Protecting confidentiality rights: The need for an ethical practice model.

Abstract

All psychologists must uphold the same ethical standards about confidentiality even though each state imposes different legal limits on their ability to protect clients' confidences. The resulting ethical-legal confusion is exacerbated by legally based confidentiality training that treats legal exceptions as if they were the rule and fosters the impression that attorneys are now the only real experts about this aspect of practice. This article provides an ethics-based confidentiality practice model that clarifies the ethical rule and puts its legal exceptions into ethical perspective. Like the Confidentiality section of the American Psychological Association's (2002) Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, this outline would apply to all psychologists regardless of state laws, but the details of its implementation would vary according to role and setting. It can be used as a universal training outline, a consultation and supervision tool, a guide to professional practice, and a basis for clearer ongoing conversation about the ethics of "conditional confidentiality." Psychologists can use this practice model to regain their status as experts about the confidentiality ethics of their own profession.

Feasibility of Intensive Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (I-PCIT): Results from an Open Trial

“…First, with no control group, threats to validity, such as regression to the mean, cannot be completely ruled out so caution should be used in interpreting our results. Although randomized control trials (RCTs) have increasingly become the “gold standard” of intervention research, especially when establishing the efficacy and effectiveness of a particular treatment (e.g., Chambless & Ollendick, 2001), there has been increasing recognition of the benefits of conducting well-controlled single-case experimental studies or smaller open trials that contain a within-design baseline (such as the one in the present study) when assessing the practicality and utility of clinical interventions (Morgan & Morgan, 2001), or when determining the processes and patterns associated with change (Borckardt et al, 2008; Westen & Bradley, 2005). .…”

Contribution of Awareness and Understanding in Legal and Ethics towards the Practice of Confidentiality amongst Counselors

“…10, No. 16; that their privacy are well protected by the counselors (Samuel, 1996;Fisher, 2008;Fisher, 2013). However, the issue of student counselors often shares their problems with others or with colleagues is a violation of the confidentiality of the counseling code of ethics which has occurred to date (Sapora, 2010).…”

An Updated Statement for the Clinical Case Applications Section: Suggestions for Clinical and Empirical Case Reports

“…Lately, however, the case study seems to be enjoying resurgence. Published studies using single-case methodology are cropping up across nearly all subspecialties of psychology in the recent literature (Hammond & Gast, 2010; Shadish & Sullivan, 2011; Smith, 2012), particularly in clinical, counseling, educational, and school psychology (e.g., Borckardt et al, 2008; Dattilio et al, 2010; Horner et al, 2005; Kratochwill, 2007; Kratochwill & Levin, 2010). This development suggests the belated recognition that research-informed practice depends on a closer dialogue between the academy and the consulting room and that case studies and illustrations have an important role to play in this process.…”

“…More recently, however, other prominent scientific psychology journals have added sections devoted to case study methodology: Psychotherapy, the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and the Journal of Pediatric Psychology are a few examples. Clearly, well-conceptualized and well-written case studies continue to hold a place in contemporary psychology, despite some continuing controversy about their utility and standing in psychological science (Borckardt et al, 2008; Dattilio, Edwards, & Fishman, 2010). …”