American Counselor’s Association Code
of Ethics
and Standards of Practice - Excerpt
Section C: Professional Responsibility
Standard of Practice Seventeen (SP-17): Boundaries of
Competence. Counselors must practice only within the boundaries
of their competence. (See C.2.a.)
Section E: Evaluation, Assesment and Interpretation
Standard of Practice Thirty-One (SP-31): Limits of Competence.
Counselors must perform only testing and assessment services for
which they are competent. Counselors must not allow the use of
psychological assessment techniques by unqualified persons under
their supervision. (See E.2.a.)
Standard of Practice Thirty-Two (SP-32): Appropriate
Use of Assessment Instruments. Counselors must use assessment
instruments in the manner for which they were intended. (See E.2.b.)
Standard of Practice Thirty-Three (SP-33): Assessment
Explanations to Clients. Counselors must provide explanations
to clients prior to assessment about the nature and purposes of
assessment and the specific uses of results. (See E.3.a.)
Standard of Practice Thirty-Four (SP-34): Recipients
of Test Results. Counselors must ensure that accurate and appropriate
interpretations accompany any release of testing and assessment
information. (See E.3.b.)
Section G: Research and Publication
Standard of Practice Forty-Seven (SP-47): Accurate Research
Results. Counselors must not distort or misrepresent research
data, nor fabricate or intentionally bias research results. (See
G.3.b.)
National Board for Certified Counselors
Code of Ethics - Excerpt
6. Certified counselors offer only professional
services for which they are trained or have supervised experience.
No diagnosis, assessment, or treatment should be performed without
prior training or supervision. Certified counselors are responsible
for correcting any misrepresentations of their qualifications
by others.
7. Certified counselors recognize their limitations and provide
services or use techniques for which they are qualified by training
and/or supervision. Certified counselors recognize the need for
and seek continuing education to assure competent services.
8. Certified counselors are aware of the intimacy in the counseling
relationship and maintain respect for the client. Counselors must
not engage in activities that seek to meet their personal or professional
needs at the expense of the client.
9. Certified counselors must insure that they do not engage in
personal, social, organizational, financial, or political activities
which might lead to a misuse of their influence.
12. Through an awareness of the impact of stereotyping and unwarranted
discrimination (e.g., biases based on age, disability, ethnicity,
gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation), certified counselors
guard the individual rights and personal dignity of the client
in the counseling relationship.
13. Certified counselors are accountable at all times for their
behavior. They must be aware that all actions and behaviors of
the counselor reflect on professional integrity and, when inappropriate,
can damage the public trust in the counseling profession. To protect
public confidence in the counseling profession, certified counselors
avoid behavior that is clearly in violation of accepted moral
and legal standards.
Section C: Counselor Supervision
NCCs who offer and/or provide supervision must:
a. Ensure that they have the proper training and supervised experience
through contemporary continuing education and/or graduate training
b. Ensure that supervisees are informed about the process of supervision,
including supervision goals, paradigms of supervision and the
supervisor’s preferred research based supervision paradigm(s)
Section D: Measurement and Evaluation
1. Because many types of assessment techniques exist, certified
counselors must recognize the limits of their competence and perform
only those assessment functions for which they have received appropriate
training or supervision.
American Association of Marriage and Family
Therapists Code of Ethics - Excerpt
1.3 Marriage and family therapists are aware of their influential
positions with respect to clients, and they avoid exploiting the
trust and dependency of such persons.
3.5 Marriage and family therapists, as presenters,
teachers, supervisors, consultants and researchers, are dedicated
to high standards of scholarship, present accurate information,
and disclose potential conflicts of interest.
3.6 Marriage and family therapists maintain accurate
and adequate clinical and financial records.
3.7 While developing new skills in specialty areas,
marriage and family therapists take steps to ensure the competence
of their work and to protect clients from possible harm. Marriage
and family therapists practice in specialty areas new to them
only after appropriate education, training, or supervised experience.
3.10 Marriage and family therapists do not give
to or receive from clients (b) gifts that impair the integrity
or efficacy of the therapeutic relationship.
3.12 Marriage and family therapists make efforts
to prevent the distortion or misuse of their clinical and research
findings.
3.13 Marriage and family therapists, because of
their ability to influence and alter the lives of others, exercise
special care when making public their professional recommendations
and opinions through testimony or other public statements.
Evolution of Social Work Ethics by Mary Rankin, J.D.
The change in a social worker’s approach to ethical concerns is one of the most significant advances in our profession. Early in the 20th century, a social worker’s concern for ethics centered on the morality of the client, not the ethics of the profession or its practitioners. Over the next couple of decades, the emphasis on the client’s ethics began to weaken as social workers began developing new perspectives and methods that eventually would be fundamental to the profession, all in an effort to distinguish social work’s approach from other allied health professions.
The first attempt at creating a code of ethics was made in 1919, and by the 1940s and 1950s, social workers began to focus on the morality, values, and ethics of the profession, rather than the ethics and morality of the patient. As a result of the turbulent social times of the 1960s and 1970s, social workers began directing significant efforts towards the issues of social justice, social reform, and civil rights.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the focus shifted from abstract debates about ethical terms and conceptually complex moral arguments to more practical and immediate ethical problems. For example, a significant portion of the literature from the time period focuses on decision-making strategies for complex or difficult ethical dilemmas. More recently, the profession has worked to develop a new and comprehensive Code of Ethics to outline the profession’s core values, provide guidance on dealing with ethical issues and dilemmas, and also to describe and define ethical misconduct. Today, ethics in social work is focused primarily on helping social workers identify and analyze ethical dilemmas, apply appropriate decision-making strategies, manage ethics related risks, and confront ethical misconduct within the profession.
http://digitalcommons.ric.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1169&context=facultypublications
The following contains thee key Legal issues for mental health professionals: Tarasoff - Duty to Warn, Duty to Protect; and Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse
Tarasoff - Duty to Warn, Duty to Protect
Most states have laws that either require or permit mental health professionals to disclose information about patients who may become violent often referred to as the duty to warn and/or duty to protect. These laws stem from two decisions in Tarasoff v. The Regents of the University of California. Together, the Tarasoff decisions impose liability on all mental health professionals to protect victims from violent acts. Specifically, the first Tarasoff case imposed a duty to verbally warn an intended victim victim of foreseeable danger, and the second Tarasoff case implies a duty to protect the intended victim against possible danger (e.g., alert police, warn the victim, etc.).
Domestic Violence – Confidentiality and the Duty to Warn
Stemming from the decisions in Tarasoff v. The Regents of the University of California, many states have imposed liability on mental health professionals to protect victims from violent acts, often referred to as the duty to warn and duty to protect. This liability extends to potential victims of domestic violence. When working with a client who has a history of domestic violence, a social worker should conduct a risk assessment to determine if whether there is a potential for harm, and take all necessary steps to diffuse a potentially violent situation.
Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse
All states have laws that identify individuals who are obligated to report suspected child abuse, including social workers these individuals are often referred to as “mandatory reporters.” The requirements vary from state to state, but typically, a report must be made when the reporter (in his or her official capacity) suspects or has reason to believe that a child has been abused or neglected. Most states operate a toll-free hotline to receive reports of abuse and typically the reporter may choose to remain anonymous (there are limitations and exceptions that vary by state so please review your state’s laws).
=================================
Personal
Reflection Exercise #6
The preceding section contained information about the ACA,
NBCC, and AAMFT Codes of Ethics regarding the ethical use of recall.
Write three case study examples regarding how you might use the
content of this section in your practice.
QUESTION
12
What three functions cannot be performed by the counselor
without proper training or supervision? Record the letter of the
correct answer the .
|
