HomesteadSchools.com - The Ethics of Professional Practice

Learning Objectives

1.	Define helping as a dynamic process, reflecting both artistry and a science.
2.	Describe the unique ethical responsibilities and roles of the professional helper within a helping relationship.
3.	Identify the salient characteristics of the effective helper and the degree to which you currently possess these characteristics.
4.	Identify the reciprocal roles and responsibilities of both the client and the helper in an ethical helping relationship.
5.	Discuss what is meant by the concept of cultural sensitivity.
6.	Describe the obligations incurred by a helper who has established a "special relationship” with a client.
7.	Explain what is meant by "duty to care” and what defines that obligation.
8.	Describe how licensure and/or certification may lend legal power to the professional codes of conduct.
9.	Provide examples of ethical practice that may be illegal and legal requirements that may violate professional code of ethics.
10.	Describe one model for identifying and resolving conflict between ethics and legality.
11.	Define what is meant by "system culture."
12.	Discuss the impact of system culture on ethical decision-making.
13.	Identify possible points of ethical conflict when working in a managed care environment.
14.	Identify possible points of ethical conflict when working with third-party payees.
15.	Define informed consent as applied to a helping relationship.
16.	Explain the rationale and utility of gaining informed consent while working with a client.
17.	Identify the essential elements required to ensure informed consent.
18.	Discuss the special considerations and difficulties incurred while gaining informed consent working with minor and cognitively impaired clients.
19.	Describe what is meant by the terms confidentiality and privilege.
20.	Identify the conditions under which confidentiality and privilege should be breached.
21.	Discuss the conditions that need to exist for the Duty to Warn to be implemented.
22.	Describe the special challenges facing practitioners working with both minors and those with HIV/AIDS in regards to confidentiality.
23.	Describe what is meant by the concept of professional boundaries.
24.	Describe the difference between boundary violation and boundary crossing.
25.	Explain how simple identification and transference can interfere with the maintenance of professional boundaries.
26.	Describe what is meant by "dual” or "multiple” relationships.
27.	List questions for reflection that can guide a practitioner’s decisions regarding the ethics of dual relationship.
28.	Explain why sexual intimacy with a client is clearly a boundary violation.
29.	Describe what is meant by the term competence.
30.	Discuss the role of continuing education, ongoing supervision, and consultation in the ongoing development of professional competence.
31.	Describe the value of approaching practice from a reflective, action research orientation.
32.	Discuss the conditions under which referral would appear to be the most efficacious treatment decision.
33.	Describe legal considerations and concerns in relation to the issue of helper competence, standard of care, and treatment efficacy.
34.	Describe the benefits of utilizing a system of evaluation within one’s practice.
35.	Define the terms formative and summative evaluation.
36.	Describe one approach to measuring outcome and goal achievement.
37.	Identify the minimal records necessary for demonstrating competent, ethical practice.

Course Contents

1.	An Introduction to the Formal Process of Helping
2.	Helper Variables: What the Helper Brings to the Relationship
3.	Ethical Standards: Guidelines For Helping Others
4.	Ethics and the Law
5.	Ethical Conflicts: The System and the Interests of Others
6.	Informed Consent
7.	Confidentiality
8.	Boundaries and the Ethical Use of Power
9.	Efficacy of Treatment
10.	Evaluation and Accountability

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