Policy and Key Information
Rationale
Atrium strives to provide the best services to clients to meet their needs and to be transparent in terms of our operations. There may be rare occasions when employee clients originally funded by their businesses.
i. Can no longer access funding from their employers for their therapy/coaching or
ii. For their own reasons would like to move out of a workplace pathway
iii. and transfer into a community /private to continue their therapy.
In these circumstances Atrium practitioners are obliged to operate with integrity and transparency and work in the client’s interest above all other concerns where the client makes this decision from a position of informed choice. There should never be any pressure to encourage clients to switch pathways into the private funded pathway.
Criteria and Conditions to Support a Pathway Change
i. Has the client requested to move to the community pathway of their own volition? Have you fully explored alternatives with the client and it is the client’s informed choice to move pathways?
ii. Has Atrium, on the client’s behalf, exhausted other alternatives such as to continue in the employee workplace pathway if still open to them, had the opportunity to consider concerns about workplace confidentiality if that presents a barrier and/or concluded processes for further approvals with their employer business for work to continue?
iii. Has the client been made aware of other free service options available to them from community charities, helplines, support groups, GP support and appropriate referrals and NHS referrals? Has the client been offered free resources and an improvement plan for self directed support and signposting? Has the client been offered access to the Atrium free listening service as a service to support the ‘management of waits’ to further help? Have you offered the client time to consider their decision or to explore other options before making a decision?
iv Can the client afford a counselling service financially and have you agreed the number of sessions that might be required?
v. Have you explained how data will be stored in the event of a transfer to the private pathway e.g. no more anonymised communication with workplace and no notification of workplace that the transfer has happened unless with client’s consent.
vi. Does the client consent to moving pathways and have you noted this informed ‘consent’ in the administration note on their CORE record?
vii. Please advise pathway team of this client informed choice. A reduced fee for continuity of therapy if further help is required may be offered if client has already been an employee client. Other options may be available to the client on frequency or length of sessions.
viii. And consider in the supervision group or supervision if you are wondering whether the criteria/conditions are met above?
