ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of ethical and legal requirements that practitioners need to know in order to develop their own policies and procedures for safeguarding their patients’ privacy and confidential information. Confidentiality is the cornerstone of effective psychotherapy. Patients must have implicit trust that therapists will respect and protect exquisitely intimate information, as the US Supreme Court noted in its decision to legally protect privilege of client information in federal courts. Practitioners used to rely only upon their professional associations’ codes of ethics and a patchwork of state privacy laws for protection and guidance regarding confidentiality. While mental health professionals are obligated to stringently protect patient confidentiality and privacy, there are exceptions to the patients’ rights. Technological developments have also posed a threat to patient confidentiality. Previously, psychotherapists felt safer because communication was slower and usually required personal contact. Threats to patients’ confidentiality arise not only from external circumstances but also from simple human negligence.
