Ethics: Top 10 Mistakes Made by Mental Health Professionals by Frederic G. Reamer

Outline

How Would You Handle These Ethical Challenges?

1) Failure to Protect Confidentiality

• Scenario – A clinical psychologist disclosed clinical records in response to a subpoena without proper authorization.

2) Not Properly Balancing Minors & Parents Rights

• Scenario – The mother of a 15-yearold client requested a full copy of the psychotherapist’s notes.

3) Self-Disclosure – A Slippery Slope

• Scenario – A client in an addictions treatment program asked his clinician whether he is in recovery and who he voted for in the last presidential election.

4) Challenging Dual Relationship Traps

• Scenario – The clients of a marriage and family therapist offered her the free use of their vacation home.

5) Sticky Financial Issues – Billing, Fees and Gifts

• Scenario – A client who was an unemployed painter had a large unpaid counseling bill and offered to paint the counselor’s home to pay off the debt.

6) Duty to Warn – When to AND When Not to

• Scenario – A clinical social worker in a mental health center counseled a client who made threats against an unidentified estranged partner.

7) Inadequate Informed Consent

• Scenario – A clinical psychologist provided distance counseling services to a client who filed a licensing board complaint alleging substandard informed consent protocols.

8) Social Media Common Ethical Challenges

• Scenario – A case manager in a mental health agency received a Facebook “friend” request from a client with whom he often exchanged text messages using a messaging app that is not HIPAA compliant.

9) Distance Counseling

• Scenario – The client of an addictions counselor in private practice moved to another state and asked the counselor to continue providing services to him using Skype and text messaging.

10) Complex Documentation Decisions

• Scenario – The client of a mental health counselor divulged that he had committed a murder several years earlier while under the influence of illegal substances.

Faculty

Frederic G. Reamer, Ph.D. Related seminars and products: 6

Professor

Rhode Island College

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Frederic G. Reamer, PhD, has been a professor in the graduate program of the School of Social Work, Rhode Island College, Providence, Rhode Island, for over 30 years. Dr. Reamer received his PhD from the University of Chicago and has served as a social worker in correctional and mental health settings. He chaired the national task force that wrote the current National Association of Social Worker’s Code of Ethics.

Dr. Reamer lectures both nationally and internationally on the subjects of professional ethics and professional malpractice and liability. In addition to ethics, his research and teaching have addressed a wide range of human service issues, including mental health, health care, criminal justice, and public welfare. Dr. Reamer has conducted extensive research on professional ethics and has been involved in several national research projects sponsored by The Hastings Center, Carnegie Corporation, Haas Foundation, and Center for Bioethics of the University of Pennsylvania.

He is the author of chapters on professional ethics in the Encyclopedia of Social Work, the Encyclopedia of Bioethics, and the Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, and is the author of many books, including: Risk Management in Social Work: Preventing Professional Malpractice, Liability, and Disciplinary Action; Boundary Issues and Dual Relationships in the Human Services; The Social Work Ethics Audit: A Risk Management Tool and his latest, On the Parole Board: Reflections on Crime, Punishment, Redemption, and Justice.

Speaker Disclosures:

Financial: Frederic Reamer is a Professor, School of Social Work, for Rhode Island College.

Non-financial: Frederic Reamer is a member of the National Association of Social Workers.

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