Understanding Confidentiality

Understanding Confidentiality

A working definition of confidentiality is keeping information private by only sharing that information which is necessary for us to do our jobs. For example, it may be that your department requires that you share the name of the victim and what type of crime occurred with the Director of Residence Life. Maintaining confidentiality in this case means sharing that information with the director, and not with anyone else. It is important that you become familiar with your college’s reporting requirements.

It is permissible to share that an incident has occurred with other staff if you need support or information to do your job. In this instance, you could keep confidential the name of the victim and other identifying information, and share only the details needed to follow through with your job responsibilities.

It is important to let a victim know the limits of confidentiality when s/he begins to disclose an incident but this must be done in a sensitive way. An example of what you might say is, “Thank you for coming to talk with me. Before you tell me anything more, I need to let you know that I am required to let my director know when a student tells me they have been sexually assaulted. This is to help me do my job better and get you the right information and assistance. I will not tell anyone else and you still have control over all the decisions to be made about what to do next”.

Often in our roles as staff, we encounter challenges to confidentiality. Some of these occur because students living in residence halls are in very close contact and often know when something has happened. It is important to keep the privacy of the victim foremost when responding to the concerns of other residents if a sexual assault occurs.