STR - Support Time Recovery - Activity 3.4 - Confidentiality

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STR / Support Time Recovery Training course

VRQ Level 2 Certificate in Mental Health

Answer to Question 1

1. Keep all computer records password protected, so that unauthorised staff, patients and members of the public cannot access patient records. Also make sure that the information that is being stored is in compliance with the Data Protection Act.

2. All written and printed records should be kept in locked cupboards when not in use and never left laying around where unauthorised people could read them.

3. All conversations that contain confidential information about service users must be carried out in private or at least do not use identifying information i.e.

"That patient you told me you were concerned about is acting a little strange"

Rather than

"You were right about Dean Thorpe, he is now sitting in the garden naked"

Answer to Question 2

Its always important to protect the privacy of the patients as much as you possibly can. Just because a group of people are in the same mental health unit or group, does not mean they all have the same problem. Due to the discrimination that people that have had mental health problems face a lot of people to not go round boasting about those problems. Information should only ever be given out on a need to know basis, if they don't need to know, do not tell them! The same with reports, computer records etc. Some people develop mental health problems due to problems in their past i.e. been sexually abused, attacked or raped, that information should never be where any unauthorised people could access it under any circumstances.

Answer to Question 3

The main time when you would break confidentiality would be when the safety of the patient or somebody else is at serious risk, so if a patient said "don't tell anybody, but I am going to jump off the roof tonight" or "between you and me I sneaked a big knife out the kitchen today and I am going to make sure that Dean does not hassle me anymore", then you would have no choice but to break the confidentiality and tell somebody.

Answer to Question 4

In most cases I would say that I was unable to talk to them at that time and ask them to leave their contact details so I could get back to them later, not even confirming I knew the service user in question. I would then go and check with the service user if they mind if I talk to the person. Some people may give out information to close family only, but over the phone its virtually impossible to check their identity. I bet if Robbie Williams was in the Woodlands Mental Health unit they would get phone calls from his "mum", "dad", "brothers", "sisters" etc. asking about how he was and I bet 99% of them would actually be members of the press. If it was somebody you knew and you knew 100% definitely that the service user was OK about it then I would give out the information i.e. if Mrs Thorpe phoned up to check on how Mr Thorpe was doing then as long as I knew it was OK I would give out the information. The most important rule is that if you are not completely sure if you should give the information out then do not give it out until you have confirmed if it is ok or not. In almost all cases its better to give out too little information, than too much.

Next: STR Activity 3.5 - Reflective account
Previous: STR Activity 3.3 - Records

Please note: The contents of the Level 2 Certificate in Mental Health Students workbook are copyrighted, so I have not included any of the questions, purely my answers which are only copyrighted to me! If you have access to the workbook it will make a lot more sense to you. Please do NOT copy my answers and use them as your own, I have just put them here to give you ideas for any parts you may be stuck on.