Ethical Standards Of Confidentiality

Within the therapeutic relationship, there is generally an expectation that discussions between the patient and the practitioner are protected by the inherent agreement of confidentiality. The duty of confidentiality describes the ethical responsibility of psychologists to maintain the privacy of intimate conversations unless directed otherwise with the permission of the client. Releasing confidential information without this permission, however, constitutes a breach of confidentiality and may even be perceived as malpractice in some states. Nevertheless, clients need to be aware that are some limitations to the standards of confidentiality, although the American Psychological Association (APA) does provide psychologists and other mental health professionals guidelines for protecting confidentiality through ethical practices.

Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct

The Ethics Code, however, is more specific to identifying the rules and regulations as it relates to scientific, educational, or even professional roles of practitioners that are working in the field and, therefore, are designed to establish which activities are (or are not) compliant with the Standards and Principles of psychologists in order to establish the basis for the application of sanctions in the wake of an ethical violation (APA, 2010). Nevertheless, the guidelines for patient privacy and confidentiality can be found in the fourth section of the Ethics Code, which includes information for maintaining confidentiality, identifying the limits of confidentiality, minimizing intrusions of privacy, the purpose of disclosing private information, and reasons for using confidential information (APA,