I admit I do not know the American Psychiatric Association's code of ethics; however, I'm very familiar with the the American Psychological Association's as I am bound by their code of ethics and my state laws. There is nothing in the American Psychological Association's code of ethics that states a psychologist cannot listen to another person talk about one of their clients. One-way communication, as JustBen characterized it, is not prohibited by APA's code of ethics. In my state (and many others, but not all, as state laws vary and are in no way uniform), there is a duty to report credible threats of self-harm and/or harm to others. This is based on the Tarasoff precendent. http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cases/privacy/tarasoff.htm

In such cases, the psychologist can inform the police or inform the threatened person directly without a signed release. HIPAA would require that the psychologist disclose this break in confidentiality to the client, but does not prevent it. In the case of someone with credible and imminent danger of suicide, the psychologist can inform a family member, the police, ER workers, an identified friend, etc. without a signed release if it's in the bounds of keeping the client safe. Again, this break from confidentiality must be disclosed under HIPAA, but it's not disallowed.

In my state there are two other situations when a psychologist can break confidentiality without a signed or verbal consent for release of information. The first is if a client is a child, elderly person, or person with a disability and is being abused. The psychologist has a duty to report abuse in these populations. The other is if a court subpoena's a client's records. The psychologist must respond to the subpoena, although they do not need to break privilege unless so ordered by the court. In these cases, again, HIPAA requires disclosure, but does not prevent.

The ethics code and state laws for social workers may be different and may indeed prohibit one-way communication, although I would be very surprised.

And my intent in clarifying this is also because there likely are others reading, and I want to make sure accurate information is presented.

gg