Ensuring clients’ privacy and confidentiality is key to social workers’ practice. It is part of the ethical principle of integrity, according to which social workers should be trustworthy, honest, and responsible and behave consistently with the ethical standards of their profession (NASW, 2017). Social workers’ Code of Ethics obliges professionals to respect clients’ right to privacy by not eliciting more information about clients than necessary for professional purposes and not disclosing clients’ sensitive information to a third party (NASW, 2017). The client’s data can be disclosed only if informed consent is obtained, and a social worker should make sure that the client has understood the meaning and consequences of informed consent in its entirety (NASW, 2017). In the digital age, ensuring confidentiality has become even more important and challenging. Clients may ask social workers to contact them via text messages or social media, which may lead to confidentiality breaches and blur professional boundaries. Posting the client’s sensitive information on social media can lead to the disclosure of the client’s identity even if the name is not stated. In addition, information posted on the Internet can be uncontrollably shared.
The principle of confidentiality has a significant impact on the therapeutic relationship. Knowing that their information will be kept confidential helps clients build trustworthy relationships with social workers and share their problems, thus providing social workers with the necessary information for developing the right counseling program. Confidentiality breaches, on the contrary, undermine the therapeutic relationship by raising clients’ distrust in social workers’ respect for their privacy and damaging the reputation of a particular social worker or the entire profession (Halabuza, 2014). Such a negative impact on the therapeutic relationship may occur, for example, if social workers search information about their clients in social networks without obtaining their informed consent, thus making clients “feel overexposed and violated” (Reamer, 2017, p. 155). Confidentiality violations also often happen in rural areas because it is difficult to keep information secret in small communities where all people know each other (Daley & Hickman, 2011). In rural areas, as well as in the case of social media searches, obtaining informed consent is crucial for ensuring confidentiality. In other cases, for example, in electronic communication and storing, social workers should take measures to protect clients’ information.
Although social workers should keep clients’ data confidential, there are situations when they are obliged to disclose information by law. This happens when “disclosure is necessary to prevent serious, foreseeable, and imminent harm to a client or others” (NASW, 2017, sec. 1.07, para. 3). For example, a common case of mandatory reporting is when social workers have reasonable grounds to suspect child abuse or neglect. However, even in the case of mandatory reporting, social workers should respect clients’ confidentiality and disclose only the most relevant information and the least possible amount of personal data necessary to achieve the purpose (NASW, 2017). In addition, while working with clients, social workers should warn them about the possibility of such disclosure and the circumstances under which it can be used (NASW, 2017). There is at least one ethical dilemma related to mandatory reporting. Sometimes, social workers search clients’ social network profiles without consent and find disturbing information. In this case, their obligation to report is ambiguous because they obtained this information in an unethical way, inconsistent with their professional standards (Halabuza, 2014). Therefore, social workers should avoid unethical practices in their work.
Mandated reporting is an important mechanism that empowers vulnerable populations. These populations at risk include children, older adults, and mentally and physically disabled individuals, that is, people who lack the capability of protecting and caring about themselves. Mandated reporting draws the attention of law enforcement, social, and healthcare services to such vulnerable populations and contributes to the improvement of their situation, thus enhancing their well-being.
References
Daley, M., R., & Hickman, S. (2011). Dual relations and beyond: Understanding and addressing ethical challenges for rural social work. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 8(1). Web.
Halabuza, D. (2014). Guidelines for social workers’ use of social networking websites. Journal of Social Work Values & Ethics, 11(1), 23-32.
National Association of Social Workers [NASW]. (2017). Code of ethics. Web.
Reamer, F. G. (2017). Evolving ethical standards in the digital age. Australian Social Work, 70(2), 148-159.