Nobody likes their private information being shared without their permission.
When you’re a teenager, especially if you’ve had or are having housing instability, it can feel like you don’t have any privacy, but there are some things you can expect to be kept confidential.
Confidentiality is often thought of as a “secret” but it’s really more about privacy and boundaries. Confidentiality is something that comes up in many aspects of your life now and in the future: it’s about protecting sensitive information about you and your life, and keeping things about you that you don’t want to share away from anyone or any place you don’t want them shared for your safety and your own sense of security. Confidentiality can come up in a variety of settings, including school, at the doctor, housing, with attorneys, and with case managers.
What Information Is Confidential
Confidentiality in your personal life with friends and community should always be expected and respected. Confidentiality with service providers can be more nuanced and challenging to understand. If you are a minor, information that you share with trusted adults including teachers, therapists, and healthcare providers may be shared with parents or guardians depending on the organization’s rules, and if a parent or guardian asks for that information. If you are a legal adult, you can expect a lot more confidentiality.
Supportive Services
In shelters, food banks, and other social services organizations you being a program participant should be kept confidential from other people. This means if a person calls and asks if you stay there or get services there the organization in most instances won’t be able to share that information with them. Some exceptions for legal adults can be law enforcement with appropriate warrants. Confidentiality within the organization can look different. In many instances case managers, social workers, youth workers may share client information with each other. The purpose of this sharing is to make sure they are providing you with as much support as possible to meet all of your needs.
In some cases, case managers, social workers and other youth work staff will share client information with other staff members at the shelter, for example. The purpose of this information being shared should be to provide you with as much support, and as much tailored-to-your-unique-needs support as possible, and to make sure everyone is working together to help your needs get met.
Doctors and Other Healthcare Providers
Information shared with doctors and other healthcare providers in a clinic, hospital or urgent care, or in mental health counseling, should be kept confidential between you and your health/mental health care provider. If they have a strong reason to believe that you may cause harm to yourself or others, however, they are typically legally required to escalate your care and notify others to help keep you and other safe.
Homeless Youth Have a Right to Privacy
Just because you are homeless doesn’t mean you don’t have a right to privacy.
Even if you don’t have a lot of privacy where you are staying or sleeping, you don’t have to share everything about your life with everyone. If you are a minor and living in the United States, your housing status as homeless is considered confidential information at school because of the McKinney-Vento Actexternal link, opens in a new tab, which requires schools to ensure that homeless youth have access to education and also protects your privacy. The confidentiality aspects of this will differ location to location, but in many countries, including the UK, Australia, and India, homeless kids/youth who are under the “compulsory education” age meaning they are legally required to be provided education for free, must be in school, and have a right to be in school regardless of housing status, or if they live with their parents. The benefit of this is you are legally required to be educated if you are within this school-required age, however the downside is that if you are struggling to get to school because of your living situation you could face consequences for “truancy” or missing school.
Outside of this context, there are a number of other instances where your privacy and confidentiality should be respected if you are legally an adult or over the “age of majority,” which in many countries is 18. If you are under the age of 18, unfortunately, in a legal sense, you may have very little right to privacy. Some providers may give you confidentiality, but if a parent or guardian directly asks them, depending on the location where you live, they may have to share some information without your consent.
If you are over the age of 18, and are considered a legal adult, most professionals you might be working with, including doctors, therapists, and case managers, should keep your information confidential. This includes the information that you share with them, and in some circumstances, the fact that you are meeting with them in general. While in general, information you share is kept in confidence, there are some exceptions and situations where confidentiality may be broken.
Understanding Mandated Reporting
There are some instances where people, especially people in authority, may breach your confidentiality even if you don’t give them consent to.
Depending on where you live, who has your information, and in what setting, there may be certain things that people are simply not allowed to keep private This is often called “mandated reporting,” meaning there are certain situations where people like teachers, counselors, therapists, doctors, and youth workers may need to alert others about something you have shared or that they have found out about you otherwise. While this can feel like a breach of confidence, the purpose of most mandated reporting is to keep you safer. Situations where requests or expectations of confidentiality can’t be respected include an indication that you are self-harming or have a plan to self-harm, if you have a plan to harm someone else, or if your life is in danger in some way, like if you’re HIV-positive or diabetic but not getting or using any treatment.
Do You Tell The Truth?
Unfortunately, if you are a minor, experiencing homelessness your housing situation may be considered something that must be shared with authorities if discovered. This is intended to make sure that you get access to housing, food and other supports you need, but in some instances it can result in youth going further underground and not feeling safe talking to service providers for fear of being reported as a runaway to authorities.
In particular, if you are court-involved or foster care-involved your housing status and where you are staying may be shared with authorities. Similarly, there may be information about things like school attendance, substance use, etc. that may not be kept confidential. While the idea of “honesty being the best policy” is frequently the case in life, sometimes disclosing everything going on in our life can open up additional questions or challenges you might not be prepared for. Know that if you are a minor and share that you have run away, or are living independently, that isn’t information that will likely be able to be kept confidential. By sharing what is going on can help you access supports you need, but can also put you into system involvement that you might or might not want. Only you know what is going to be best and safest for you, but understanding how your privacy may and may not be protected is important. Please know, too, that in any circumstance where you feel it’s not safe for you to be honest, that doesn’t make you a liar or a bad person: it just makes you a person doing your best to care for yourself while navigating systems that were usually not designed with your best interest at heart.
Navigating Confidentiality Issues
Having someone not keep information in confidence can feel like a big violation of your privacy.
It’s always okay to be open and honest about your desire for privacy when talking with service providers like youth workers and case managers. The best way to find out what may or may not be shared, and in what circumstances, is to ask about both of those things directly.
If you feel like a youth worker or case manager has broken your confidence by sharing something with another youth, or with staff who didn’t need to know that’s not ok. One option if you feel comfortable asking the person directly why your information was shared. You can also enlist support from another staff person at the organization, and seek their help in addressing the way your confidentiality wasn’t kept.
When building friendships and community with other homeless youth, it can feel natural to want to tell your friends everything, but it’s okay to keep some things confidential, especially until you feel like you can confidently trust someone. Keeping some information private and confidential doesn’t mean that you’re a bad friend; it just means that you’re prioritizing your safety, comfort, and privacy, and that’s okay. Having boundaries with friends about what is and isn’t shared about your personal life is an important part of trust building.
If you realize that private information of yours has been shared without your permission, that likely feels violating and upsetting. If this happens to you, try to share your feelings about how this made you feel. If it’s a friend or peer who broke your confidence, that’s an issue you can talk about and try to work through in your friendship, which might mean deciding this isn’t a person you feel safe sharing confidential information with in the future
