Confidentiality In Healthcare

Clients have the right to confidentiality. Counselors cannot share information about clients without shared consent. Counselors throughout treatment process must inform clients when confidentiality can be breached (Mears, G., 2010). If a counselors foresee that a client is a danger to himself or others confidentiality must be broken.

Clearly, confidentiality is essential to the healing process. However, though it may appear to be a relatively easy concept, its application in the therapeutic atmosphere has proven to be quite complex (Younggren & Harris, p. 589). One issue that causes confusion for many professionals pertains to the differences between confidentiality and legal privilege. Quite often, ethical obligations overlap with the legal requirements. Frequently, the practitioner is not well informed about these particular limits on confidentiality and this lack of knowledge can place both the client and the helping professional at risk (Younggren & Harris, p.590, 598).

When it comes to counselors and psychologists, there's a code of ethics that influences whether they can reveal private information during a session. Patients also have the added protection provided by HIPAA. During the first visit to a new counselor, the person will be provided with papers that explain that your sessions are private except in certain circumstances. The HIPAA guidelines are actually the minimum level provided. In many states, there are stricter guidelines in place for those in the mental health fields. Patients have to feel safe during their sessions, or they won't share details with their counselor.

There are several ethical dilemmas that the mental health professionals that are working as a team will face including “ensuring that the client has given informed consent, maintaining client confidentiality, and involving professionals, paraprofessionals, and family in appropriate coordinated processes that benefit the client” (Paproski & Haverkamp, 2000, p.96).

The judicial precedence set by Tasaroff v Regents of the University of Caliornia.17 Cal.3d 425,551 P.2D 334,131 Cal. Rptn 14 (1976) demonstrates vividly that unlike their counterparts in other medical disciplines, Psychiatrists may need a lower disclosure threshold given that they may see patients who are mentally volatile and potentially dangerous!( Farlex,2012).In this scenario, Prosenjit Poddar, a mental health patient student at the University of California, informed his Psychologist of his intent to murder Tatiana Tasaroff two months in advance. The Psychologist went ahead and disclosed this information to the campus police who held the patient for a brief period and released him upon deeming him rational only to end up killing Tasaroff !The

The situation is the decision to breach the confidentiality between a client and his patient. The therapist has to decide if the client will pose a threat to himself or any other 3rd party, or society as a whole. If the therapist feels in any way that the client could be a threat, he has the right to notify the person or the correct officials to insure that no harm comes to anyone involved.

Finding out that people blame doctors for when their patient commits a crime puts my mind in utter disbelief. The law of patient confidentiality clearly states that the physician must keep all information a patient informs them in confidence, unless it acquires serious medical care, but if the doctor breaches the confidentiality by informing a third party without the patient’s consent, he or she could be sued. Doctor-patient confidentiality is based on the belief that a person should not be worried about seeking medical treatment in alarm that his or her problem will be shown to others. The objective of the relationship between the patient and their doctor is to make patients feel as comfortable as possible by providing them with any information they way need about their symptoms. This helps the doctor to make a correct diagnosis, and overall helping the patient feel comfortable enough to trust their doctor so that they may receive the best care. Once a physician takes a patient on, they must keep all the patient says and does in confidence; moreover, he cannot inform any third party of the patients wellbeing, but there are some exceptions like if the patient intends on causing harm to oneself or other or if it is an issue in a lawsuit. The court system claims A patient must have full confidence that their doctor will be able to keep all his or her medical issues private which helps the patient trust their physician. The professional duty of confidentiality not only covers

The Huffington post article “Mental Illness, Patient Confidentiality, and Gun Control” talks about psychiatrists and psychologists opposing a new law requiring that they tell the state if a mentally ill patient is dangerous to themselves or society. The doctors opposed this law because if infringes on the patients right; “patient confidentiality and might dissuade someone with mental

Therapists get legally allowed to warn others of potential dangers. This article should expound on how this can be done, and when the need should be identified by clinician. An ethical decision has to be made by an individual when they decide to exercise their duty to warn. Duty to warn allows the counselors, and psychological therapists to breach confidentiality when a person endangers life of another. The clinical therapists cannot be prosecuted for warning a third party of imminent danger or if they unreasonably suspect the patient might harm themselves. Initially, the therapist had no right to disclose the content of their discussions to another party until Tarasoff got killed.

Regardless of the State in which they are operating, mental health counselors are held to strict guidelines and laws that aim to keep the therapist-client relationship ethical and confidential. In the video, “Legal and Ethical Issues for Mental Health Professionals, Vol 1: Confidentiality, Privilege, Reporting, and Duty to Warn,” a conversation is directed by a judge on the rules and exceptions of these four topics, and how they relate to the therapist-client relationship. Within the video, three separate cases are reviewed, including the ruling decisions that were made by the state courts in their charge. This paper will seek to outline the laws that pertain to confidentiality, duty to warn, mandatory reporting, and privilege in the state

When mental health counselors work with various clients during their career, they need to practice confidentiality and privacy when conducting one-on-one, group, or any type of counseling services. Like any medical patient, mental health clinicians need to treat their clients with dignity and respect. It is extremely important for the mental health counselor working with his or her assigned caseload

In the mental health profession of counseling, therapy, psychology, psychiatric and social services ethical dilemmas are faced primarily on a daily basis. Being that mental health professionals are working with clients who are often fragile and vulnerable, they must develop an intense awareness of ethical issues. On the other hand, mental health professionals would never intentionally harm their clients, students or colleagues and others whom they work with. Unfortunately, good intentions are not enough to ensure that wrong doings will not occur and mental health professionals have no choice but to make ethically determined decisions. Depending upon the experience and expertise of the professional determines the outcome of the ethical

　　　　or to legal guardian and he must limit the third party disclosure to general medical

As a counsellor I have an obligation to follow professional standards and apply appropriate behaviour defined by mental health associations. The purpose of this is to prevent harm to clients as well as to define my own professional values.

The second ethical issue occurred when the psychologist disclosed information about Mr. Hartwig’s to his psychiatrist without Mr. Hartwig’s consent. The psychologist motivations for contacting Mr. Hartwig’s psychiatrist appears to be ethical. He was attempting to establish a collaborative relationship with the psychiatrist in order to maximize the effectiveness of each for of treatment in order to best serve the client (APA, 2002). However, The APA guidelines on stipulate that while psychologist should attempt to establish a collaborative relationship they must request release from the client before disclosing confidential information (APA, 2002). The client shared the name of his psychiatrist, but there was no evidence that the client consented to an exchange of information between the two professionals. In addition to the psychologists’ obligation to obtain consent to disclose information to the psychiatrist; he was also ethically obligated to ensure that the client understands what he/she is giving consent for. Koocher and Keith-Spiegel, suggest elements that a release-of-information form should include; who the information is to be released to, and any limitations on the information to be released (2008). If the client consented to disclosure with the