Counselors' breaking confidentiality and decision-making

Objective:To explore counselors' attitude about breaking confidentiality,and their decision-making in different situations. Methods: Totally 100 counselors w ere assessed with the self-made attitude and situational questionnaire,and the related factors w hich could influence the counselors ' attitude and their decision-making in breaking confidentiality w ere analyzed. Results: In items of "Clients have high risk of hurting others" and "Clients have high risk of being hurt",the counselors w ho had less w orking years of counseling( ≤5 years) scored higher than those had more( 5 years) [( 1. 2 ± 0. 8) vs.( 1. 1 ± 0. 3),( 1. 4 ± 1. 0) vs.( 1. 2 ± 0. 5); Ps 0. 05]. In items of "Clients have high risk of being hurt",the counselors w ho had supervision scored low er than those had not supervision[( 1. 2 ± 0. 6) vs.( 2. 0 ± 1. 7),P 0. 01]. In item of " minors' parents w ant to know the details of counseling",counselors w ho had supervision scored significantly higher than those had not supervision[( 5. 3 ± 1. 8) vs.( 4. 2 ± 2. 1),P = 0. 052]. Counselors scored low er in item of "clients know a criminal plan" than in "clients plan a criminal" [( 1. 7 ± 1. 2) vs.( 2. 8 ± 2. 0),P 0. 01]. Counselors scored low er in items of "the court asked for information and clients w ere accused of family violence" than in "the court asked for information w hen clients w ere accused of other reasons" [( 2. 0 ± 1. 6) vs.( 3. 5 ± 2. 2),P 0. 01]. Conclusion: This study show s that three factors, including counselors' experience,counselors' supervision,and clients' issue,may have impact on counselors' attitudes and decision-making in breaking confidentiality.