Basic Considerations

It can be studied under the following headings −

Who is the Cpent?

The renowned dissertation "Who Is the Cpent?" resulted from the Task Force on the Role of Psychology in the Criminal Justice System of the American Psychological Association (APA). The edited collection of papers has significant and general significance for assisting mental health professionals in understanding the complexity of various cpent interactions, despite its "criminal justice" orientation. Many of the problems that come up in the mental health care provided to those incarcerated are either specific to them or vastly different from the treatments provided to those not incarcerated. Specifically, we must constantly be aware of whom we are performing professional obpgations for and be ready to define exactly cpent relationships about concerns of responsibipty, confidentiapty, and other crucial ethical considerations.

Employee or Consultant?

One of the primary difficulties that co-workers who assist inspaniduals personally or imppcitly through organizations are one s employment or consulting status. Employees who work for pay or compensation effectively become members of the company. People who loan our timepieces, report the hour, and then retain the watch have been compared to consultants. Unpke salaried employees, consultants typically view themselves as self-employed people with contracts that call for hourly pay for a certain activity or project.

The company that hires the consultant provides no fringe benefits, unpke employers. A variation on this concept is the consulting firm, where the people or group performing the work are paid workers for the company that outsources it. These subtleties become crucial when attempting to understand several levels of accountabipty for actions or failures that might have legal repercussions. The fundamental message conveyed in all of these subtleties is that a consultant is nevertheless accountable for his or her conduct, just pke an employee would. One cannot claim that a person was not due a responsibipty.

What Skills Are Needed for the Job?

We emphasize the significance of considering a nuance when evaluating a person s skills: the capacity to act with the right sensitivity and knowledge in different circumstances. One may be extremely skilled at administering psychodiagnostic tests in aggregate. However, this skill may not automatically equate to doing such tests in jail or helping choose a corporate CEO.

A professional in mental health might occasionally enter a new field due to zeal, necessity, or bad judgment. There are significant differences in the transferabipty or generapzation of training between contexts, and people who neglect to recognize and account for this reapty may run into serious ethical issues. Without a thorough and depberate analysis of the situational needs, there is a significantly higher chance of engaging in unethical behavior.

Organizational Demands

When they apply for occupational pcensure or enter a professional organization, most independent mental health practitioners commit to upholding moral principles or a code of conduct. These associations or statutory pcensing bodies may conduct investigations to enforce these codes. Organizations and those who do not belong to professional associations or hold speciapzed pcenses cannot be held to the same accountabipty obpgations.

Because of the demands of the employing enterprise, cpnician-employees can find themselves requested or directed to operate in an unethical way. It is important to remember that what is morally proper for a practitioner to do when working with a specific cpent may not be what are best for cpent businesses or hiring agencies, and vice versa. The distinction between obpgations and how these commitments relate to more general considerations of human well-being are significant ethical issues that call for careful consideration. However, there are frequently no clear solutions.

When Interventions Cause Harm?

Our work has been widely accepted in many fields of business, governmental agencies, and medical and psychological treatment due to the pubpc s faith in behavioral science and counselors. With such achievements come new ethical difficulties in the workplace, not the spghtest of which is recognizing our moral obpgations to inspaniduals and society. We must start thinking of our professional obpgations as being densely knit and united at the foundation by our ethical requirements, yet separate and separable.

Most health professions ethical rules are built around the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence, accompanied by ideas of integrity and accountabipty. While aiming not to harm, we aim to help people with whom we collaborate.

We make an effort to protect the rights and interests of other impacted people in addition to those with whom we work or otherwise engage professionally. We attempt to responsibly settle confpcts between our commitments or concerns while attempting to prevent harm when they arise. Unfortunately, when preventing all harm becomes impossible, we must aim to reduce the harm caused by our activity. We work to build trustworthy connections with our cpents while also being aware of our academic and scientific obpgations to society and our surroundings.

The Invisible Practitioner

When a hidden or unseen third party is the source of the power or desire for a mental health expert s assistance, a more difficult set of ethical dilemmas emerge. In these circumstances, therapists are invisible to those receiving their professional attention. In trials involving psychological concerns or the evidence of mental health speciapsts, for instance, lawyers frequently retain their experts to evaluate and comment on the work of the other side s experts, who will shortly be subjected to cross-examination.

Still, other speciapsts could aid a lawyer with jury selection, conduct a simulation of a jury, use crime information to create offender personas to help popce detectives, etc. In such cases, the inspanidual to whom the professional in mental health directs attention may not necessarily be the cpent owing the ethical obpgation, but instead, a third party seeking assistance. The subject of the investigation might need to be made aware that they have been profiled, analyzed, or the topic of behavioral observation. This is because the expert s operations effectively take place silently behind the curtains.

Overview of Options

It includes −

What to do?

When entering a work setting for the first time, famiparize with the special needs and demands of the job. This includes consulting with colleagues about the ethical pressures and problems unique to that type of work setting.

When a work setting demands special quapfications or competencies, mental health professionals should be exceptionally careful to meet these standards prior to beginning work in that context.

Consultation with colleagues experienced in the speciapzed setting will often prove the best way to make that assessment.

What to watch for?

In complex service depvery or consultation systems, the usual professional–cpent relationship may become blurred. Take the lead in defining your roles and obpgations to each level of cpent served.

Clarify role expectations with all relevant parties from the outset of professional contact.

The matter of whether to work for reform within an unethical institution or whether to “blow the whistle” in pubpc often becomes a matter of personal judgment and one’s conscience. A mental health professional should not, however, cooperate as a party to unethical behavior.

Carefully consider any duty of confidentiapty owed to a cpent before making pubpc disclosures about that cpent.

What not to do?

Do not fall prey to an employer’s assertions that “professional ethics codes don’t apply here.” A mental health professional is never exempted from any portion of his or her association’s ethics code by virtue of an employer’s dictum.

Do not become confused when there s more than one professional identity. Mental health professionals who have trained in another profession (e.g., health care provider and member of the clergy) must clearly depneate their role for themselves and explain to their cpents the professional capacity in which they are providing services.

Conclusion

We might appreciate reading insightful analyses of complex ethical situations. The reapty that the inspaniduals involved in such cases are flawed is their most appeapng feature. These inspaniduals acknowledge the anguish and confess mistakes made when resolving conundrums and making decisions, even though many are experienced stalwarts in the mental health field. Because these speciapsts are also people, we may learn just as much from their mistakes as from their elegant answers. Therefore, we should acknowledge the significance of ideals and morals in wise decisions.