Confidentiality

• Author: Marilyn J. Samuels/Elayne M. Tanner
• Pages: 73-87

Chapter

9

Confidentiality

A

client's

right

to

confidentiality

is one of the

most important tenets

of

social

work.

The

client's

right to

have

difficult

and

sensitive information about

his

or her

life

kept confidential

is

paramount

in a

therapist-client relationship.

There cannot

be an

appropriate

and

meaningful

relationship between

the

therapist

and the

client

if the

client

is not

assured that

the

information dis-

closed will

be

kept private.

In

Jaffee

v.

Redmond,1

a

police

officer,

Mary

Redmond, killed

a man in the

line

of

duty. Carrie

Jaffee,

the

administrator

of

the

estate

of the

deceased, alleged that Redmond

had

used excessive force.

Upon

discovering that Redmond

had

received counselling

from

a

social

worker

after

the

shooting,

Jaffee

sought access

to the

notes

of the

sessions.

Jaffee

brought

an

application

for

production

of the

records

to

court.

The

court,

in

hearing

the

application,

observed that "only

if

confidentiality

was

assured

would clients

feel

free

to

disclose their innermost thoughts.

And

only

if

their innermost thoughts were disclosed would therapy

be

successful."2

This

was the first

federal case

to

recognize

the

importance

of

confidentiality

in

a

therapeutic relationship. From this

and

other cases came

the

principle

that

it is

ethically

and

professionally wrong

for a

social worker

to

disclose

to

others information supplied

in

confidence

by a

client.

Clients clearly have

a right to

expect that what they disclose

in

therapy

will

be

held

in

strict confidence.

The

social worker

has a

legal

and

moral

obligation

to

respect this confidence.

Often,

however,

the

client labours

under

the

misconception that everything told

to the

social worker

is

absolutely confidential. This

is not

true, because there

are a

number

of

cir-

cumstances

where

the

social worker

not

only can,

but

must, breach confi-

dentiality.

1.

116

S.Ct.

1923(1996).

2. V.

Lens, "Protecting

the

Confidentiality

of the

Therapeutic Relationship:

Jaffee

v

Red-

mond" (2000)

45

Social Work

273 at

274.

73