Confidentiality and the rape victim: ethical intent versus political reality

... The clinician who works with the victim of rape, either in hospital emergency departments, community mental health settings, college environments, or private practice, should consider ways that would effect the many overdue reforms for which this specialty cries out. The need for sensitivity in the area of record keeping, particularly as to how such records might be used, can hardly be debated. Beyond this, there is the role of patient advocate, calling upon the clinician to serve an educative function with reference to the members of his profession and of the larger society. Confidentiality of patient records can be preserved only to the extent that the cultural context in which they exist values such privacy.