School of Psychology

The Negotiation and Communication of Confidentiality issues in school-based relationship counselling: An exploratory study of the approaches adopted by lay and psychologically trained counselling providers in W.A. High Schools

Researcher:      Laura McTaggart

Supervisor:       A/Prof Max Sully

Date:                 19th June, 2009.
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The present study looked at the way that student confidentiality is managed by psychologists and chaplains working in Western Australian High Schools in one district. Psychologists and chaplains working in schools usually have different training backgrounds which may influence their approaches to confidentiality.
Participants took part in an approximately hour long interview which looked at how they made decisions regarding managing and maintaining confidentiality with students. A thematic analysis of the transcripts revealed a number of themes common to both the psychologist and chaplain groups.
The most important issue that was discussed by participants was the establishment of an alliance through discussions of confidentiality. Participants in both the psychologist and chaplain groups were found to use confidentiality discussions with students as a way to begin to build a relationship with students. Therapists were also found to try to pre-warn and block some information that is told to them by students. This can be thought of as a way to balance the power in the relationship and to give the student some control in what information will be reported. It also establishes that the students are the owners of their information. Another theme was the negotiation of protocol and interpretation of the law, where psychologists and chaplains explained some behaviour as ‘normal’ and used ‘mature minor’ as a way to bend the rules. They also justified to students reporting information that there was a ‘need’ to report. Finally, both groups controlled the involvement of external stakeholders and this was done by filtering only the important information to them, and by preparing students before stakeholders were involved.
Differences in the participant’s approaches were more evident within groups than between groups, suggesting that psychologists and chaplains working in schools have similar approaches to confidentiality. Similarities between the two groups may also be due to many of the chaplain participants having had formal training such as youth work or counselling.
Overall, this research indicates that in Western Australian high schools, psychologists and chaplains make decisions about student confidentiality in a way that is sensitive to the alliance between themselves and the student, unless the benefits of maintaining the alliance are outweighed by safety or legal implications.