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Accountability Versus Privacy: The Plight Of Institutionalized Emotionally Disturbed Children, Katherine M. Lordi

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article examines the an individual's right to privacy in relation to the state's interest in a smoothly-functioning system of mental health care for minors and concludes with some general guidelines for institutional accountability. The articles states that in order to balance the right of an institutionalized patient to be free from unwarranted invasions of privacy with the public's demand for transparency and accountability, two tasks must be confronted: (1) the limits of institutional and managerial accountability must be defined; and (2) the public's need to know must be balanced with a respect for the patient's personal privacy and material …