Sharing Constituent Stories While Respecting Privacy
We received a great question from a caseworker after attending the Storytelling: Listening for What’s Important webinar.
How do we elevate our constituents’ stories and issues while respecting and protecting their privacy and confidentiality?
This is a vital question for casework teams to consider in concert with their colleagues on the comms team. As we’ve explained in the Casework Basics chapter on Safeguarding Constituent Info, although the Privacy Act (and requirements for release of information) applies to information shared by federal agencies with Members of Congress, information the constituent provides to the Member in the course of casework is legally the Member’s property. Members are not bound by HIPAA or the Privacy Act, so there are no legal restrictions on sharing. However, casework teams should still prioritize the privacy and dignity of the constituents served and set the stage for trusting constituent interactions in the future.
Here are a few tips to guide the discussion:
Get constituent stories in the constituent’s own words where possible. If the office is not already sending out a constituent satisfaction survey when a case is closed, this is a great reason to start. Include an open-ended survey question paired with a checkbox to indicate permission to share the comment with general attribution (e.g. “Mary from Saugus”).
For sharing long or detailed stories, for example when a constituent’s story is the centerpiece to a policy change, focus on constituents who are invested in telling their stories. Consider having your team and Office counsel work up a permission form, or again ask the constituent to write their own story in a format that you can pull from or tell their story to your team to be recorded and transcribed.
Where it’s not possible to use the constituent’s own words or get signed authorization, think carefully about sharing, but also consider changing identifying details to protect privacy - definitely name, but also age, gender, hometown, medical conditions, military service, etc.
As with most things, establishing a standard operating procedure for your office in advance of the immediate need (i.e. when the Press Secretary calls) will help avoid ad-hoc questions and inconsistencies in handling inquiries.
Tips on how your team has built a streamlined and respectful process? Send them our way at casework@popvox.org.
