Dicussing Client/work Situations with Family and Friends

DICUSSING CLIENT/WORK SITUATIONS WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS

The offending social worker often rationalizes, "It's OK as long as I don't use names, and, besides, they don't know the people I'm talking about." The argument appears logical, so what exactly is wrong with discussing clients or work situations with these individual?

In dealing with this problem the social worker who is tempted to share information must first ask himself a basic question: "Is my friend or relative bound by the same rules of confidentiality that I am?" If the answer is "no," then that person has no moral, ethical or legal restraints to prevent him from passing the information on to a third person and perhaps doing so in a most unprofessional and highly undesirable manner. If the person whose privacy is violated should learn of the incident, the social worker, rather than the friend or relative, would be held responsible. The person to whom the friend or relative repeats that interesting story may be someone who knows the individual being discussed or recognizes him from the details provided. He may even be the consumer himself.

If others hear a social worker glibly discussing personal information about his clients or his agency, they might appear very receptive during the telling but basically be losing respect for the individual and for social workers in general as professional helping persons. If the listener should later require professional counseling he may not seek it, fearing that the counselor will discuss his personal affairs and feelings with others, as his social worker friend had done. Furthermore, once details about clients or supervisory/administrative responsibilities are shared inappropriately in a social setting, the listener will eagerly seek the next installment, thus creating a vicious circle that can be difficult to break. It is acceptable and desirable for practitioners to share feelings experienced as a result of daily activities, but here too names and specific details regarding