Keeping Survivors in the Driver’s Seat: Our Focus on Confidentiality
/As professionals and experts in the field, advocates go to work every day helping survivors reclaim their lives. But it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day rush of the work, and sometimes we forget that we aren’t the driver of this journey - we’re just passengers along for the ride. When we get off track, we start to think a survivor should automatically give us the information we ask for, that they should trust us to collect and share their information as we see fit because we’re experts and we know what’s best. But we have to put the brakes on that thinking, and remember that survivors are the experts of their own experience. It’s our job to help educate them about their options, and the potential impacts and outcomes of their choices, so that they can make an informed decision. When we do this, we’re giving them the keys, ensuring they’re the ones who are in control and driving the bus,* and that we’re doing our job by helping them navigate!
Safety Net kept very busy over the summer and early fall of 2019, working to help organizations across the field improve their understanding and practice of confidentiality. To help agencies ensure they’re providing survivor-driven services and developing policies that support a survivor’s right to privacy, we hosted four national webinars, facilitated a listening session for state and territorial coalitions on mandated reporting, launched new materials, and held an outstanding two-day conference– Strictly Confidential: Protecting Survivor Privacy in Federally Funded Programs.
Summer 2019 Highlights
Webinars:
For anyone who missed the webinars, and for those who’d like to revisit them, you can check them out using the links below:
Fundamentals & Framework: Understanding Confidentiality & Our Obligations
Survivor Data: Collection, Retention & Deletion Best Practices
Official Demands for Information: Subpoenas, Warrants, Court Orders, Auditors & Monitors
Resources:
Newly-created materials, which were all added to our Confidentiality Toolkit, include:
Data Breaches & Victim Service Providers: Considerations for Developing Effective Policies
VAWA Grant Conditions, Victim Privacy, and Effective Oversight Procedures
Summary of U.S. State and Territorial Laws Related to Advocate Confidentiality & Privilege
National Conference:
The 2019 Strictly Confidentiality conference was in such high demand that we had to make a wait list and get creative with seat set-up! We loved seeing everyone so interested and engaged in wanting to learn more about survivor-centered best practices. Advocates, attorneys, court officials, and others came from across the country to learn more about how they can ensure they’re providing survivor-driven services. The conference content was designed to help advocates navigate complex federal confidentiality obligations, through in-depth analysis, peer sharing, and scenario problem solving. Participants explored the many layers of privacy, confidentiality obligations, and their intersections with technology in a tangible way. Topics included:
Understanding and applying legal confidentiality obligations
Navigating the mandated reporting and confidentiality overlap
Building community collaborations while maintaining confidentiality
Upholding confidentiality in emergency situations
Navigating language access and confidentiality
Handling official third party demands for survivor information
Selecting and using databases
Implementing best practices for agency use of technology
Minimizing risk via intakes and data retention policies
Understanding data breach notification laws
Ensuring valid releases of information.
We hope all this new content is helpful to service providers and we look forward to hearing your feedback so we can continue to improve this work. We’re also grateful to our grant partners at Danu Center’s Confidentiality Institute, to our funders at the Office on Violence Against Women, and to the advocates who are out there doing this work every day. When we provide services based on confidentiality best practices, we’re helping survivors understand they have a right to privacy, that they remain in control of that privacy, and they can make the decisions that work best for them.
*The “survivor drives the bus” phrase was coined by our grant partner, Alicia Aiken, Director of Danu Center’s Confidentiality Institute :)
