I am in the Human Services program and as a student in this program, ethics and confidentiality are a very important part of my field of study. We are taught that at the beginning of any counseling session, we are to explain to our clients that, “anything we talk about in our sessions are confidential and will stay between the counselor and the client unless, the client expresses intent to harm themselves or others, including a child, the elderly, any vulnerable person, or if it is deemed as illegal by their state laws”. The legality of ethics can be a controversial subject as it was in the case stated in the book by Comer (2014), Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California (1976), one of the most important cases to affect client-therapist
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The problem was that they questioned him and then let him go. He then killer her days later. The victim’s parents felt that the therapist should have gone steps further and notified them as well as their daughter who ended up ultimately being murdered by her former boyfriend. I believe that in any situation where a therapist has stated the confidentiality statement clearly to their client and the client divulges information of this type, that therapist has a duty to inform their supervisor first and then they should both take this information to the authorities. It should then be up to the authorities to take over from there. As professionals in this field, we are aware of our duty to protect, which according to Comer (2015), is a responsibility to break confidentiality, even without the client’s consent, when it is necessary “to protect the client or others from harm” (p. 251). Many therapists are afraid of this “duty to protect” because they fear for the lack of protection from law suits in different outcomes. At the end of the day, I would break confidentiality too if it meant saving someone’s life and I would worry about the laws and my job, afterwards. In every account, human life should always come first and
The problem was that they questioned him and then let him go. He then killer her days later. The victim’s parents felt that the therapist should have gone steps further and notified them as well as their daughter who ended up ultimately being murdered by her former boyfriend. I believe that in any situation where a therapist has stated the confidentiality statement clearly to their client and the client divulges information of this type, that therapist has a duty to inform their supervisor first and then they should both take this information to the authorities. It should then be up to the authorities to take over from there. As professionals in this field, we are aware of our duty to protect, which according to Comer (2015), is a responsibility to break confidentiality, even without the client’s consent, when it is necessary “to protect the client or others from harm” (p. 251). Many therapists are afraid of this “duty to protect” because they fear for the lack of protection from law suits in different outcomes. At the end of the day, I would break confidentiality too if it meant saving someone’s life and I would worry about the laws and my job, afterwards. In every account, human life should always come first and