FAMILY SUPPORT NETWORK

SUMMARY NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICE

We are required by federal law to provide you with a Notice of Privacy Practices that describes how information that we maintain about you may be used or disclosed.  The Notice describes how, when, and why we use and disclose information about you, and provides a description of your rights and our obligations under federal and state privacy laws.

USES AND DISCLOSURE

We are permitted to use and disclose your health and other information under a variety of circumstances.  Sometimes we must obtain your authorization before we use or disclose that information, but in other circumstances we may use your information without your authorization and without informing you of the use or disclosure.  Some of the reasons we may use or disclose your information include:

• To evaluate data collected from the family, caregivers, and other agencies involved with the well-being of the family, to form an outline of the family's strengths and areas of concern. From this data a service plan is developed incorporating goals identified by the family/agency.

• To update and to assess the success of the family in meeting the service plan and/or to modify the plan as needed.

• To coordinate our services with other agencies to provide for specific needs of the client including but not limited to such areas as food, housing, adequate medical or psychological care, job placement, or support groups.

• To disclose information mandated by the state's Department of Health and Human Resources. This includes our policy as a "Mandatory Reporting" agency that our employees must report when they know or have reasonable cause to suspect that a child is abused or neglected. (Mont. Code Ann. 41-3-201)

• To comply with a court order requiring the disclosure of information.

The above are some of the illustrations of the use and sharing of information by our agency to provide home visitation, intervention, and supervised visitations.

YOUR RIGHTS

While the records that we maintain about you belong to us, with respect to the information maintained in those records under the federal privacy law you may make a written request to amend, to request restrictions, or to request an accounting of disclosures to:  Family Support Network, P. O. Box 21366, Billings, MT  59104.  The above rights are subject to state and federal mandates concerning Child and Family Services and the protection of the child or sources used to insure the safety of the child.

CHANGES

We reserve the right to change the terms of this Notice and our privacy policies at any time.  We reserve the right to make the revised or changed Notice effective for information we already have about you as well as any information we receive in the future.  Before we make an important change to our policies, we will promptly change this Notice and post a new Notice in the main office of Family Support Network.

CONTACT PERSON

If you have any questions about this Notice or wish to make a complaint about our privacy practices, please contact Barbara Sample, Family Support Network, 1211 Grand Avenue, Suite 6, Billings, MT  59101, (406) 256-7783.