2017

Confidentiality is a fundamental principle of the counseling profession. Recent
events and initiatives, however, have led to a variety of efforts to infringe upon
this principle by requiring mandated reporting of a number of issues, including
domestic violence, infectious disease, animal abuse, professional impairment,
and criminal activity, particularly sexual assault. This erosion of confidentiality
needs to be examined by the helping professions, and further changes should not
be implemented without thorough consideration of the unintended effects they
could produce.

Keywords: confidentiality, mandated reporting, privileged communication,
sexual assault, animal abuse, domestic violence, criminal activity