In 2017, I was sexually assaulted by a licensed clinical social worker in Florida. My life and my family’s lives were threatened if I reported. He threatened to falsify my records and use them to have me involuntarily committed. This went on for two months before I found the courage to report to police. He was arrested, bonded out, and then took his own life. The criminal case was closed.
I started seeing a new therapist – Shane Raymond, LCSW, CEO of Brandon Mental Health – to treat the sexual assault trauma. For two years he had no treatment plan. He wasn’t even documenting my PTSD diagnosis. When I finally confronted him, he abandoned me by email while I was in crisis.
When I requested my records (my legal right!) he violated my federal rights to access them. Then I found out he had been falsifying them. He had electronically backdated and re-signed records on a single day to make it appear a treatment plan had existed the entire two years.
He attempted to take out a stalking injunction against me, claiming I had made a threat. The judge dismissed it completely, stating there was no threat, only a patient asking for her records. He was trying to silence me and destroy my credibility.
The Florida Department of Health found he was practicing below minimum standards. He was fined $3,000, placed on one year of probation, and required to take classes. No revocation, still practicing.
It took six years to get him and his attorney to formally void the falsified records. But he has still not notified all third parties (insurance companies, other providers) that those records are retracted. Under federal HIPAA law, he is required to do so. Those falsified records are still out there, attached to my name, putting my safety and access to care at risk.
I send emails about this every single day. Because if I stop, nothing will change. And because if I am further harmed I need there to be a record that I warned everyone, and no one listened.
-Anonymous, Florida