Confidentiality as an Ethical Dilemma

Running Head: CONFIDENTIALITY AND ITS IMPORTANCE
Confidentiality as an Ethical Dilemma
Student Name
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CONFIDENTIALITY AND ITS IMPORTANCE
Abstract
Counselors during training sessions are bound by ethics to observe confidentiality during the
therapeutic process. This is essential because a lot of personal information is divulged
during the process. To put this into perspective, it is essential to consider a case study
presented by James Peterson who is a fighter but has been diagnosed with chronic post-
traumatic stress disorder. His current state has prevented him from having a happy life and
as such, its negative impacts have spilled over into his health condition, family and social
life. He took a positive step to become part of the community trauma processing group
which consists of other firefighters and police officer suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder. During one of the sessions, he opens up and narrates some of the experiences he
goes through on a daily basis especially when performing his duty of saving lives and
property. Therefore, the American Counselling Association’s Code of Ethics 2014 has been
used as well as moral principles, Corey’s eight-step approach, Statutes in Samoa and the Fire
and Emergency Service Act 2007. These are in relation to how one thinks through ethical
dilemma incidences. In the last part, this paper includes a section of self-reflection when
handling situations that create a dilemma.

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CONFIDENTIALITY AND ITS IMPORTANCE
Confidentiality as an Ethical Dilemma
Ethical standards dictate that counselors have the duty of maintaining the
confidentiality of clients, informing them limits to confidentiality, duty to protect
communications that are privileged and also to avoid any kind of harm towards the clients
or groups that have presented themselves for counseling, (ACA, 2014). It is also essential
for counselors to inform the clients about confidentiality, the therapeutic process, limits to
observe in relation to confidentiality and also to provide a tangible report which bases on
the existing laws and standards of practice used by the mental health professionals. Also, it
is the counselor’s duty to provide answers to any questions from the clients as well as
addressing concerns being raised during the counseling sessions. Informed consent is one of
the most important element when handling clients. This helps in building confidentiality
because both parties have consented to take part in the counseling session. As such, trust is
built hence a positive state of the therapeutic alliance between a client and a counselor,
(Corey, Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2015).
During the therapy process, clients reveal a lot of information hence the need for
confidentiality as stated before. In most cases, the issues raised by the clients may clash
with ethical virtues against statutory requirements and mandatory ethics which also may be
against the professional code of ethics. In such situations where values, ethics as well as
laws clash, the mental health practitioner is supposed to handle this with the help of
methodologies used in solving ethical problems. These methodologies must put into
consideration client care and ethical dilemmas in question, (Executive Order, 1955, page no.
11). It becomes harder to handling privacy and confidentiality in group sessions and despite

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CONFIDENTIALITY AND ITS IMPORTANCE
this, counselors still have the duty of protecting individual member’s confidentiality as well
as privacy. This also applied to the confidentiality in the entire group. However, the law does
not require group members to observe confidentiality of other members and this is also
hard to be reflected in ethical codes because these codes usually govern confidentiality
between counselors and clients only- not group members. However, there is a need to
inform group members about confidentiality. This is mainly spearheaded by the Association
for Specialists in Group Work, (Mcclanahan, 2014, 32). This is mainly directed at counselors
who are reminded that they are duty-bound to inform or educate group members about
how confidentiality is important, consequences of breaching member confidentially as well
as limits in which communications in a group setting are set. As such, these factors that also
raise the ethical dilemma herein of whether one should report or he or she should not.
The case of James Peterson
James Peterson is a 48-year-old African American who constantly has instances of
flashbacks of his firefighting missions, rescuing accident victims or handling corpses on many
occasions. He has been part of firefighting teams sent to aid in the 2001 September 11
attacks, has been active in rescuing house fire victims as well as helping victims in road
accidents. As such he has had a lot of exposure to trauma for many years. After being
evaluated, he was diagnosed to have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder which was based on
the DSM-5 criteria. This prompted his admission to a treatment facility where he was
enrolled in a residential treatment program for firefighters- for a period of 6 weeks. He is
also a member of a group of seven firefighters receiving the same treatment. In one of the