Whatever Happened to Clinical Privacy‪?‬

Abstract Privacy is a fundamental element of psychotherapy. Many clients avoid therapy because of fears that superiors will learn of their treatment. Yet the walls of privacy have come tumbling down in the last few years. Therapists are largely unaware of the confidentiality leaks. Additionally, HIPAA has largely undone clinical privacy by legally requiring disclosure of much intimate data in clinical treatment. The gravitation to an electronic medical record promises much greater speed and efficiency in using client medical information in critical situations. However, it is a direction that also contains great confidentiality compromises for the client as the world has gone global in distributing confidential information. Unfortunately, mental health clinicians are largely ignorant of the full ramifications of these new initiatives. The HIPAA privacy rules suggested that the bar would be raised for clinical privacy, but, in fact, the standards were significantly lowered.