Privacy Policies: NARR Standards

Ohio Recovery Housing does not review your policies for compliance with 42 CFR Part 2 and HIPAA. It is an organization’s responsibility to seek appropriate legal advice to ensure they are in privacy compliance.

Ohio Recovery Housing reviews programs and policies for compliance with the National Alliance of Recovery Residences quality standards, including the applicable standards in NARR B.6 (see page 9). ORH looks for:

• Policies and procedures that keep residents’ records secure, with access limited to authorized staff
• Policies and procedures that comply with applicable confidentiality laws
• Policies and procedures, including social media, protecting resident and community privacy and confidentiality

To meet this standard, an organization needs to have a privacy policy that both sets expectations for staff and volunteers as well as setting expectations for residents.

Many times when we think of privacy and confidentiality, we think of records, paperwork and limiting access to records only to specific staff. All of that is critical and important. However, a privacy policy also needs to have expectations for residents.

As the NARR standards indicate, we live in the world of the Internet and social media, and having good expectations for residents regarding privacy is appropriate.