Crisis in confidentiality,ethics and legality for a psychiatrist

Abstract

A patient in individual and group psychotherapy protests the exposure to the group of information told only to his psychiatrist in confidence. A formal complaint by the patient to an ethics committee, with threat of a malpractice suit, highlights the absence of a legal mental health code for guidance. Correspondence and committee hearings are the forum for a heated debate of the issues of confidentiality, patient rights, and responsibility of the therapist. The predicament of the therapist in the hands of a committee of peers unprepared for their role becomes a trauma itself.