Consider the following scenario: Stephanie is a human-services policy analyst who works with the state-run psychiatric hospital system. Her job is to facilitate discharges of patients to the community by coordinating with local mental-health centers and providers of care to make sure that the patient has adequate and immediate post-discharge care. Stephanie received a call from a parole officer of a 25-year-old illegal-immigrant patient named Kevin, who was in the hospital. The parole officer indicated that Kevin violated parole by abusing illegal substances prior to the admission to the state hospital. The parole officer asked questions about Kevin's diagnoses, where he was being discharged to, and the staff involved in his care while hospitalized. You have been asked to determine if Stephanie can legally and ethically answer these questions and provide confidential health information about Kevin to the parole officer.

A. What information can be released to the parole officer? What information should not be released to the parole officer? Justify your responses. B. If information is released that should not be, what are the legal ramifications for the human services professional and her organization? Justify your claims with relevant, scholarly research.

C. What are the ethical issues that would arise for the human services professional and her organization due to releasing information that should not be released? Recommend appropriate strategies to mitigate identified ethical issues.

D. Include other issues that should be considered that are specific to this case scenario and related to compliance with NOHS Ethical Standards and laws that govern in the human services field. Justify your claims using concrete, relevant examples.