Confidentiality can be an issue in our program. People call our corporate office to find friends, spouses, or family members.

Our instructions to employees are to never reveal information about a client. When a caller asks whether someone is in our program we tell them we can’t confirm if they're there. If they want to leave a message for the person that‘s fine. If they are at TLC we'll give them the message.

The exception is if a law enforcement officer, probation or parole officer, call. Then our instructions are to take the person's number and return the call.

While TLC is a peer counseling program, not a professional treatment program, we still adhere to Federal confidentiality guidelines. The purpose of confidentiality is to protect clients. We protect those who don't want others to know they’re in recovery or that they have an addiction or substance abuse problem. Even though those of us who've been in recovery for a long time might not care who knows of our past, not everyone shares our view.

A few days ago we had to terminate a relatively new employee because she took information outside the office. The information involved married clients who lived in our program in different cities. When one client was discharged our employee informed the spouse. When the client heard of his wife’s departure he didn't come home either. As far as we know they’re now using together because the first client was discharged because of a dirty drug test.

Our mission at TLC is to help recovering substance abusers rebuild their lives. That mission also includes keeping them out of harm's way. What this employee did, by informing the spouse about the other's departure, was to put the sober one in danger of relapsing - and perhaps dying.