Code Of Ethics In Girl Interrupted Movie

My Cinematic Social Worker Girl Interrupted is a film that was produced in 1999 by James Mangold. This movie takes place in a mental hospital in the late 1960’s. It is based on an autobiography of an eighteen year old girl named Susanna. At the beginning of the movie Susanna is discussing with her therapist how she took a bottle of aspirin with a shot of vodka, which her therapists believes was an attempt to kill herself, but she denies this as her motive. She is then sent to a psychiatric hospital where she is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. I felt the social worker that visited Susanna in her home, really lacked the understanding we have today in the use of the code of ethics, which I believe was due to the time period …show more content…
First, starting with facts, we are aware that Susanna’s therapist told her parents about her diagnoses of borderline personality disorder without her consent. My response to this is the therapist should not have disclosed confidential information and should have provided consultation with Susanna first. This lacked complete disrespect for the privacy of the client. Looking at the code of ethics under 1.07 we know that a Social Worker should not disclose confidential information this includes everyone, including clients parents because she is no longer a minor due to her age. Looking at Policies, I am unaware of what the policy for the therapist might have been during the time period, but we know this would not be acceptable by today’s social work standards. The State of Utah has strict laws about social work confidentiality and mental health, “Records and information relating to the mental health of an individual are confidential and privileged to the patient, and may only be disclosed in accordance with the statue. It also states that a patient may consent to disclosure of information relating to their mental health to a parent or legal guardian” (Utah Code Ann. 58-60-114,2015). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act further protects client’s confidentiality within all states. It states that HIPAA “protects all identifiable health information held or transmitted by a covered entity, whether electronic, paper or oral.” Social Workers must be in compliance with these laws (HIPAA, 1996). If I were in this situation and I believed that it was important to call a clients parents to discuss a diagnosis, I would get proper permission to do so with my client first and allow the client to invite their parents to come to therapy if they felt it would be a benefit