CLIENT ELIGIBILITY

Life Stone maintains a written eligibility policy and procedure approved by a licensed clinician. This policy defines eligibility criteria based on legal status, age and sex of the client, presenting needs or concerns best addressed by the program, program scope and limitations, and appropriate placement criteria.

1. Clients may be self-referred or referred by other community agencies, as appropriate. Life Stone serves both adults and minors, including individuals of all genders. No individual shall be excluded from services or discriminated against on the basis of age, sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disability.

2. Life Stone provides outpatient mental health services only. The organization does not offer residential care or primary medical services, nor does it provide treatment for domestic violence perpetrators, sexual abuse perpetrators, or substance use disorders. When clients (minor or adult) present with needs outside the scope of services offered, appropriate referrals are made to qualified treatment providers. Services are limited to individuals whose clinical needs are appropriate for outpatient mental health care.

ADMISSION POLICY

Life Stone has the following admissions process including the appropriate intake process, age groupings, pre-placement requirements, self-admissions, notification of legally responsible person and reasons for refusal of admission including a signed written statement.

1. When an individual requests services from Life Stone, a telephone screening is conducted to obtain basic demographic information from the client and ascertain that the client’s presenting concern is one for which Life Stone staff is qualified to provide services for.

2. If a client is refused admission, a written statement outlining the cause for refusal can be made available to the client and/or referring agency.

INTAKE ASSESSMENT

At the time of intake, an assessment shall be conducted to evaluate health and family history, medical, social, psychological and, as appropriate, developmental, vocational and educational factors. All methods used in evaluating a client shall consider age, cultural background, dominant language and mode of communication.

DISCHARGES (Planned & Unplanned)

If a client has not participated in treatment for three (3) consecutive months or has completed treatment, clinicians must complete all required discharge documentation.

A Discharge Summary must be completed for all clients for whom treatment occurred following assessment, even if the client was seen only once.

Discharge documentation should be completed within thirty (30) business days of identifying the client as inactive or having completed treatment.

Once the Discharge Summary is finalized, clinicians must notify the designated support staff responsible for discharges via email so the client can be removed from the clinician’s active caseload.