(C) Alec Muffett's DropSafe blog.
Author Name: Alec Muffett
This story was originally published on allecmuffett.com. [1]
License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.[2]


Confidential counselling calls were eavesdropped on by strangers

2024-07

The UK's biggest provider of workplace mental health services let corporate clients listen in to confidential helpline calls without the knowledge or permission of callers, a BBC investigation has found.

Counsellors who worked at the company, Health Assured, have told BBC's File on 4 programme the practice was “highly inappropriate” and “unethical”. Lawyers said it also risked breaching privacy and data protection laws.

Health Assured told the BBC the practice was “not in line with company policy” and said it had “taken steps to ensure it will not happen in future”.

It strongly disputed that the practice breached the confidentiality or privacy of its users.

Health Assured provides Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) services - including a helpline and short-term counselling - to 13 million workers across the UK and Ireland.

EAPs are intended to help employees deal with personal problems that might impact their wellbeing and performance at work.

The BBC was contacted by scores of people - including 30 current and former employees of Health Assured and its parent company - after we reported claims in March that helpline calls from vulnerable callers were not always handled properly.
[END]

[1] URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cxee3glz2pyo
[2] URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

DropSafe Blog via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/alecmuffett/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.