About Confidentiality

All counseling sessions, including intake sessions, are confidential. Outside of Counseling Services, i.e., the Counseling Center (CC), the Office of Alcohol & Drug Education (OADE), and the Sexual Assault Awareness and Facilitative Education Office (SAAFE), no record of your attendance nor the content discussed is available to other university offices, potential employers, family, or friends without your explicit written permission. The sharing of client information among the Counseling Services staff is done only on an as-needed basis and is not considered a violation of confidentiality. The Indiana Bar, some law enforcement agencies, and the federal government may ask about your counseling history if you are preparing for employment in one of those fields. Counseling Services staff will assist you in documenting your suitability for employment following counseling, if needed.

Additionally, counselors, psychologists, and social workers may be obligated or permitted to disclose confidential information in certain specific situations set forth in Indiana Code 16-39-2-3 and 16-39-2-6. For example, confidential information may be disclosed to:

(1) law enforcement when the director, or his/her designee, believes that failure to disclosure such information may result in bodily injury to the client or another individual (I.C. 16-39-2-6(a)(7)(B);

(2) law enforcement, potential victims, or other third parties when the client communicates an actual threat or evidences conduct or makes statements indicating an imminent danger that the client will cause serious personal injury or death to others (I.C. 16-39-2-6(a)(10)(F) referencing I.C. 34-30-16-2); and

(3) child or adult protective services when the information relates to current child abuse or abuse of elderly and disabled persons (I.C. 16-39-2-6(a)(10)(E) and (A) referencing I.C. 31-33-5-4 and 12-10-3-10, respectively).

Furthermore, Indiana Code sets forth several other atypical situations in which confidential information may be disclosed. For a listing of these situations, please see I.C. 16-39-2-3 and 16-39-2-6. These statutes can be found on the State of Indiana’s website at in.gov/legislative/ic/code. Client records, by law, are maintained for seven academic years beyond the last year of contact.