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Day to day maintenance of confidentiality: practices and beliefs of trainee and qualified clinical psychologists in the UK
Author(s) -
Gardner Damian,
Marzillier John
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
clinical psychology and psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.315
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0879
pISSN - 1063-3995
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0879(199603)3:1<35::aid-cpp63>3.0.co;2-s
Subject(s) - confidentiality , psychology , medical education , applied psychology , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , medicine , computer science , computer security
Day to day maintenance of confidentiality by clinical psychologists is one of several areas of ethical practice that has been little researched in the UK. This study describes results from a survey of clinical psychologists working in the adult mental health speciality and a comparison group of trainee psychologists. Respondents rated the frequency with which they practised 11 behaviours relating to unintentional disclosure of information, discussion of cases and securing files. They also rated the ethical acceptability of the same 11 behaviours. Qualitative data on the constraints on maintaining confidentiality were also collected. Results demonstrated that absolute confidentiality was not the norm and that clinicians' practices fell short of their beliefs about ethical acceptability. The results and their implications are discussed along with suggestions for further research.