Confidentiality and Mandatory Reporting

CONFIDENTIALITY AND MANDATED REPORTING

Chances are someone has asked you to keep a secret at some point in your life. But what if that secret involved someone harming themselves or another person who was in immediate danger? Would you feel compelled to tell?

Thankfully, this question of when to divulge information to outside parties is not a mystery in social work. There are strict laws that govern when a social worker must report to authorities a client’s disclosures. At the beginning of treatment, the social worker should inform the client of these limits to confidentiality in order to avoid any confusion or feelings of distrust.

In this Discussion, you examine the requirements of mandated reporting and share your views about confidentiality.

To prepare:

Review the Learning Resources on social work ethics, including confidentiality and mandated reporting.

Think about a time when an assumption of confidentiality in your own life was violated by someone. For example, perhaps someone shared private information or a secret of yours with another person.

Consider your perspective on mandated reporting in light of that experience.

Main Assignment

Describe at least two circumstances when social workers are legally mandated to break client confidentiality and disclose selected privileged information without the client’s consent.

Identify a time when someone broke your confidence (e.g., shared a secret of yours), and explain how you felt in response.

Describe how your experiences related to confidentiality have shaped your view on mandated reporting.

Reflection:

Identify and discuss two other ethical standard or principle from the NASW Code of Ethics that is upheld or violated in the specific circumstances.

Cournoyer, B. R. (2017). The social work skills workbook (8th ed.). Cengage.

oChapter 5, “Social Work Values and Ethical Decision Making” (pp. 157–204)

oChapter 7, “Preparing” (pp. 249–272)
Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2019). Mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglectLinks to an external site.. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau. https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/systemwide/law…
National Association of Social Workers. (2021).?Code of ethics of the National Association of Social WorkersLinks to an external site.. https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English