It is a highly significant matter to share with another individual private and personal information about yourself. To be able to determine just how important confidentiality is, it is necessary to determine its meaning.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (1989), confidence may be described as firm trust'. Almost all definitions include the focal word trust'. Relationships that are established between care practioners and their service users are centred around absolute confidence and trust'. We at our home are entrusted with a great deal of private and personal information, and although there exists no statutory right to confidentiality, the service user has the established moral right to anticipate that this information will be treated with complete confidentiality. Also, that it will only be used for the purposes for which it was given, and will not be passed on to others without permission. .
We are all personally accountable for our actions - that accountability demands that we respect confidentiality, any breech can lead to legal action in the civil courts. .
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However it is not always practicable to seek the service user's consent for the passage of information between the individuals involved in that clients care. Consent in these cases can be implied on a need to know basis, as long as the client is aware of who the information will be shared with and understands that the information needs to be made available to all those involved in the delivery of his/her care, in order to optimise that care. The service user also has the right to know the standards of confidentiality and how those standards are maintained, this should be made clear at the initial meeting.
Clearly we at our home are responsible for assuring standards, we need also to ensure that, where possible, confidential information is not at risk when the records are stored or moved.
The use of computers for storing information is commonplace, and I am in the process of compiling a new computerised record keeping system.