The similarity between confidentiality, privilege information, anonymity, and protected health information is small when comparing their differences. Although they all protect clients in some extent, they are distinct from one another regarding their boundaries. Confidentiality focuses on protecting information shared between a client and social worker. To keep confidentiality between a social worker and clients, the social worker must keep the information away from the media, and away from court unless they must report it under law. Privilege information is any information that cannot be disclose, and cannot be part of a testimony in court. Anonymity is when the clients’ identity is kept a secret. Protected health information is any information …show more content…
Anonymous includes not knowing the face or name of the person. Keeping client’s confidentiality and their privilege information does not mean keeping their names from the public. Anonymity is most often used in social work research. For example, if a client participate in a research where they answer personal questions in a questionnaire, it’s the researcher’s job to make sure participates name not be known. Staying anonymous gives client the privilege to give more details and be more truthful about certain topics. Knowing they would never be identify, gives clients a sense of power to say whatever they want say, with no …show more content…
Social workers have responsibilities to their clients to respect their privacy, and if the client cannot trust us in that, a rapport will never be form. Social workers must fight for the confidentiality of individuals, including families. Social workers are legally obligated to respect the privacy of their clients, and keep their information away from any third parties (NASW, 2008, p.7-8). Advocating for all those standards, would assure clients that social workers are really looking out for their well-being. When rights are taking away from clients, it’s our job as social worker to take up the necessary role and connect the clients with resources. For example, if a client’s health information has been violated by an insurance it’s our job to connect them to a better
Moreover, ethical issues are ubiquitous within the field of social work. As such, social workers employed in all facets of the profession, whether it is substance abuse, mental health, among many others encounter ethical issues common and specific to each area. According to the article “Ethical Issues in Addiction Counseling” by Cynthia G. Scott (2000), prominent ethical situations specific to the field of substance abuse include, “confidentiality and privileged communication” (p. 213). In her article Scott (2000) discuss the blurred boundaries of confidentiality with regards to group counseling. The author points out the discrepancy in federal confidentiality laws that prevent the practitioner from sharing confidential information disclosed
A situation from my practicum where I may experience an ethical dilemma is if I needed to visit a patient I knew. If a patient was identified as potentially having social work needs and I knew them personally it may be uncomfortable for them to discuss sensitive issues, especially if I wasn’t aware of the issues prior to reading their medical history. The patient may not be as honest with me because they wouldn’t want an acquaintance to know about sensitive subjects they are experiencing. The agency requires a social worker to visit patients that lack support, are low-income, have a history of substance use, or a mental illness. Visiting these patients is consistent with the social worker’s responsibility to clients.
Children, young people and adults need to know confidentiality will be honoured unless their, or other's safety and well-being is threatened, a crime has or is likely to be committed, and a professional's knowledge of and access to the child, young person or adult's information will not be abused, in the same way that it is important for professional's to understand how important shared information is, where and how it's stored, transported and disclosed to other appropriate professionals.
Breaking confidentiality would threaten the goodwill and relationships within our group and could detriment group function. Protecting human relationships is a critical value in social work, and this worker strives “to promote, restore, maintain, and enhance the well-being of individuals, families, social groups, organizations, and communities” (Code of Ethics - NASW, n.d.). Sharing confidential information would go against social work’s ethical principles and tarnish the integrity of this worker who is intentionally “moving toward adherence to one’s professed values” (Miller & Rollnick, 2012, pg.
The ethical dilemma in my conflict is that I, as an individual providing information and listening to the stories of domestic violence survivors, do not allow my past life experience effect the outcomes of clients. Being that my agency oversees the eighteen domestic violence agencies in the State of Connecticut, I work with a very diverse population and at times encounter situations where self-disclosure is a complex issue. Self-disclosure to clients raises numerous boundary issues which in turn can result in conflicts of interest with a relationship with a client. By over identifying with clients, I risk boundary line becoming blurred and the possibility of treating my own needs and experiences rather than my clients. The Code of Ethics (2015) states that a social worker should not let their own person problems interfere with their professional judgement and performance which can jeopardize the best interest of the people for whom they have a
Privacy. It is the capacity to control who you see, when you see them and what others think about you. A superior comprehension of a person’s backgrounds gives data for making physical and social situations to meet their privacy and security needs. Make sure that a confidentiality policy is mandated and monitored by all staff working in a healthcare facility or those involve in the care planning of the patient. In private facility care, respect individuals' space by empowering them to customize their own
Social workers are increasingly recognized as an inevitable part of interdisciplinary teams in addressing the needs of clients who seek for legal remedies and services. The relationship between social work and law has been developing since 1917, when Mary Richmond, an architect of modern social work, acknowledged the role of legal authorities while developing her conceptual model for casework (Forgelson, 1970). Later, Mary Richmond drafted an early social work code of ethics in the early 1920s (Reamer, 1987). However, from the development perspective, all 50 states in the US have passed statutes requiring professionals from certain disciplines, including social work and law, to report any abuse or crime happened in the past or is going to happen in the nearest future if there are good reasons to believe that is true. Dubose and Morris (2005) stated that very few states passed similar mandatory reporting statutes for attorneys. It is not surprising that only a few states accepted these statutes because of the presence of the attorney-client privilege statute, which is true for all states. Due to differences in the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and NASW Code of Ethics, professionals from the respective disciplines may have conflicts while both provide social and legal support to the same client from a domestic violence organization. There are two main reasons that allow the tension to happen, social workers are mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect but lawyers, on the contrary, have an ethical responsibility to maintain client confidentiality (Taylor, 2006).
There are a number of problems that present in modern practice that can significantly affect or compromise confidential client information. Primarily, these types of problems are usually categorized as belonging into one of two areas of violation that provide unauthorized access to confidential information. The first area of disturbance of confidentiality occurs when the professional boundaries of the client-therapist relationship are breached, such as when practitioners partake in multiple relationships or decide to access public information about a patient online.
It provides guidelines on the standards and explains that social workers must be aware of their limits and not attempt to create any dual relationships with clients. Standard 1.06 (a) requires that client’s rights and interests be protected at all times. It informs that to ensure this, social workers must terminate their professional relationships with clients and engage in the creation of proper referral procedures (Reamer, 2003). Standard 1.06 (b) dictates that social workers must never take unfair advantage of colleagues and should also not exploit them for personal gains in a professional relationship. Standard 1.06 (c) entails no engagement in multiple relationships with clients, especially in situations where potential harm or exploitation may arise (Reamer,
There are different things that have to be kept secret, and no one can say a word about it to anyone. Different Aacts were put into place to protect those rights of a patient or anyone who does not want information to get out. HIPAA is an act that deals with health insurance and accountability. There are consequences of what goes on or if the patient told someone, and once past a certain age no one can be with the child. Privacy is the most important thing that a person has that can not be taken, and confidentiality is something a person has knowing that information is safe.
If a client was threatening to sue myself and the agency, I would simply provide him with a photocopy of his clinical record. He is the client and has the right to see and be aware of his progress or maybe not progress. There is not a reason that the client should not be able to see their records and just like the book says, social workers should write their notes in anticipation that either the client, a third party or both will be viewing the notes. In addition, standard 1.08 of the NASW code of ethics says that social worker should be able to provide their client with their records. If there is information in their file the social worker thinks might be harmful, he or she is to go over that information with the client to process and discuss the meaning and reasoning behind why that was said. In regards to having access to records, I do not see this affecting my faith as
Her scientific casework methods are still used in assessing clients in today’s practice. The Social Work profession also built off her values of individuality, dignity, and importance of human relationships in the core values of the profession, these can be seen in the National Association of Social Workers’ Code of Ethics. While Social Workers still follow most of Richmond’s values today, other values have been re-evaluated as time has progressed. Instead of Richmond’s suggestions of gathering personal information without the client’s knowledge (Pumphrey, 1961), the Social Work profession now values confidentiality and privacy when dealing with clients.
All social workers are beholden to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics. Professional ethics are the main core of social work. The profession has an obligation to articulate its basic values, ethical principles, and ethical standards. The code is composed of thematic sections that outline a social worker’s responsibility to clients, colleagues, employers, and the profession. Some responsibilities that a social worker has to a client are that the clients are their primary responsibility, fostering maximum self-determination in clients, respecting the privacy of clients, keeping information that has been shared during the course of their duties confidential and charging fees for services that are fair and considerate
Confidentiality is defined as the protection of personal information. It means keeping a client’s information between the health care providers and the client. Every single patient has the right to privacy regarding their personal information from being released to anyone outside of their health care providers. Health care providers have a legal and ethical responsibility to protect all information regarding patients by not disclosing their information to anyone without their written consent from the patient.
Among an array of Values from The Code of Ethics (TCE) of social work Value 1 dictates that as social workers we must respect the dignity of our clients and refrain from passing judgement onto them (Canadian Association of Social Work, 2005, pg.7). As a social worker, it is important to follow this value as it prevents the distancing of the client from the worker as the client will have a better chance of opening up to someone who does not instantly tell them what to do or reprimand them for their actions or non-action in their lives. Oppression relates to the TCE in that it says the social work profession’s main purpose is to raise their clients who are vulnerable, oppressed and/or living in poverty (CASW, 2005, pg.7). Taking this into account