Rules of Evidence, providing a specific privilege for a person’s professional communications with physicians and mental health counselors, specifically including licensed social workers. The basic privilege applicable to communications with physical and mental health professionals provides that “[a] patient has a privilege to refuse to disclose, or to prevent any other person from disclosing, a confidential communication made for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment of the patient’s physical, mental, or emotional condition . . . .” Rule 11-504(B). The privilege generally seeks to ensure that a patient can communicate fully with a mental health professional without the risk that the information will be used against the patient in a court proceeding. See Blackmer, 2005-NMSC-032, ¶ 15 (<HOLDING>). Privileges often have limits, particularly
holding that facilitating small claims is the policy at the very core of the class action mechanism recognizing the public interest exception recognizing as well that such uninhibited communication serves the public interest by facilitating the administration of appropriate treatment recognizing that public utilities affect the public interest in that they render essential public services to a large number of the general public recognizing that exclusion of evidence obtained in violation of statute serves as only effective deterrent of such violations