Roberts also states that "their confidence to make such confessions comes from the covenant of trust to which we mental health practitioners swear". The physician's duty to maintain confidentiality means that a physician may not disclose any medical information revealed by a patient or discovered by a physician in connection with treatment of a patient (American Medical Association). The purpose of this is to allow the patient to feel free to make a "full and frank" disclosure of information to the physician with the knowledge the he/she will protect the confidential nature of the information given by the client. (AMA). The full disclosure of information by the client allows the therapist to make proper decisions and appropriate treatment for the patient. .
For hundreds of years the Oath of Hippocrates has served as the aspired standard for confidentiality: Whatever, in connection with my professional service, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret (Roberts). This has allowed patients to abandon their usual hesitancy to confess their experiences, concerns, behaviors, ailments, thoughts and fantasies to their health care practitioner.
According to Roberts, there are three ways in which confidentiality is critical to effective psychotherapy: (1) it enables individuals to obtain help in dealing with problems or feelings they may consider too shameful, troubling, or socially embarrassing to share with family or friends; (2) it is critical to building the patient's trust in the therapist and thereby fosters the "therapeutic alliance"; (3) it is a critical prerequisite to full disclosure.
Confidentiality 4.
Legal Issues.
In 1974, the landmark Tarasoff case struck a tremendous blow to the breaching of patient confidentiality. The California court system ruled that confidentiality for patients is not a certainty and must yield to the greater welfare of the community.