In what instances are you permitted to breach confidentiality?

Asked by: Eliza Durgan  |  Last update: January 14, 2026
Score: 4.3/5 (58 votes)

When to Break Confidentiality. There are a few situations that may require a therapist to break confidentiality: If the client may be an immediate danger to themself or another. If the client is endangering another who cannot protect themself, as in the case of a child, a person with a disability, or elder abuse.

In what instances can you breach confidentiality?

Situations in which confidentiality will need to be broken:

There is disclosure or evidence of physical, sexual or serious emotional abuse or neglect. Suicide is threatened or attempted. There is disclosure or evidence of serious self-harm (including drug or alcohol misuse that may be life-threatening).

What are the situations to breach confidentiality?

Breaching confidentiality is only justified in specific circumstances where there's a severe threat to the patient or others, legal mandates require disclosure or public health concerns require sharing information to prevent harm.

Which of the following situations would be a breach of confidentiality?

A breach of confidentiality occurs when information given in confidence is disclosed to a third party without consent.

When can you breach confidentiality?

Murder, manslaughter, rape, treason, kidnapping, child abuse or other cases where individuals have suffered serious harm may all warrant breaching confidentiality.

Breaching Your Duty of Confidentiality

33 related questions found

Under what circumstances can confidentiality be breached?

When to Break Confidentiality. There are a few situations that may require a therapist to break confidentiality: If the client may be an immediate danger to themself or another. If the client is endangering another who cannot protect themself, as in the case of a child, a person with a disability, or elder abuse.

What are 5 examples of confidentiality?

The following information is confidential:
  • Social Security number.
  • Name.
  • Personal financial information.
  • Family information.
  • Medical information.
  • Credit card numbers, bank account numbers, amount / what donated.
  • Telephone / fax numbers, e-mail, URLs.

What is an example of a breach of confidentiality?

Breach of confidentiality examples
  • Medical records being disclosed to a third party without your consent.
  • An email containing confidential information is sent to the wrong person.
  • An employee discusses their employer's affairs with someone outside of the organisation.

What are four examples of exceptions to confidentiality?

Therapists and mental health professionals are legally obligated to report in several situations:
  • Child abuse or neglect: All states require professionals to report suspected child abuse or neglect. ...
  • Elder abuse: ...
  • Threats of violence: ...
  • Severe mental illness:

Which example may illustrate a breach of confidentiality?

Here's some breach of confidentiality examples you could find yourself facing: Saving sensitive information on an unsecure computer that leaves the data accessible to others. Sharing employees' personal data, like payroll details, bank details, home addresses and medical records.

What is an example where confidentiality would be broken?

Here's a confidentiality breach example: you accidentally send sensitive information about a client to another client or a third party who shouldn't have access to it.

Which example represents a breach of confidentiality?

Final answer: The example that represents a breach of confidentiality is discussing patient information in public places, as it involves unauthorized disclosure of patient information. Other options are related to billing fraud rather than privacy violations.

When can you share confidential information?

Information can be shared without consent if it is justified in the public interest or required by law. Do not delay disclosing information to obtain consent if that might put children or young people at risk of significant harm.

What are the situations in which confidentiality can be broken?

Examples of situations where information, normally considered to be confidential, might need to be shared: A person is likely to harm themselves. A person has been, or is likely to be, involved in a serious crime. A person is likely to harm others.

What would be an example of violating a person's confidentiality?

Common confidentiality breach examples include:

Insider threats, such as employees or contractors misusing access to information; Accessing confidential data over public or unsecured networks; Discarding documents or devices without proper data destruction; and.

What are the limits of confidentiality?

The following situations typically legally obligate therapists to break confidentiality and seek outside assistance:
  • Detailed planning of future suicide attempts.
  • Other concrete signs of suicidal intent.
  • Planned violence towards others.
  • Planned future child abuse.
  • Formerly committed child abuse.
  • Experiencing child abuse.

What are 3 exceptions to consent?

Aside from patient incompetence, there are three other legally sanctioned types of exceptions: (1) in an “emergency”, when there is insufficient time to pursue an informed consent, at least if one is to avoid significant morbidity and mortality to the patient in the interim; (2) when a competent patient “waives” the ...

What is a real life example of confidentiality?

Confidentiality

It protects data from unauthorized disclosure, ensuring that personal and sensitive information remains private. Real-Life Example: Online Banking > When you access your online bank account, encryption protocols protect your personal and financial information from cybercriminals.

What is a breach of confidentiality in the workplace?

Anthony Gold. United Kingdom April 19 2024. A breach of confidentiality in employment occurs when an employee discloses sensitive information belonging to their employer without authorisation from the employer.

What is the most common breach of confidentiality?

A classic example of a breach of confidentiality is mistakenly sending Client A an email that was meant for Client B. In this instance, you've shared Client B's sensitive information with a third party without their consent. This could either be by you as the business owner or one of your employees.

What are some examples of a privacy breach?

Examples of situations that could lead to a privacy breach include:
  • the theft, loss or disappearance of equipment or devices that contain personal information that were not sufficiently encrypted.
  • lost documents in an office (also known as loss of positive control)

What are the 4 examples of the exceptions to confidentiality?

THERE ARE SOME EXCEPTIONS TO CONFIDENTIALITY, including, but not limited to, if I believe that you are at risk of harming yourself or someone else, have reason to suspect child abuse, or if your treatment is court- ordered and the court has free access to your file.

What is the golden rule of confidentiality?

A California attorney may only disclose a client's confidential information without informed consent when the attorney reasonably believes it is “necessary to prevent a criminal act” that will likely result in death or bodily harm.

What is an example of confidentiality in the workplace?

Common examples of confidential information are: Unpublished financial information. Data of Customers/Partners/Vendors. Patents, formulas or new technologies.