Purpose

San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS) has decided to use the Facebook group for the purpose of providing Parent Project graduates with news and information about upcoming classes, events, and resources related to: supporting individuals with mental health and/or substance use conditions; BHRS services and supports; reducing stigma; and practicing prevention and early intervention. BHRS use of this site/service is being done as deemed advisable by that department, which may decide to change or eliminate its use of this site/service.

Limitations on Use

It is the intent of BHRS to create a non-public forum with its use of this site/service for the purpose(s) listed above. As part of the department’s efforts to further these purposes, the comments feature of this site/service is being offered to a limited group of individuals with restricted access to the information as a non-public forum intended to serve as a mechanism for communication between the group members and the department with respect to those purposes.

Participation by users is limited to graduates of the BHRS Parent Project program. And the owner of this page will create a closed public Facebook group, to impose administrative control over access to the forum. Finally, Behavioral Health and Recovery Services will remove any comment, including comments on the approved topics, that disclose, make available, discusses or can potentially trigger the identification of confidential employee, patient, or client information, including but not limited to HIPAA regulations and other Protected Health Information. BHRS also reserves the right to re-post/re-publish questions, comments, or other information provided by the author.

This page is not a forum in which to express grievances related to staff, services, providers, programs, agencies, treatment or care related issues (see below for the process for expressing grievances). This page is also not a forum in which to seek mental health or substance use services or advice, or for seeking assistance in a crisis. If you are in a crisis, please call 911. To access BHRS services, visit www.smchealth.org or call the BHRS ACCESS Call Center at 1-800-686-0101. Please note that any terms of service that this site/service places on user participation still apply to comments made by any user, and this site/service may enforce its own terms of service.

With respect to such comments, the department reserves the right to remove inappropriate comments, including those that have obscene language or sexual content, involve ad hominempersonal attacks on another user, threaten or defame any person or organization, violate the legal ownership interest of another party, promote illegal activity, promote or solicit commercial services or products, or are not topically related to the particular posting/permitted subject matters. The department believes these restrictions to be reasonably necessary to encourage participation and foster discussion of the issues for which the forum was created by maintaining a civil discourse and permitting all relevant viewpoints on the approved topics.

BHRS will routinely monitor the comments posted by authorized users of this site/service, and any comments that are not in line with these restrictions will be removed. To the extent that any authorized user believes the comments of another user are not in line with these purposes and restrictions, they are welcome to notify Behavioral Health and Recovery Services by contacting Maggie Furey at c_mfurey@smcgov.org.  Behavioral Health and Recovery Services will make a determination about the appropriateness of such comments based on its application of these purposes and restrictions, and that determination is final and not subject to outside review. BHRS intends its application of these purposes and restrictions to be consistent over time. 

BHRS does not intend for this forum to become an avenue for public discourse. Concerns or grievances about BHRS related staff, services, providers, programs, contracted agencies or care related issues may be directed to BHRS Office of Consumer and Family Affairs at (1-800) 388-5189. Please note as well that any terms of service that this site/service places on user participation still apply to comments made by any user, and this site/service may enforce its own terms of service. To the extent that any user believes a comment has been made in violation of the terms of service of this site/service, that person should contact the site/service rather than contacting BHRS, as BHRS has no obligation to enforce the terms of service of this site/service.

Statement Regarding Terms of Use and Privacy

Use of this site/service is subject to the terms of use of the site/service, including the privacy policies of the site/service, which can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php. Anyone posting comments or submitting information to BHRS on this site/service should keep this in mind. In addition, the poster of comments or information to this site/service agrees that his or her comments may be treated by the County of San Mateo as a public record subject to disclosure pursuant to Cal. Gov’t Code Section 6250 et seq., regardless of whether such comments actually constitute a public record. Posters are urged to protect their privacy and should consider refraining from posting personally identifying information, including but not limited to:  last name, address, age, and phone number.  To the extent this site/service is open to the public, the public has access to its content and can access that content without the assistance of the department or the County of San Mateo.

Responsibility for Content

Except for information disseminated by the owner/manager of this page, any information posted or submitted by others expresses the views of the person submitting such information and not necessarily the views of the County of San Mateo or the department, and neither the County nor the department is responsible for the opinions and information shared by others.

Disclaimer of Notice

Communications made through this site/service shall in no way be deemed to constitute legal notice to the County of San Mateo or any of its agencies, officers, employees, agents, or representatives with respect to any existing or potential claim or cause of action against the County or any of its agencies, officers, employees, agents, or representatives where notice to the County is required by any federal, state or local law, rule or regulation.

Advertising

Users of this site/service should understand that contextual advertising as appears on this site/service is byproduct of use of the site/service. BHRS does not control the site or service’s placement or use of such advertising, and in no way does the use by BHRS of this site or service constitute any endorsement or support of any such advertisements. Reference in such advertisements or in any user-generated content herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the County of San Mateo, and the Department’s use of this site/service shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

Contact Person

You may contact the BHRS Parent Project or Health Ambassador program via email atc_mfurey@smcgov.org. In addition, Behavioral Health and Recovery Services may be contacted by telephone at 650-573-2741.