THE AWARENESS AND BEHAVIOR OF SOCIAL WORKERS UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES OF CLIENT CONFIDENTIALITY

Abstract

This article is a part of the content of “Professional ethics of social workers in
assisting people with special circumstances”. By taking a survey on 396 social workers in
Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa and Dong Nai, the results showed that the understanding
and behavior of social workers about the situation of client confidentiality are about the
average. Many social workers are still not sure about the exception of these activities while
supporting their clients. Besides, none of the social workers who are surveyed had an
adequate perception and behavior towards 11 situations related to data privacy. This result
alarms their weaknesses in terms of maintaining ethical principles in social works related
to information privacy issues in Vietnam recently.