Week 11. Obliged to commit?

My job requests of me one of the largest and often misused moral obligations: patient confidentiality. I am a minor part in a massive sector that requires complete and absolute obedience to a strict code of ethics. However, I have no effect on the parties in question; I am the receptionist. And without disclosing too much of my job requirements, I am in all instances the first person in contact with a client before the professional. This to me is the most difficult task. As mediator, I must firstly, without persuasion or opinion, decide on the manner as to which this person can make their first steps towards therapy. There is no signed contract, no legal obligation as I provide no therapeutic advice, my only difficulty is to remain as neutral yet discretely compassionate as I possibly can. This to me is humanistic judgment. Regardless of what an employer has directed me to follow, this behavioral instinct, this trust through a first meeting is trust in the business its self. And in this first instance, I am the business.

So let me ask this. When composing empathetic or sympathetic responses to fellow bloggers, or remarking on disheartening Facebook post, would you first ask 'Why the hell are you making this public' or would you say 'I better tell them what I think' ? Are we suddenly in that instance the mediator of what could possible follow, regardless of how disastrous or successful an outcome may be? I feel as though there arises a moral obligation whereby if you prepare to respond you then have a responsibility to acknowledge that you are then involved. The moment I pick up the phone at work, I am somewhat involved in the clients therapy. When a client walks in I have a moral obligation to confidentiality in any other case because I can recognise who this person is, where they live, where they work etc. And although you may say it doesn't often get this far through social networking, you should think again: this person is aware of your existence, you are aware they exist, you both know how to contact one another, you are aware that you're both floating around in cyber space. Just as easily, they may need you again, and just as easily, you will be found.