The Ethical Principle Of Confidentiality Essay

This paper is a response to a video discussing the issues of confidentiality, privilege, reporting, and duty to warn. This paper looks at these issues and their explanations in the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics as well as the Georgia State Board of Professional Counselor’s ethical guidelines and provides a commentary on the laws. It was found that these issues are not always black and white, but there is some debate on these issues. Confidentiality is both an ethical and a legal responsibility yet there are often times when the ethical demands clash with the legal demands. This paper explores some of those crashes and explains what I have learned from the video and the professional and stage guidelines concerning confidentiality and its implications and how I will apply what I have learned into future practice.

The subject I intend to reflect upon is confidentiality within a professional healthcare setting. Confidentiality formed a part of our professional issues lectures and it piqued my interest due to how differently it is interpreted within healthcare as opposed to education, which is my background. In an educational setting I was taught repeatedly that I could never ensure confidentiality between myself and a child. Comparing that to what I have now learnt in healthcare, this seemed to me almost the opposite way of working as I was used to and so I wish to reflect upon this.

In the relationship between counsellor and client the need for confidentiality is vital as it is not only the bases that the relationship is built on and it is a legal obligation.

In most cases the worker will need personal information of the clients to give proper care and when a person feels comfortable it’s much easier to get what’s needed. Although confidentiality is made to protect the client there is some cases were information can’t be kept between client and worker. If there is a danger to themselves or others, child/elderly abuse and or shows signs of being gravely disabled confidentiality has to be broken. Sheafor and Horejsi (2012) supports the idea that confidentiality can also be broken in cases where a therapist is being sued for Malpractice. In some cases where a therapist is being sued by their client for malpractice, confidentiality can be broken to protect the therapist.

In the helpful receptionist video, the receptionist violates the principle of confidentiality by disclosing private information without informed consent. When the client 's husband asked if she is in her counseling session the receptionist confirms the client 's presence. By doing so, she violates confidentiality because she is supposed to protect the client 's whereabouts to the best

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

The ethical dilemma I wish to explore is The Duty to Warn. This refers to the duty of a counselor, therapist to breach one of the most important bonds between a client and a therapist; the law of confidentiality. The therapist has the right to break confidentiality without the fear of being brought up for legal action. If the therapist believes that the client poses a danger, or is a threat to himself, someone else, or society as a whole, the therapist must decide how serious of a threat the client may be, then if he decides it’s a serious issue, he must notify the person in danger, which would e the third party, or the police, or other people who may be in the

The counsellor is in their right to inform the counsellor that they can not keep the confidentiality on the particluar piece of information been shared. It is important that the counsellor does not arrange to meet the client outside of the counselling sessions and that both client and counsellor keeps to the agreed appointment times. The counsellor is there to purely counsell the client and should by no means become in involved in other aspects of the clients life for example offering to find out something on behalf of the counsellor. It is important that once the costs/fees are agreed upon that the counsellor does raise these costs or waive them for something in return. At the first counselling session the counsellor should offer the client a set number of weeks that they maybe counselled and it is important that the counsellor does not extend these without any clear reason to do so as this may result in the client becoming dependant on the counsellor. The counsellor must on no terms exploit the client in anyway and recieving or giving of gifts is not acceptable during the time the client is being counselled.

Everyone is entitled to confidentiality unless they give permission for someone else to see their information or they can no longer make decisions on their own (for example, if they are confused or comatose). A federal law, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act applies to most health care physicians and its guideline, known as the Privacy Rule. The Privacy Rule sets specific rules regarding privacy, access, and disclosure of information. For example, HIPAA specifies the following:

Confidentiality is having limited access to information: this is an important aspect of the contract, everything that is discussed in the counselling session is kept strictly between you and your counsellor. The counsellor can take confidential notes to help follow the counselling process A counsellor must not discuss the service user with friends family or even strangers. If there is evidence that the service user is in danger of harming

Both the ACA (2005) and AACC (2004) code of ethics require the counselor to maintain client confidentiality to the fullest extent. Working in the counseling field, trust is a rock in the foundational of a helping relationship and confidentially plays a large role in the client counselor relationship. Both codes share similarities regarding their stance on confidentiality. When counseling others, a counselor is to inform their clients about their commitment to confidentiality as well as their limits before

Confidentiality is a common pledge when disclosing sensitive personal information to a mental health professional. In fact, Remley & Herlihy (2014) believe that, “Confidentiality is one of the most fundamental of all professional obligations in counseling” (p. 106). A breach of confidentiality could damage the trust that took years to build between the professional and their client; however, there are certain times when the professional has limited options.

Subsequently, when a client makes the decision to seek counseling, they are helpless and wanting to find a better quality of life. Clients are more likely to open up to a therapist that they trust. This is the reason that confidentiality is important. Therefore, therapist can build a successful relationship with a client and begin a journey to healing and recovery by stressing the limits and boundaries of confidentiality. A client has the right to privacy, security, and privacy of not only his or her identity, but also a diagnosis, prognosis and source of payment. With regards to protecting a client’s information, he or she must first initiate the process. A client must provide written information to have his or her information released to another entity, under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, a client ID and signature is required. He

This was very well written in my opinion. I agree with your assessment that there is no way around the state law that the nurse practitioner had to report both the physical and sexual abuse. In doing so, the nurse still can maintain both confidentiality, the right to privacy and meet all the standard principles. Lori’s response may be one of anger, or relief, or may even be of distrust to the nurse, but, if the nurse is willing to explain the reasoning of why she has to report, and be open and honest with Lori, the bond could be maintained (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2004).

The nature of the banker-customer relationship is one of agency. Amongst the duties that stem from this relationship, the bank’s duty of confidentiality is clearly an issue of great importance. The focus of this essay is on the scope and limitations of the bank’s duty, both to its customers as to the public. In order to analyse this it is necessary to firstly consider the idea of duty of confidentiality, Secondly, it is necessary to study the Court of Appeal’s judgement in the case of Tournier. Thirdly, this essay will take the Jack Committee report into consideration. Lastly, this paper will briefly mention the Banking Code, it will also discuss whether the principle in Tournier may be outdated and if so, whether it is in need of a new crystallised self, clearly stating the limits and boundaries of the bank’s duties both to the customer and to the public itself in the form of a statute. To conclude this essay will consider the future of the duty of confidentiality.