Similarity In Consumer Protections In Psychotherapy Or Counseling And Assessment Or Testing Privacy And Confidentiality
Similarity In Consumer Protections In Psychotherapy Or Counseling And Assessment Or Testing Privacy And Confidentiality
Contents
TOC o “1-3” h z u HYPERLINK l “_Toc377207565” Similarity in consumer protections in psychotherapy/counseling and assessment/testing Privacy and confidentiality PAGEREF _Toc377207565 h 1
HYPERLINK l “_Toc377207566” Difference in consumer protections for psychotherapy/counseling and assessment/testing PAGEREF _Toc377207566 h 2
Similarity in consumer protections in psychotherapy/counseling and assessment/testing Privacy and confidentialityIn the two articles, privacy and confidentiality is an important ethical issue that must be enhanced. The right of the client to privacy must be maintained and so his/her information must be kept confidential unless the client gives consent or in case where the information need to be treated as an emergency.
Based on the psychotherapy/counseling article, to enhance privacy and confidentiality, the Nurse must ensure that the right to privacy of the individual is upheld by concealing privileged information .An exception can occur in situations where there is need for emergency care and so he/she will be compelled to release the information to the relevant parties such as the doctor and family members. The nurse should ensure that records of the client are written and kept only by an authorized person .If there is need for the information, consent must be received from the owner or appropriate person.
Standard 4 of Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct deals with matters involving privacy and confidentiality. Psychologists have a primary duty and take appropriate care to protect client’s information that is confidential stored or obtained through any medium. For instance, if a person has HIV/AIDS infection and decides to attend a counseling session, the counselor must ensure that information provided by the client is confidential to avoid getting in conflict with the client and to prevent stigma on the client as a result of leak of private information. As such, confidentiality must be enhanced in recording, disclosures, consultations so as to minimize intrusion on the privacy of the client. In the two articles, confidentiality and privacy is an important ethical issue which must be maintained at all cost.
Difference in consumer protections for psychotherapy/counseling and assessment/testingConflict between codes of ethics and the law
The major difference in the treatment of ethical issue in the two articles is how to resolve ethical issue that conflicts with the law. Basing on Standard 1 of Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct, if ethical responsibility of a psychologist clash with the law or other legal authority, in most cases, psychologists clarify the state of conflict so that his/her stand concerning the ethical code is known and then make appropriate decision to solve the conflict basing on the general principles and ethical standards as stipulated in the ethics code. Under no circumstances should human rights be violated no matter which law allows that. For instance, if a rapist voluntarily goes to visit a counselor, the information has to be kept confidential although the law might require that such a person be reported to police. To enhance ethical standard, the counselor will be required remain confidential with the information even if he is breaking the law. This is in contrast with the Ethical Reasoning for Mental Health Professionals article where in practice of nursing and any other medical profession, law must be adhered to no matter whether the action is unethical. As such, health professionals must adhere to the set medical rules failure of which will make one liable for the action. For instance a health professional may consider abortion to be unethical but if he/she works in an organization and States that allow abortion, he/she will have to conduct it although the act might be unethical.
Reference
Gary G.Ford.(2000).Ethical reasoning in the mental profession. New York: CRC Press.American Psychological Association.(2010).Ethical Principles of Psychologist and codeof Ethics. http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx.
