Supervision Order
Supervision Order: In my supervision blog yesterday I described the nourishment and support to be gained from the supervision session by the practitioner. The true and serious purpose of supervision is however to ‘hold the well-being of the client in mind at all times’. The fitness and ability to practice of the therapist is one element of this. The safe-guarding of clients in their everyday lives can be a darker element of this process during challenging times.
All practitioners value the confidentiality clauses in their contracts. Why? because it is this confidentiality that enables the freedom for people to come to us and to speak their truth. When difficult things are verbalised, and witnessed, they can then be healed. That’s the therapeutic journey. There have to be exceptions to this rule however and this is what the BACP states in its ethical guidelines:
“In certain high-risk situations where best ethical and legal practice require the protection of the client or others (for example, in safeguarding, child protection, terrorism or serious crime), then the therapist must make decisions in compliance with current law, government guidance where applicable and ethical principles, having consulted with a supervisor and/or other relevant professionals and
experienced colleagues, as appropriate.”
Believe me when I tell you that it is hard for any therapeutic practitioner to break confidentiality. This is because we know the value of confidentiality, because we are busy relationship and trust-building, and because we want to do the best we can for the people we support. It feels like such a betrayal to break that trust. However, each and every one of us will encounter a situation where we have to make the decision whether or not to implement something like the supervision order below.
“A supervision order gives the local authority the legal power monitor the child’s needs and progress while the child lives at home or somewhere else. A social worker will advise, help and befriend the child. In practice, this will mean they give help and support to the family as a whole.”
In these situations the ability to consult needs to be strong. Fear can run rife if a child appears to be at risk of harm, or a life at risk of being taken. Both supervisor and practitioner can feel very powerless. My entire supervision training seemed to take the form of a series of nightmarish potential ethical dilemmas: I was grilled about when I would take action, who I would consult, and what action would be best for client, therapist and me? Thankfully most of those scenarios outlined have not arisen in my therapeutic or supervisory career as yet. Dilute forms of theses issues have raised their heads and it would be easy to miss that……………. suddenly mid-session you realise you are looking at a serious potential problem or risk. it is really worth exploring that possibility of what might happen and what safe-guarding is necessary, in order to avoid a sleepless night or two later on.
The problem is that these situations and risks are rarely black and white. Did the client say they are actually planning to kill themselves? or Did they say they had thought about it? These two things would need very different actions. Deciding what action needs to be taken is best done in collaboration if possible.
What lies right at the bottom line of these situations is accountability. The final accountability and responsibility for a client (that the supervisor may never actually met), lies with the supervisor. When that responsibility lies with me, if I feel I need to, I will exercise my supervisory authority and order that disclosure is made, if it will serve to protect or save a life.
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