Privileged Communication Research Articles

Privileged Communications for Social Workers

Psychotherapy clients expect and deserve confidentiality. However, privileged communication laws vary by state and profession. The authors discuss and recommend a functional privilege that would apply to all psychotherapy clients of all recognized mental health professions.

Canon 6 - Confidentiality—Confidentiality: The Ethical Baby in the Legal Bathwater

The ethical principle of confidentiality is often overshadowed by narrow discussions of the legal concept of privileged communication. Even professional ethics codes offer only minimal guidance. Policies and practices regarding confidentiality need to be based on a process of ethical reasoning and reflection that includes the philosophical principles of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and fidelity.

Privileged Communication in Selected Helping Professions: A Comparison Among Statutes

The authors present findings of an examination and assessment of existing privileged communication statutes and rules of evidence in the 50 states and the District of Columbia for clients of selected helping professionals: psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists or counselors, school counselors, and licensed professional counselors. Data are reported regarding the extent to which each of these professional groups has succeeded in establishing that their clients' communications with them are entitled to legal privilege, the scope of privilege extended, and specified exceptions to privilege. The report concludes with implications and suggested guidelines for practice.

Divided loyalties in adolescent psychiatry: late adolescence.

The paper discusses problems that arise in psychotherapy with late adolescent patients when other individuals somehow become indirectly involved in ways that require or suggest some exchange of information. These individuals may be parents or administrative and teaching personnel within an institution. The differences between confidentiality, privileged communication, and privacy are discussed, and specific difficulties discussed in the therapy of late adolescents who are in the process of psychologically (as well as legally) attempting to achieve the independent status of a young adult.

Privileged Communication for Pastoral Counseling: Fact or Fancy?

Notes that privileged communication laws protect the confidential statements of parishioners to their clergy from intrusion by the courts but that the legal status of counseling performed by ministers is less clear or uniform. Argues that common and statutory laws which protect religious confessions should not be construed to protect communications made by parishioners during counseling unless the clergy have demonstrated minimal standards of competency in counseling. Critical responses to the article are provided by a professor of pastoral theology and a law professor.

Privileged Communication in Counseling in Texas

The authors explore the concept of privileged communication in counseling as it exists in Texas. They discuss aspects of this ethical obligation: a definition, existing statutes, and implications f...

Psychologists and privileged communication.

Psychologists and privileged communication.

Psychotherapy and privileged communications in child custody cases.

This article reviews privileged communication laws for psychotherapists as these laws apply to child custody cases. Although many states have privileged communication laws for mental health clients, these laws contain several exceptions and waivers. In addition, judges are likely to interpret privileged communication laws strictly because they place a high value on the weljare of children and because the laws run counter to the legal tradition ojadmitting evidence into court. Psychotherapists are alerted to the limits and ambiguities of privileged communication laws. Psychotherapists frequently work with clients who are experiencing marital or family discord. In many instances such families proceed to divorce. The custody of children then may become a major aspect of the turmoil. Psychotherapists are sometimes called on to provide expert testimony in these custody disputes. Privileged communication laws, however, may protect the privacy of the parents' psychiatric records. When these laws apply, clients may prohibit their psychotherapists from testifying about them in court. Consequently, the court's desire for evidence in a custody dispute may appear to be in conflict with the privacy of psychotherapy. This article discusses the statutory and case law concerning privileged communication as it applies to child custody.

Developments in the Law: Privileged Communications

Developments in the Law: Privileged Communications

Psychotherapy and privileged communications in child custody cases.

Psychotherapy and privileged communications in child custody cases.

Legal and ethical issues in informed consent to psychotherapy

Abstract Ethical and legal issues concerning the application of informed consent in psychotherapy are reviewed in relation to: 1) controversies in defining an informed consent; 2) ethical and legal responsibilities of a psychotherapist in obtaining an informed consent; 3) potential ethical and legal liabilities for not implementing the informed consent doctrine; and 4) principles of confidentiality and privileged communication as they apply to this doctrine. Suggestions are made on how to implement an informed consent legally and ethically in psychotherapy.

Confidentiality and the Music Therapist: Ethical Considerations

Confidentiality is an area of professional ethics of concern to all health care professionals. Definitions as well as ethical and legal implications of confidentiality and privileged communication are presented. Potential misuses of confidential information are discussed in light of current trends and court decisions. Recom­ mendations for music therapists, particularly those in private practice, are given. Confidentiality is an area of professional ethics that is considered important to music therapists. In a recent survey (Maranto, 1981), 50 music therapists were asked to choose correct responses to 56 ethical problem situations, and to rate the importance of each situation on ascale from 1 (Unimportant) to 7 (Extremely Important). The ethical situations concerning confidentiality received the highest ratings of importance in the survey. The issue of confidentiality appears to be important among other health care professionals as well. In 1981,Maranto conducted an item analysis of 36 codes of ethics in the health care professions, including a frequency count of the various statements relating to different ethical issues.Results showed that statements regarding confidentiality were included in 86% of the codes surveyed. Furthermore, statements on confidentiality were included in these codes more often than any other ethical issue. The codesof ethics of both the National Association for Music Therapy, Inc. and the American Association for Music Therapy contain statements concerning confidentiality. The Code of Ethics (1979) of the National Association for Music Therapy, Inc., states: Any confidential information obtained from or about the individual shall not be revealed without the client’s or specified guardian’s permis­ sion, including casematerial that has not beenadequately disguised for publication, teaching, or other professional use. Adequate security shall

Medical Professional Privilege in Commonwealth Law

THE law of privilege involves resolution of a conflict of policy. No doubt exclusionary rules applicable to privileged communications are often an impediment to ascertainment of truth; but so are all rules which fetter giving of evidence.' The law of privilege is founded on premise that, in some contexts, this price is well worth paying to safeguard confidences in setting of basic fiduciary relationships. The underlying principle is the significance to human freedom of well based privileges of confidential communication.2 The distinction between confidentiality and privilege is an essential feature of law. An English court has declared: Confidentiality of itself has never been recognised as a ground for a valid claim of immunity.3 This approach was adopted by Supreme Court of New Zealand in its comment: A mere pledge of secrecy, however solemnly given, will not hold good when in course of litigation transactions which were subject of that pledge become relevant as a part of case of some person not a party to pledge of secrecy.4 The treatment of confidentiality as a mere element of privilege is underscored by observation of House of Lords that fact that relevant information was communicated in confidence does not neces-

Necessary Lies, Hidden Truths: Cuba in the 1960 Campaign

Historians have long known that Richard M. Nixon could not tell the truth about Cuba during the 1960 presidential campaign. Confronted with John F. Kennedy's call for direct American aid to the anti-Castro rebels, Nixon claimed to be trapped by President Dwight D. Eisenhower's secret policy which included doing exactly what the Democratic challenger had recommended. “There was only one thing I could do,” the defeated former vice-president wrote in his 1962 memoir, Six Crises. “The covert operation had to be protected at all costs.” Accordingly, in a televised debate seen by sixty million Americans on 21 October 1960, Nixon vigorously assailed the idea of an American effort to topple Fidel Castro.1 Apart from Nixon's confession that he was required to lie, Six Crises supplies only a peek at Cuba's role in the 1960 campaign. By focusing on the October episode and speculating about Kennedy's knowledge of classified plans, Nixon rivets our attention on a passing moment and inflates a secondary issue. Although Kennedy was never ignorant of the Eisenhower administration's plans on Cuba and learned more as the campaign progressed, he was not kept fully informed, as Nixon alleges, and he could not have learned of the plan for a large-scale attack until after the election since it was not a governing assumption of policy until November. Thus since the partisan confrontation over Cuba preceded Kennedy's specific knowledge of an exile invasion, his political position was not determined by a privileged communication or prior tip.

Privileged Communications and the Counselor

Privileged communication laws may exempt counselors from testifying in judicial hearings. Many counselors are not covered, however, and many exceptions to the laws exist.

Counselor Licensure, Confidentiality, and Privileged Communication: Implications for Private Practice in Rehabilitation

This article addresses the importance of confidentiality and privileged communication in the counselor-client relationship. State licensure statutes are reviewed in regard to their confidentiality and/or privileged. communication provisions. The implications of legal confidentiality and privileged communication on the private-for-profit practice of rehabilitation are discussed.

The Limits of Confidentiality

In an article adapted from her book Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation, Bok discusses the concept of confidentiality and its relation to secrecy, privacy, and privileged communication. Three premises--autonomy over personal information, respect for shared secrets in human relationships, and obligations incurred in promises--justify confidentiality; a fourth--the benefits of confidentiality to those in need of advice, sanctuary, and aid--supports professional secrecy. The author presents examples of conflicts over confidentiality faced by health and other professionals in areas of competing legitimate claims.

Privileged Communication: Does it Really Exist?

The question of whether privileged communication really exists in the social worker-client relationship is in doubt. Even in the few states that have privileged communication laws, courts often rely on other considerations to find that the privilege will not, in fact, be applied in the legal matter pending.

Privileged communication and the press: The citizen's right to know versus the law's right to confidential news source evidence : by Maurice Van Gerpen. Greenwood Press, Inc. (51 Riverside Avenue, Westport, Connecticut 06880), 1979 239 pp., hardcover—$22.95

Privileged communication and the press: The citizen's right to know versus the law's right to confidential news source evidence : by Maurice Van Gerpen. Greenwood Press, Inc. (51 Riverside Avenue, Westport, Connecticut 06880), 1979 239 pp., hardcover—$22.95

"Knowledge of and compliance with privileged communication and child-abuse reporting laws": Comment.

"Knowledge of and compliance with privileged communication and child-abuse reporting laws": Comment.