The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of STIPS case note documentation and SOAP case note documentation on counseling trainees' perceived case conceptualization abilities. By training master's level counseling students in the use of case note writing and then asking them to rate their perceived conceptualization this study looked at an area of training that has received little attention in the past. This study attempted to begin the process of understanding if case note documentation could be an area that could help counseling students develop their case conceptualization skills.Quantitative and qualitative data analysis was utilized due to the exploratory nature of this study. The quantitative portion examined how the case note documentation affected trainees' perceived case conceptualization abilities while the qualitative portion examined patterns in the responses of participants to open-ended questions about case note documentation.The quantitative results showed that there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of their perceived case conceptualization. The qualitative results indicated that there are benefits and drawbacks to both the STIPS and the SOAP case note formats. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The purpose of this master’s thesis in archival science was to provide a picture of what archiving of mental health records looks like in Sweden, and what rights private individuals have to their own mental health records. It fills a void in archival science research, as there is very little written about this specific type of document from an archival science perspective, and with Swedish conditions as the main focus. Similar questions are touched upon in research on those who grew up in foster homes; and from in research on attitudes to reading ones own patient records, ethical issues of preservation and destruction of records, and the patient record's legal status.  As a theoretical background, three of Cook's four archival paradigms were used, based on Foscarini's interpretation of these in relation to appraisal. For this thesis they were analysed with the individual's perspective in mind. As the main method, two questionnaires were sent out: one to Swedish archival institutions and one to practising psychologists. In addition, the method consisted of analysing government policies on appraisal of mental health records, as well as a review of the information about patient records on the Swedish regional archives' websites. Qualitative questions about experiences and attitudes have been outside the scope of this work. The scope of the research was limited to Sweden, and by the number of responses to the questionnaires.  The study shows that mental health records are legally indistinguishable from other patient records, that mental health records are often part of other records, and that many mental health records are destroyed ten years after the last notation, excepting records concerning children. This is a two years master’s thesis in archival science.