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Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a crucial component of all social service organizations. Confidentiality is the ethical principle and legal right that a professional will hold all information relating to a client in confidence, unless the client gives consent permitting disclosure or unless disclosure is required by the law.

What You Should Know

When dealing with issues of violence against women, confidentiality is extremely important to:

• forming and maintaining the relationship between the victim/survivor and a service provider,
• protecting a victim/survivor’s rights,
• ensuring the safety of a victim/survivor,
• empowering a victim/survivor to take steps towards safety.

Advocates who work in victim services are particularly concerned about the privacy, safety and confidentiality of their clients. Many victims are at the greatest risk for being sexually assaulted, seriously injured or killed while getting help or terminating a relationship with an abuser, perpetrator, or stalker. ¹ Based on decades of experience with victims/survivors and their children, confidentiality has become a cornerstone of the domestic violence, sexual assault and anti-stalking movements.

Maintaining Confidentiality

Social service organizations, particularly those that serve victims of violence, often have strict confidentiality policies in place to protect the individuals with whom they work. Organizations that don’t typically work with victims/ survivors of violence may not be used to such stringent policies. Some staff workers may be used to sharing information about their clients with other organizations to advocate on their behalf or to help them get their needs met. In order to best protect someone who is experiencing violence, however, it is best to:

• be cautious when providing any information about an individual;
• not provide any information about or knowledge of a person with whom you work, especially to outside individuals, without her/ his specific and informed consent;
• inform the people with whom you work of your organization’s confidentiality policies and any mandatory reporting laws that are relevant;
• secure any information about individuals that your organization keeps on hand.

Getting Consent

In order to gain consent from an individual that you are working with, it will be important to fully explain and discuss the implications of reporting abuse. For example, there will be different implications for a woman who is attempting to leave her abuser and go into a shelter than for a woman who is deciding to report stalking or sexual assault to the police. If you are working with an individual who wishes to take action in some way, you should:

• be sure you have given her the information about any risks and responsibilities that go along with a decision before breaking confidentiality and working with outside organizations; and
• always be aware of and follow your organization’s specific protocol regarding confidentiality and the laws around mandatory reporting.

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