Introduction
Protecting clinical information and maintaining the client’s confidentiality is one of the most important elements of counselors’ ethical conduct. As Berton (2014) points out, violating confidentiality will not only ruin the client’s trust in the counselor but also damage the reputation of the entire counseling profession. Generally, to maintain confidentiality, a counselor should not disclose any client’s private information without the client’s written consent. However, there are cases when a counselor may need to release confidential information despite the client’s objections. This essay aims to explore how counselors working with clients in drug treatment centers should deal with issues of confidentiality and what pitfalls they can encounter in their practice.
Main text
Protecting clinical information means preventing a third party from receiving any client’s data, both written or spoken. To ensure confidentiality, counselors should pay much attention to how they store paperwork containing information about their clients. Berton (2014) argues that any written documentation with confidential information should be locked in secure places without transparent surfaces. Furthermore, counselors should not carry such paperwork with them to make sure that nobody can gain access to it (Berton, 2014). When talking with or about the client over the phone, counselors should ensure that no one can hear them. In addition, Berton (2014) recommends that counselors should discuss with the client how they should behave when the counselor and the client run into each other outside of the therapeutic environment. This will ensure that none of them will have to tell other people about their therapeutic relationships.
Maintaining clients’ confidentiality is critical in the counseling practice, but, sometimes, counselors are obliged to report the client’s private information to authorities for the client’s benefit. According to Berton (2014), “the counselor should reveal confidential information to authorities only when there is a clear and imminent danger to the client or other persons” (p. 85). Such cases of danger include the risks of self-harm, suicide, harm to another person, abuse or endangerment of children or the elderly, and clients’ incapability of caring for themselves (Berton, 2014). While these cases are quite specific, counselors sometimes find it difficult to identify clients at such risks. For example, clients often come to counselors to vent their negative emotions, and, in the process, they may express some threats that have nothing to do with their real intentions. Counselors should learn to identify such cases, but, as Berton (2014) argues, it is better to “err on the side of caution” when examining the severity of threats (p. 74). While overestimating danger can be pardonable, it is unacceptable for counselors to receive the signs that the client is in trouble and not act upon them.
Common pitfalls in maintaining clients’ confidentiality are concerned with cases when counselors are not legally obliged to report clients’ confidential information. For example, in some states, there is a limited time during which abuse must be reported (Berton, 2014). In such cases, counselors have to make decisions about releasing confidential information based not on laws but solely on ethics. Sometimes, disclosing clients’ personal information without their consent when there is no legal obligation to do so may lead to clients’ withdrawal from treatment and mistrust of counselors (Berton, 2014). Therefore, counselors should carefully consider various choices and discuss the situation with their supervisors and clients.
Conclusion
To sum up, maintaining confidentiality and protecting clinical information is essential for sustaining therapeutic relationships and adhering to counselors’ professional ethics. However, when clients are at risk of harming themselves or other people, or when there is evidence of child or elderly abuse, counselors may be obliged to reveal clients’ confidential information to authorities. In cases when counselors are not legally obliged to disclose personal information, they should make well-thought ethical decisions and attempt to receive the client’s consent to release confidential information.
Reference
Berton, J. D. (2014). Ethics for addiction professionals. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.