Academic Mentor Code of Confidentiality
A code of confidentiality is necessary for a peer support programme to be successful. The
following describes what confidentiality is, what breaking a confidence means, and how to
break confidentiality, if necessary.
Confidentiality
In general, everything that someone talks to you about in your role as an Academic Mentor
should be kept between yourself, the Project and the person whom you are supporting,
whether you are using your skills formally or informally. If, for any reason, you think you
need to identify the person who has come to you for support, you can do this by talking
directly to your Key Contact or a Personal Tutor, but not with the other Academic Mentors.
If you need support and/or feel burdened by something you have been told it is important
that you get in touch with your Key Contact, Personal Tutor or speak to a staff member in
your School. As an Academic Mentor you are in a position to help students think about
whether or not there is someone in the University would be helpful to talk to, eg. a Personal
Tutor, a Senior House Tutor, Senior Tutor , Chaplain, GP, counselling services. If possible
they should do this themselves, but if it’s appropriate you can support them to do this.
Academic Mentors need to achieve an appropriate balance between understanding,
maintaining and respecting the information they have been entrusted with, the overall
welfare of the students concerned, and the impact the concern is having on the School as a
whole.
Breaking Confidentiality
The following are times you will need to break confidentiality for the safety of the person
seeking help, for the safety of the wider community, and for your safety too.
 If someone has attempted or is talking about attempting suicide
 If someone is talking about harming another person
 If there is evidence of serious mental health problems
 If there is evidence of serious self-harm
 If you are unsure about any of the above, speak to your Key Contact or another
member of Support Staff before taking any action
How to break confidentiality
Once you have decided to break confidentiality, let the person seeking support know your
decision. Explain why confidentiality needs to be broken, and that you will support them
through the process. Wherever possible, disclosure of confidential information should be
with the student’s consent; however, there may be instances whereby you will need to
break confidentiality without it.
Encourage the student to approach the appropriate resource him/herself. If they cannot
manage alone, you can accompany them (to the GP, counselling service, etc.), if appropriate
and you feel comfortable. It is important they make the appointment themselves, unless it
is an emergency situation.
Discuss the situation with your Key Contact explain why you want to break confidentiality,
and how the process is proceeding. Your Key Contact is there to support you, so that you
are not left feeling alone, or being burdened by, or responsible for someone in a difficult
situation. Together you will decide in what way you will carry on supporting the person who
has come to you, if appropriate.
Remember, the need to break confidentiality does not arise often, but you do need to know
what to do if such a situation occurs. While it can feel difficult to disclose a confidence, the
bounds of confidentiality are there to protect the person seeking help, the Academic
Mentor and the institution as a whole.
It is important for you to have support yourself throughout the process of breaking
confidentiality. It is important to stay aware of your feelings and to express them in
supervision or with your Key Contact, or to another member of Support staff, so you can
support yourself though the whole process.