, continuing care, etc. The elements of the discharge plan include the Referral source, you know, because this is going to go back to the referral source saying Jim Bob discharged. This is the summary of what happened, presenting problems and the reason for services, treatment goals, methods and outcomes. Outcomes generally pertain to the person's ability to attain recovery, build resistance and work, learn, live and fully participate in the community of choice. So discharge summary is basically a big summary of the entire treatment episode. It's going to indicate the condition of the client at discharge, your prognosis, and you know, that's a little subjective, but we got to make it. Follow up recommendations, including continuing care in the aftercare plan and the counselor's signature, date and credentials. You want to include the reasons for discharge on the discharge summary. But reasons for discharge can be varied. Treatment completion, that's the ideal. They may leave AMA or against medical advice, that's not so ideal, but it happens. Treatment non compliance, they're just not getting with the program or they're showing up and they're under the influence or you know, a variety of reasons that it's therapeutically indicated to discharge them or treatment was just incomplete. You know, again, they left before treatment finished. They just, it wasn't so with treatment and complete is a lot like ama. But those are the four main reasons for discharge identified for the review exam. Organization of documentation is going to vary a little bit between each agency. But each page has to have the client's name and some sort of identifying number. All entries must be signed. If you make an error in documentation, you line through it once. You don't scratch it out. You line through it once, initial it, date it, and write error above it. Notes of any sort should never be removed from a file. If you have late entries or corrections, they're put in as a separate document and noted as an addendum to progress note from 21 of 18 or whatever. So clinical documentation characteristics need to be written knowing that others will read it. It needs to be objective, you know, stay away from vague terms like client is doing well. If you use a vague term, then explain it. As evidenced by uses descriptive behavioral terms. Client is oriented to person, place and time, not client seems to be with it today. You know, you want to use descriptive behavioral kind of clinical terms. It avoids jargon. So you don't want to overuse clinical clinical terms in it. Keep it simple. Again, remember, the client may read this. It's concise and it's positive. You know, these are the steps the client is making. This is the progress the client is making. Yes, the client has had a setback but hey, he returned for treatment and we're picking up and figuring out what we did wrong. You don't want to be doom saying and talking about how the client is non compliant and resistant and just doesn't seem to want to be here. You want to keep it as positive as possible, focusing on the strengths and the progress and making lemonade whenever your client gives you lemons. All right. Well, that was a lot that we covered. And I know documentation is not the most interesting thing, but that kind of hits the highlights of what you need to know for your addiction counselor certification exam if you need more training, we have lots of training@allce.com and we have a full addiction counselor certification track that is a little over 400 hours of multimedia information. And that's for $149. All right. Thanks for participating today or listening today. And I will talk to you again soon.