A risk to self and others.

Dolly is a recently qualified counsellor who has picked up some work from a transport company who saw her listing in a local directory. She is working with her client, Alan, who is an HGV driver for the firm and is having personal problems regarding the break-up of his marriage. Dolly is seeing Alan at the firm's premises. At the third session Alan discloses that he is drinking very heavily, perhaps as much as a litre of vodka a night and then going into work the following day, often having a drink while working. Dolly is horrified and consults her supervisor who says that the implications are serious enough for Dolly to break confidentiality and discuss Alan's situation with his employer in the first instance because it is likely that Alan is unfit to drive and, secondly, with his GP Dolly's supervisor cites the principle of beneficence and paragraph 14 of the guidance on good practice (Keeping Trust) in the BACP Ethical Framework as to why she should break client confidentiality. Dolly does this and Alan's firm and the GP both thank Dolly for her responsible attitude. However, at session four, Alan arrives in a flaming temper, accusing Dolly of breaching the confidentiality she had made so much of in the first session and threatening to make a complaint to BACP He has been laid off driving for two months by his firm who explained that the counsellor had told them of his heavy drinking, and his GP asked him about his drinking on a routine visit. How might this situation, uncomfortable for both Dolly and Alan, have been avoided? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]