Anything you say to a therapist, psychiatrist, etc. is confidential. Your parents will not be told unless there is potential that you are harming yourself or will be harming others.
Does this transfer to medication?
If a youth (16ish) wants or needs medication, i.e. a sleeping aid, must their parents be notified?

Please state your source. I am not looking for "guesses", thanks.
I am doing research for a fiction story.



ANSWER:

Ask your own doctor about it. I'm pretty sure they do considering payment, and the news about minors abusing prescription drugs. What I know is that the laws differ from state to state (or country).



ANSWER:

If you are asking the legality of the situation... that depends on what state you are in... cause the states vary with laws of privacy for minors.

Here is a part of the article I was reading about it:

Variability in State Law
'State laws on minors??privacy rights vary considerably. '

Who Gets to Decide?
'When your client is a minor, you often must let the minor?? parent or legal guardian decide how to deal with privacy issues.'

The Effect of Written Agreements
'Your minor client?? privacy rights may be affected by written agreements you make with the parents and minor to set the parameters of how confidentiality will be handled in treating the minor child.

Some parents recognize or can be persuaded that their child is more likely to open up in psychotherapy and develop a better patient-psychologist relationship if there are clear limits on what information can be shared with parents. Accordingly, the parents may agree, for example, that they will only be notified in the event of an emergency, or will only receive general reports on goals for the therapy and their child?? progress.

Be aware, however, that parents may later be able to revoke agreements that limit their access to information. Future circumstances may cause one or both parents to rethink the agreement. If they become involved in divorce proceedings, for example, a parent might try to revoke the agreement in order to get information from the child to use against the spouse. You may wish to discuss with a knowledgeable local attorney whether and under what circumstances written agreements governing confidentiality may be revoked.'



ANSWER:

Ask the psychiatrist if he/she must notify the parents since state laws vary. By the way, only a psychiatrist can prescribe meds. Therapists and psychologists are not drs.

As for prescriptions, a parent would have to pick them up.

Psychiatric drugs are way too expensive for you to pay yourself. Just one of my psychiatric drugs is over $300 and the other one is darn close to it.

Call a psychiatrist and ask. Call a pharmacist and ask.



ANSWER:

Parents will probably know because they will most likely have to pay for the prescription at the drug store and/or they will get some information from the insurance company in the mail.