client confidentialty.
Client Consent:
Client must give consent for information to be shared amongst biomedical services and confidentiality is maintained as far as possible. In order to protect our clients, counselling records are stored under numbers rather than names, to avoid any administration staff from accidentally reading private material.
However, when a person or persons are believed to be at risk of serious harm, confidentiality must be waived under a duty of care (Legal Mandatory Reporting). This means that the appropriate authorities, and/ or family members will be notified by the counsellor, in accordance with Qld law.
A Confidentiality Breach is acceptable under the following circumstances:
1. If a client is at risk of serious self-harm (considering suicide), or of harming others
2. The probable or past harming of another person
3. A client has divulged details of a recent criminal offence, or planning an illegal act
4. Abuse of children or elders is a mandatory reporting offence
5. Counsellor is subpoenaed to disclose minimal notes to solicitors in relation to a client's court case
6. For the psychiatric diagnosis of an illness with client consent, or via involuntary induction into hospital
If confidentiality cannot be maintained, the counsellor will take all possible steps to first ask for client consent for disclosure.
Client Notes After Termination:
No clients notes will be shared or divulged unless a court order requires it and only specific information relevant to a case will be allowed.
Supervision & Confidentiality
All practising counsellors in Australia are required to attend supervision. This means talking to an experienced counsellor about our work to ensure that we are clear on our motivations, our own processes, and that both the clients and ourselves are kept safe. The supervisor is bound by the same ethics and confidentiality as the counsellor. Clients will be mentioned in such a way that they can’t be identified.
Client Rights
Clients have the right not to divulge anything that may cause them enormous emotional grief and to be treated ethically in accordance with Australian law and the Ethical Counselling Codes of PACFA.
Client must give consent for information to be shared amongst biomedical services and confidentiality is maintained as far as possible. In order to protect our clients, counselling records are stored under numbers rather than names, to avoid any administration staff from accidentally reading private material.
However, when a person or persons are believed to be at risk of serious harm, confidentiality must be waived under a duty of care (Legal Mandatory Reporting). This means that the appropriate authorities, and/ or family members will be notified by the counsellor, in accordance with Qld law.
A Confidentiality Breach is acceptable under the following circumstances:
1. If a client is at risk of serious self-harm (considering suicide), or of harming others
2. The probable or past harming of another person
3. A client has divulged details of a recent criminal offence, or planning an illegal act
4. Abuse of children or elders is a mandatory reporting offence
5. Counsellor is subpoenaed to disclose minimal notes to solicitors in relation to a client's court case
6. For the psychiatric diagnosis of an illness with client consent, or via involuntary induction into hospital
If confidentiality cannot be maintained, the counsellor will take all possible steps to first ask for client consent for disclosure.
Client Notes After Termination:
No clients notes will be shared or divulged unless a court order requires it and only specific information relevant to a case will be allowed.
Supervision & Confidentiality
All practising counsellors in Australia are required to attend supervision. This means talking to an experienced counsellor about our work to ensure that we are clear on our motivations, our own processes, and that both the clients and ourselves are kept safe. The supervisor is bound by the same ethics and confidentiality as the counsellor. Clients will be mentioned in such a way that they can’t be identified.
Client Rights
Clients have the right not to divulge anything that may cause them enormous emotional grief and to be treated ethically in accordance with Australian law and the Ethical Counselling Codes of PACFA.
| pacfa-code-of-ethics-2017.pdf |
Copyright 2019 Ghita Andersen. Photo courtesy of Freepik
