1. Each client who receives professional services will sign a client-clinician agreement as a part of the New Client Handbook in which they agree to the informed consent for the use of email. This is then documented in their official clinical record and the client signs a statement of understanding of this email policy.

2. Each client is informed not to use email for the communication of urgent matters. Other methods of communication will be used in urgent situations such as telephoning our office and/or the provider of services in the case. Dr. Garlock can be reached for emergency situations at 713-927-3183. Mr. Art Albracht can be reached at 713-688-8648. Our office staff are in the office between the hours of 9:00am-5:00 pm Mondays through Fridays and can be reached by calling our office at 281-444-2678. If for some reason, an emergency situation arises and, in the unlikely event, you are unable to reach Dr. Garlock or Mr. Albracht, please go to the nearest emergency room for immediate professional crisis intervention services or call 911 for immediate assistance.

3. Dr. Garlock will be the only person receiving email transmissions and no other person will have access to email transmissions.

4. In the case of illness or, in the unlikely event that Dr. Garlock was unavailable to receive your email messages, he would be delayed in responding to your email messages. He would return your messages when he returns to the office. If you have emailed Dr. Garlock and have not received a return email message within 48 hours of sending your email, please contact him directly as a problem may have occurred which prevented him from receiving you message or his responding to your message.

5. In the case of a loss of data or system "crash", both Dr. Garlock and the client agree to hold each other harmless for that event and whatever repercussions might occur due to this event.

6. Email is not intended to be a substitute for either telephonic or face to face sessions. Due to the limitations of telephonic and email measures of communication, the most appropriate method to receive information and services from Dr. Garlock is to receive them directly. It is noted that on line audio/visual methods of professional services are superior to email or telephonic means of communcation.

7. Email can only be used to request appointment times, to get non- emergency information submitted to Dr. Garlock, to transmit data for Dr. Garlock's review to be utilized in upcoming scheduled sessions and to sign up as a new client in the practice.

8. All email correspondence will be printed and placed in each client's clinical record as a part of their official clinical record. It is requested that each client include their full name and Social Security number on each email transmission to insure that the data gets filed into the correct client file.

9. All email transmissions from each client will be responded to by Dr. Garlock so that each email is acknowledged to each sending client. It is also requested that each client acknowledge their receipt of Dr. Garlock's emails to insure the continuity of communication.

10. Email will be retrieved by Dr. Garlock 4 times daily with a 9:00am retrieval, a 12:00pm retrieval, a 5:00pm retrieval and a 9:00pm retrieval. He will review all email at these times and will respond to them in a timely basis during the same day that they were received.

11. Both computers utilized in the transmission and retrieval of email will have passwords which will not be made available to anyone other than Dr. Garlock and Ms. Annisa Vasquez.

12. No email received from a client or about a client will be forwarded to a third party without the explicit written permission of the client or their identified parent/guardian.

13. No professional email accounts will be shared with anyone other than the staff intended to utilize them for professional reasons.

14. No unencrypted wireless communications will be made with client identifiable information.

15. All email transmissions are secure and are password protected or are locked up during the course of daily clinical operations.

16. Any decisions made about client email or electronic data will be made in written form and given to the client for their approval.

17. All email and electronic transmissions will avoid anger, sarcasm, harsh criticism and libelous referenced to third parties in the messages that are sent.

18. Weekly backups will be conducted with electronic and email data which will be placed into long term storage.

19. No clients email address will ever be used as a part of any marketing scheme.

20. All "To" fields will be doubled checked prior to sending any email or electronic messages.

21. Dr. Garlock will maintain an email list of clients but will not send group mailings where recipients names are visible to each other. He will always use the blind copy feature when emailing to groups.

22. Dr. Garlock will adhere to all applicable rules and regulations governing email and electronic data transmission that are known to him and he will update these policies as often as needed.

23.All on line services, when applicable and provided directly to any client will be provided with the highest security and safety and professional integrity.