For example, a forensic psychology professional must record the responses of a client in enough detail to make them admissible to a court of law as evidence.
In addition to the above, the documentation provided by forensic psychology professionals needs to be carried out in a professional manner that is consistent with the applicable laws. The documentation must also conform to the ethical standards set by the EPPCC Standards (Kalmbach & Lyons, 2006). Any kind of documentation carried out by a forensic psychology professional must be confidential and privileged. The storage of such documentation must be carried out in a fashion that ensures its integrity.
Documentation of psychological services is required by most legal systems. The psychology professional must ensure that the documentation is done in a confidential manner. The information extracted from the client is privileged. Such information could cause harm if it is misappropriated. In order to prevent such problems, psychology professionals are required to store information in a manner that makes it inaccessible to other people. Psychology professionals are recommended to use the guidelines given by the American Psychological Association (APA) for protection of information (Committee on Professional Practice and Standards, 2003).
In case that a client dies during counseling or after it, the information stored in relation to that client must be kept in record by the psychology professional. However, the psychology professional is not allowed to share that information with any other party for any reason even after the client has been dead for a number of year.
Psychology professionals need to document their clients in all instances. However, the scrutinizing documentation required in the forensic psychology line of work is arguably greater. The professional psychologist needs to document the responses of clients for personal use inside the clinical setting.