It's always private and we stress that is confidential. Treatment providers are balanced by federal laws on confidentiality. This is the federal law. A federal law that protects patient information that pertains to substance abuse treatment in addition that is 42CF on part 2 and then there is the HIPAA law. HIPAA is an acronym. HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. That is the general medical privacy laws that protects all patient treatment related information whether its substance abuse treatment or any other kind of medical treatment. Now as far as self help groups in like AA or NA, it's always reinforced within those meetings that individuals keep what's discussed strictly confidential. In fact, some AA groups are closed which means that only people in recovery could participate. There are some meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous that are open where someone who is not experiencing addiction or is in the pursuit of recovery could just sit in and listen or go with someone who is an addict just to support them. When they look at the AA listings it will indicate if it's open or close.
