DAY-TO-DAY MAINTENANCE OF CONFIDENTIALITY - PRACTICES AND BELIEFS OF TRAINEE AND QUALIFIED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGISTS IN THE UK

Day to day maintenance of confidentiality by clinical psychologists is one of several areas of ethical practice that has been little researc hed in the UK. This study describes results from a survey of clinical psychologists working in the adult mental health speciality and a comp arison group of trainee psychologists. Respondents rated the frequency with which they practised 11 behaviours relating to unintentional dis closure of information, discussion of cases and securing files. They a lso rated the ethical acceptability of the same 11 behaviours. Qualita tive data on the constraints on maintaining confidentiality were also collected. Results demonstrated that absolute confidentiality was not the norm and that clinicians' practices fell short of their beliefs ab out ethical acceptability. The results and their implications are disc ussed along with suggestions for further research.