Show:
The Counseling Relationship
Confidentiality, Privileged Communication, and Privacy
Case Studies
Professional Responsibility
Supervision, Training, and Teaching
100
When, if ever, is it okay to receive a gift from a client?
Answer: When determining whether or not to accept a gift from clients, counselors take into account the therapeutic relationship, the monetary value of the gift, a client’s motivation for giving the gift, and the counselor’s motivation for wanting or declining the gift. There is no dollar value indicated by the ACA Code of Ethics.
100
What is required from the client prior to sharing confidential information with another party?
Answer: Consent or without sound legal or ethical justification.
100
Your 50-year-old client was recently killed in an automobile accident. As an LPC in private practice, you had been seeing her regarding conflicts with her parents and siblings. Her relationship with them was quite contentious, and she had confided very personal information about each family member. Her family approaches you two weeks after the funeral and demands her counseling records. What do you do?
Answer: Counselors protect the confidentiality of deceased clients, consistent with legal requirements and agency or setting policies.
100
How do you know the professionals standards to which you are being held?
Review Division of Professions and Occupations Board Rules and State Statutes for Professional Counselors; Review the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics. Follow whichever standard is more rigorous.
100
Do you need to do informed consents with a suprvisee you are going to supervise?
Yes, you must do informed consent including policies and procedures as well as the due process appeal of individual supervisory actions.
200
What is informed consent?
Answer: Counselors have an obligation to review in writing and verbally with clients the rights and responsibilities of both the counselor and the client.
200
There are exceptions to confidentiality…what are they?
Answer: when disclosure is required to protect clients or identified others from serious and foreseeable harm or when legal requirements demand that confidential information must be revealed.
200
A 15-year-old client tells you about her compulsive shoplifting behavior. She gives you specific dates, times, and places of her previous crimes. Her confession of committing a criminal act creates an ethical dilemma for you, who must decide either to maintain client confidentiality or inform her parents. Although you are cautious about breaching confidentiality because other clients her age may be hesitant to confide in you, but you are concerned about the client getting caught and arrested. Do you have a duty to report this to the authorities? Her parents?
Answer: No, you have no duty to report to the authorities or her parents.
200
Is continuing education required?
You must continue to acquire and maintain reasonable awareness of current scientific and professional information in your field, as well as assure you are competent with skills.
200
Can you be your supervisee's counselor?
You must refer a supervisee to someone else for counseling, although supervisors may at times act in a limited role of a counselor based on the supervisory model to which the supervisor ascribes.
300
Sexual or romantic interaction between a former client, the client’s romantic partners or family members is prohibited for 5 years after the last client contact per the ACA Code of Ethics. If a counselor were to form a relationship after the 5 year period, what must he or she do PRIOR to engaging in the relationship?
Answer: Demonstrate forethought and document (in written form) whether the interactions or relationship can be viewed as exploitive in some way and/or whether there is still potential to harm the former client; in cases of potential exploitation and/or harm, the counselor avoids entering such an interaction or relationship.
300
If a client has a communicable, life threatening disease, can the counselor disclose this to a third party if the third party is at risk of contracting the disease from the client?
Answer: When clients disclose that they have a disease commonly known to be both communicable and life threatening, counselors may be justified in disclosing information to identifiable third parties, if they are known to be at demonstrable and high risk of contracting the disease. Prior to making va disclosure, counselors confirm that there is such a diagnosis and assess the intent of clients to inform the third parties about their disease or to engage in any behaviors that may be harmful to an identifiable third party.
300
Louise Groupleader decides to form and lead a group for awkward adolescents. Her best friend, Clara Clumsy, has a teenage son, Cliff, that Louise believes would greatly benefit from participating in her group. She makes a special visit to Clara’s office and invites her to bring Cliff to the initial session next Wednesday night. Clara is overjoyed that Louise is taking such an interest in Cliff’s self-esteem and agrees not only to bring him to the meeting but to invite several of her neighbors children as well. If Louise bothers to examine the ACA Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice before Wednesday, what should happen at that first meeting?
Answer: Louise would need to refer Cliff to another therapist so as to not to create a dual relationship.
300
Can you offer counseling services if you have your own physical, mental, or emotional problems?
You must refrain from practice if your impairment is likely to harm a client, and you must seek assistance to work through the issues until you can safely work with clients. Above all, Do No Harm.
300
Can the supervisor accept a relative of the supervisee to be anoter supervisee of the supervisor?
The supervisor should avoid accepting close relatives, romantic partners, or friends as supervisees.
400
When, if ever, is bartering (i.e. exchanging counseling for other goods or services) okay?
Answer: Counselors may barter only if the relationship is not exploitive or harmful and does not place the counselor in an unfair advantage, if the client requests it, and if such arrangements are an accepted practice among professionals in the community. Counselors consider the cultural implications of bartering and discuss relevant concerns with clients and document such agreements in a clear written contract.
400
Are two locks required to protect confidential client records per ACA standards?
Answer: No, ACA standards only state: Counselors ensure that records are kept in a secure location and that only authorized persons have access to records.
400
Cynthia, a counselor who had been successfully working as an AIDS and substance abuse counselor in a large city for several years, recently moved to a very affluent suburb and decided to open a private practice. She was surprised to find that most of the clients who came to see her were young women who suffered primarily from eating disorders and relationship problems. Cynthia had already invested quite a bit of money into her private practice, and was determined to make it work, regardless of the type of clients she had to treat. Furthermore, she felt that because she was now in private practice, she could treat whoever she chose to, regardless of the specific needs of her clients. However, Cynthia also realized that she didn’t have much training or experience working with clients with eating disorders, so she decided to attend a week-long seminar on the treatment of eating disorders offered by the local community mental health center. She was pleased to find that by attending the seminar, she could earn 20 CEUs that would count towards maintaining her licensure, and also gain the knowledge needed to successfully treat her new clients. Is there a problem?
Answer: Counselors practice in specialty areas new to them only after appropriate education, training, and supervised experience. While developing skills in new specialty areas, counselors take steps to ensure the competence of their work and to protect others from possible harm.
400
When you are doing volunteer work for an agency, or are doing Practicum or Internship, do you have to tell your client?
Absolutely...you cannot misrepresent your credentials or qualifications. This is part of informed consent.
400
What are some examples of "potentially beneficial interactions or relationships" between a supervisor and supervisee?
Attending a formal ceremony, hospital visits, providing support during a stressful event, or mutual membership in professional association, organization, or commnity.
500
What do you do when you find that your client is also seeing another Mental Health Professional?
Request a release of information for the other counselor so you can inform him or her that you are also working with the client and build a collaborative relationship with that professional so you are not working against each other, and the client is not able to split the two professionals.
500
When must you reveal confidential information in court?
You must have a subpoena signed by the judge; not a duces tecum supboena, which is issued by an attorney. You must have obtained written release of information from the client, or take steps to narrow and restrict information that will be disclosed so as not to harm the client. Consult with supervisors and legal advisors.
500
Your client, Sally, is in session and declares that she is finished with dealing with hers or anyone else's issues, and is just going to kill herself. What are your next steps?
Assess for danger to self (or others) by doing suicide risk assessment for safety, contract for the immediate future, do not leave client alone, explain exception to confidentiality and mandatory reporting, and call police. Stay with the client through the process until he or she is safe.
500
When advertising for your practice, do you have to put your credentials on the ad?
Yes. You must identify your credentials accurately.
500
How is a supervisory relationship terminated?
With notice by either party to the other, and after attempting to resolve any differences which may be leading to the termination of the relationship.