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Running head: POSITION PAPER 0

FMST 325.005

Position paper # 1

Case study

Introduction

Being a counselor/social worker is one thing that requires a lot of professionalism and at any point, it should be held up high. So many ethical measures have been put in place specifically to protect a client from any exploitation. It is important for a counselor to ensure that professional boundaries are respected at all time. This will ensure that the client is protected and he/she is also protected.

1. How ethical do you consider Dr. Green’s behavior based upon principles established in the Code of Ethics and ranked in the Ethical Principles Screen? Do you believe that Dr. Green should continue to see Ava as a client or keep Ava in her class or both or neither? Why or why not?

Dr. Green is unethical in that she gives room to be a victim of conflict of interest. She fails to create the boundary between herself and her client. She allows to get attached with the client in the name of caring for her feelings. She also goes farther to give room for favors to her client by allowing her in her class and also giving her extra marks in exam, most of which she never deserved to get at all. When her client joins her class, she fails to lay down the boundaries clearly to her (Assembly, 2008). She does not inform her client of the conflict of interest that has arisen with her joining her class. Furthermore, she never went ahead to resolve the case but instead allowed it to continue until a point where she questioned her judgment, something that was getting hard for her to reverse (Dolgoff, Harrington & Loewenberg, 2012).

I think Dr. Green should neither continue seeing Ava as a client nor keep her in her class. This is because of the attachment Dr. Green has developed towards her client. Keeping her in her class is likely going to lead to further compromise, where she has to sacrifice more in order to satisfy what she thinks her client needs. It will move from adding marks to even letting her know what to expect. Keeping her as a client will also likely lead to more attachment and the class work will be brought to the picture hence affecting the effectiveness of the sessions. Therefore, the best solution to avoid affecting the outcome of her clients class work or further compromising the sessions the client attends is to terminate both.

1. How could another provider oppose your view using the Ethical Principles Screen and Code of Ethics?

Another provider can oppose my view by arguing that the dignity and worth of the client has to be respected. Terminating the relationship would compromise the client’s socially responsible self-determination. It is therefore important that the social worker ensure that she is cognizant of dual relationship to client (Assembly, 2008). They can further argue that it is the duty of the counselor to ensure that all the conflicts involving the client, ensuring that the broader interests of the client are met (Dolgoff, Harrington & Loewenberg, 2012). Further opposition would be that there is no sexual relationship or sexual harassment or even physical contact with the client. This would only indicate that the social worker has the interests of her client close at heart.

1. Compared to the great potential for harm that can exist in a sexual dual relationship, how dangerous does this situation seem?

Compared to Sexual dual relationship, this situation not dangerous that Dr. Green find herself in is not dangerous. This is because dual sexual relationship compromises the concentration and performance of the client in class. It also makes the counseling session to lose its meaning. It makes it difficult to maintain professional boundaries between the client and the social worker (Assembly, 2008).

1. Can Dr. Green remain objective in her work with Ava when she also sees her in class? Why or why not? How might this dual relationship impact her counseling work with Ava? How might it impact her ability to objectively teach Ava in this class?

Dr. Green can never remain objective in her work with Ava when she sees her in class. This is because she is emotionally attached to her. She would be trying to make sure that she gets good grades, not by her own efforts but by giving her marks that, she does not deserve. This will also make Ava lazy hence she is likely to gain little from Dr. Green’s class. The professional boundary between a teacher and student would also be breached hence she will have little respect to her lecturer. In case other students get to know of this it is also going to lead to chaos and the standard held by Dr. Green would be questioned by everyone and in the long run she would lose a lot (Reamer, 2003).

This dual relationship is also likely going to affect her counseling sessions with Ava. This is because the objective of the counseling would loses track in the long run. They would start to behave as though they are colleagues hence breaking the student-counselor boundary. On the other hand, objectively teaching Ava in class would be something that can never be achieved. The respect given to a lecturer is diminished and she would be prone to mistakes because after all, the boundary between client and the social worker has been broken (Reamer, 2003).

Conclusion

Being a counselor requires that one deals with all cases diligently. Emotions should never be brought to the work places since it compromises your ability to do your work well. It is important that all cases are handled in accordance with the ethical principles. In cases where one is nearly falling a victim to bridging one of these ethical obligations, he/she should re-evaluate where she stands and take the necessary measures to remedy it.

References

Assembly, N. D. (2008). Code of ethics of the national association of social workers.

Dolgoff, R., Harrington, D., & Loewenberg, F. M. (2012). Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series: Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice. Cengage Learning.

Reamer, F. G. (2003). Boundary issues in social work: Managing dual relationships. Social work, 48(1), 121-133.