Private and confidential?
Handling personal information in the social and health services
Edited by Chris Clark and Janice McGhee
Published
Jul 2, 2008Page count
256 pagesISBN
978-1861349057Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Jul 2, 2008Page count
224 pagesISBN
978-1861349064Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy Press
Private and confidential?
Handling personal and often sensitive information is central to daily practice in social and health services. However, the increasing emphasis on multi-disciplinary and inter-agency working required for effective, joined-up services presents new challenges and dilemmas in preserving citizens' rights to privacy.
This book examines key philosophical, ethical and legal issues in the area of privacy and confidentiality and explores their implications for policy and practice. ,Offering a range of analytical frameworks the book focuses on different practice areas, including health and social care, children's services and criminal justice. The contributors from disciplines including law, philosophy, anthropology and the personal service professions bring their direct personal experience of working to create new systems and practices in a turbulent policy environment. The book provides a synoptic multi-disciplinary view of this increasingly challenging area where technological development, civil liberties, surveillance, health and welfare become inexorably intertwined.
The book will be of key interest to professionals, managers, policy makers and academics in the health and personal social services. Students of social work, probation, medicine, nursing and professions allied to medicine will find a common multidisciplinary framework for their respective professional concerns to protect the interests and promote the wellbeing of clients, their families and the wider community.
" This collection of essays is a timely and excellent contribution to the debates about confidentiality and information sharing....iIt offers a wealth of ideas....and it is thus essential reading...a major contribution to stimulating and informing the needed debate among professional groups about how to respond to the new challenges while maintaining their ethical standards in relation to users." Eileen Munro in Ethics and Social Welfare Vol 3:1
"This multi-disciplinary collection explores the establishment of trust where people and organisations are bounded by honesty. An essential read." Steven Shardlow, Director of The Institute for Health and Social Care Research, University of Salford
Chris Clark is Professor of Social Work Ethics and Dean of Postgraduate Studies in the College of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Edinburgh.
Janice McGhee is Senior Lecturer in Social Work in the School of Social and Political Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests primarily lie in child welfare policy and law.
Part one: Professional confidentiality revisited: Personal information and the professional relationship ~ Cynthia Bisman; Confidentiality, trust and truthfulness ~ Chris Clark; Confidentiality in practice: non-western perspectives on privacy ~ Ian Harper; Ethical practice in joined-up working ~ Ian Thompson; Part two: Balancing individual privacy with the right to information: The right to privacy and confidentiality for children ~ Lilian Edwards and Rowena Rodrigues; Public protection in practice: Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) ~ Hazel Kemshall and Jason Wood; The right to information in practice: adoption records, confidentiality and secrecy ~ Gary Clapton; Part three: Working together: Confidentiality and information sharing in child protection ~ Janice McGhee; Working with children and young people: privacy and identity ~ Peter Ashe; Working with adults with incapacity ~ Susan Hunter and Lisa Curtice; Working together? Sharing personal information in health and social services ~ Val Baker; Conclusion ~ Chris Clark and Janice McGhee.
