Ethical Decision As you explored in Week 1, ethical dilemmas are referred to as such because they involve conflicting values and are not easy to resolve. Furthermore, ethical standards and codes do
ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
Some Key Terms
Professional mental health workers are designated by a variety of terms: mental health professional, practitioner, therapist, counselor, social worker, school counselor, rehabilitation counselor, addictions counselor, community worker, couples and family therapist, helper, and clinician. Throughout this book, we generally use these terms interchangeably, reflecting the differing nomenclature of the various professions.
Although values and ethics are frequently used interchangeably, the two terms are not identical. Values pertains to beliefs and attitudes that provide direction to everyday living, whereas ethics pertains to the beliefs we hold about what constitutes right conduct. Ethics are moral principles adopted by an individual or group to provide rules for right conduct. Morality is concerned wit perspectives of right and proper conduct and involves an evaluation of actions on the basis of some broader cultural context or religious standard.
Ethics represents aspirational goals, or the maximum or ideal standards set by the profession, and they are enforced by professional associations, national certification boards, and government boards that regulate professions (Remley, 1996). Codes of ethics are conceptually broad in nature and generally subject to interpretation by practitioners. Although these minimum and maximum standards may differ, they are not necessarily in conflict.
Community standards (or mores) vary on interdisciplinary, theoretical, and geographical bases. The standard for a counselor’s social contact with clients may be different in a large urban area than in a rural area, or between practitioners employing a humanistic versus a behavioral approach. Community standards often become the ultimate legal criteria for determining whether practitioners are liable for damages. Community standards define what is considered reasonable behavior when a case involving malpractice is litigated. Courts have consistently found that mental health care providers have a duty to exercise a reasonable degree of skill, knowledge, and care. Reasonableness is usually defined as the care that is ordinarily exercised by others practicing within that specialty in the professional community.
Professionalism has some relationship to ethical behavior, yet it is possible to act unprofessionally and still not act unethically. For instance, not returning a client’s telephone calls promptly might be viewed as unprofessional, but it would probably not be considered unethical unless the client were in crisis. Some situations cut across these concepts. For example, sexual intimacy between counselors and clients is considered unethical, unprofessional, immoral, and illegal. Keep the differences in the meanings of these various concepts in mind as you read.