2.1.3 Consequences of Confidentiality Breaches
Confidentiality breaches are very serious and damaging. They can create dangerous situations for you as an advocate as well as for the survivor.
If a confidentiality breach happens, both survivors and service providers may lose trust in you, and, if you are volunteering as part of the organization, the reputation of your organization may suffer.
Confidentiality breaches can expose the survivor to risk of further violence and may even risk their life.
When confidentiality breaches happen, the risk of retaliation by a perpetrator increases. If information about them becomes public without their consent, the survivor’s reputation can be damaged, which may even threaten their life.
For these reasons, confidentiality is critical to respecting the survivor’s privacy and to helping ensure their safety and the safety of service providers.
It’s essential to discuss confidentiality at the beginning of your interaction with the survivor.
You will need to explain:
Your role as an advocate;
The survivor’s right to privacy;
Confidentiality as it applies to your role as an advocate;
How the survivor’s information may be disclosed;
Privilege, as it applies to the survivor and the service providers they will encounter (for example, physicians are bound by privilege but you, as an advocate, may not be)—for this reason, it’s essential to understand privilege in your country’s context—and
Any mandated reporting laws that exist in your country—again, it’s essential to understand and disclose these in the beginning of your role as an advocate.