The duty to warn refers to a psychologist notifying a potential third party or governing authorities of the danger that might be inevitable. The duty to warn goes together with the duty to protect a third party whose life might be in danger. The therapist has a legal role to play by protecting a third party from danger through hospitalization and outpatient therapy while still observing confidentiality. However, the duty to warn might require the confidentiality to be overlooked. Duty to warn refers to warning an individual but not the public. When a person threatens the public, they should not be notified even if the danger gets noted. A psychologist has a role to play in every client’s life.
An example is when a person threatens to transmit HIV and other diseases. It may be illegal in many countries for a person to infect other people with a disease knowingly especially HIV. However, a clinical psychologist should not be obligated to tell the other people of the risk of transmission. The client has a right to confidentiality. Duty to warn got developed when Tarasoff got murdered by a person who had threatened to do so. He had told the therapist that one day he would murder her, but the therapist protected the client’s confidentiality. When Tarasoff got killed in 1976, her parents went to court to report the Regents of the University of California. Another case was Jabloski by Pahls v. US. This case extended the duty to warn when it included reviewing history to detect history of violence. Jabloski had a history of violence that got discovered through an assessment by the doctors. Since the doctor failed to notify his girlfriend Kimbal, She got killed by him when Jabloski got released from the hospital (Cherry 2014).
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Kendra Cherry. (2014). What Is Duty to Warn? Retrieved on 22 March, 2014 from http://psychology.about.com/od/dindex/g/def_dutytowarn.htm.
Melchert, T., & Patterson, M. (1999). Duty to warn and interventions with HIV-positive clients. Professional Psychology Research and Practice, 30 (2), 180-186.
Reamer, F. (2003). Social work malpractice and liability (2nd Ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.
Stanard, R., & Hazler, R. (1995). Legal and ethical implications of HIV and duty to warn for counselors: Does Tarasoff apply? Journal of Counseling and Development, 73 (4), 397-400.
Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California (Cal. 1976) 5551.p.2d 334.
Walcott, D. M., Cerundolo, P., & Beck, J. C. (2001). Current analysis of the Tarasoff duty: An evolution towards the limitation of the duty to protect. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 19, 325-343.
Although doctor-patient confidentiality is standard today, a caveat about this privilege is that it does not protect all statements made to therapists and only applies to regularly scheduled appointments. Additionally, if a patient reveals that they intend to harm someone, it is the therapist’s duty to report this fact to the proper authorities.
WHITE, R., BROADBENT, G. and BROWN, K., 2009. Law and the social work practitioner: a manual for practice. Exeter England]: Learning Matters.
Harm Reduction theory is an approach that was originally and successfully used when counseling HIV positive clients. When using the Harm Reduction approach during drug treatment, the counselor approaches the issue of substance abuse as a something more than just an issue to be cured. The intent of Harm reduction therapy is not to completely eliminate the client’s use of drugs, but instead focuses on minimizing the physical and mental harm that can be associated with the ongoing abuse of the given substance. The strategies used during this type of therapy emphasize management of the clients drug and alcohol use. In many cases teaching the client this type of drug management approach has been shown to reduce harm to the client, people closely involved with the client, as well as to the community. (Miller, 1996)
Without exception, confidentiality trumps duty to warn, court rules (2004). Mental Health Law Report, 22 (6), 53. Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=GRCM&docId=A120474886&source=gale&userGroupName=clemson_itweb&version=1.0
Dorfman, R. (1996). Clinical social work: Definiton [sic], practice, and vision. New York: Brunner/Mazel Publishers.
There is much debate about how psychiatric patients should be cared for and treated. Especially in an in patient setting, many healthcare providers will choose to care for mentally ill patients in their own way. Patients who are mentally ill have restrictions on certain aspects of their care such as access to certain things along with the environment they are in. Although confidentiality is important and should be maintained in all aspects of medical care, I do think that psychiatric patients should have the same have the opportunity to keep as much information confidential as they wish. Given the circumstances there are reasons to breach that confidentiality in mentally ill patients in order to keep the patient safe and out of harms way.
One day while doing his job, a physician used a used swab that was possibly infected with HIV on another patient. When looked at by certain people, the doctor did the correct thing by telling his patient that he roused a swab on him/her. However, the chances of this patient getting HIV was substantially low, and he should have waited for the patient to develop symptoms, which would have been rare, before telling the truth. As stated by Michael Greenberg, “he might have done better by keeping his mouth shut.” If the doctor did lie, he could have lied to protect himself, the quality of life of the patient, and his ability to help others with their lives. If he had not told the patient that he used the swab on him/her, he/she would not have had to live in fear of getting HIV. Because of this decision of truth telling, the doctor lost his job, money, confidence, and also affected someone’s quality of life.
In today’s society with the blogs, the gossip sites and the other forms of social media, confidentiality is a thing of the past. However, for, physicians and other health professionals, they are held to a higher standard to maintain a level of ethics and confidentiality for their patients. Confidentiality is a major duty for a health professional, but is there ever a time to where it is okay to tell what a patient says in confident? What if the patient is a minor, or a senior citizen or someone who is mentally challenged? What if a patient is being abused or wants to commit suicide? Does it matter if it is a nurse, or a dentist, or a psychologist or is all medical professional held to the same moral standard? What roles does a consent form or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act plays in the medical world in being confidentiality? I would like to explore Confidentiality and the moral effects it has on the health profession.
Example, there are times when we have patients who were tested positive for HIV and after counselling still refuses to disclose their status to their spouse. The spouse is the one taking of this patient in the hospital and you can see her using her bare hands to handle the secretions of the patient despite been warned to use latex gloves. As a nurse or doctor you understand the implication of it and understand fully well that the wife might also be positive. The patient is already on anti-retroviral drugs and is responding gradually but the wife on the other hand knows nothing. The law permits for the wife to be told about the husband's status and she also counselled to undergo the test. If it comes out positive then the treatment is commenced immediately. The treatment will help to increase her CD4 count and save her life. In some cases HIV patient instead of telling their family members to take precautionary measures when caring for them they don’t and the life of this care givers is put at stake. In such cases the nurses can only ensure that their caregivers are educated on proper use of hand gloves to proper themselves especially when dealing with secretions from patient
National Association of Social Workers. (2008). Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. Washington DC: Author.
Her scientific casework methods are still used in assessing clients in today’s practice. The Social Work profession also built off her values of individuality, dignity, and importance of human relationships in the core values of the profession, these can be seen in the National Association of Social Workers’ Code of Ethics. While Social Workers still follow most of Richmond’s values today, other values have been re-evaluated as time has progressed. Instead of Richmond’s suggestions of gathering personal information without the client’s knowledge (Pumphrey, 1961), the Social Work profession now values confidentiality and privacy when dealing with clients.
Press. Parrott, Lester. (2010). Principles and consequences. In: Values and Ethics in Social Work. 2nd ed. Exeter: Learning Matters. P47-67.
This essay will identify key issues facing the client system and will demonstrate an intervention plan. Followed by defining the purpose of social work and the identification of the AASW Code of Ethics, in regards to the case study. Lastly, key bodies of knowledge will be identified and applied to the case study.
Ethical issues in a counseling practice lay the foundation of a therapist in practice. Ethics are at the center of how the counseling process functions and operates in a successful manner for the clients who seek help in such a setting. In order for the counseling profession to be ethical and hold professional recognition, there are many facets that need to be examined and outlined to make sure all counselors and practitioners are functioning at the highest level and withholding their duties required by the counseling profession. The first introduction so to speak of the area of ethics also happens to be one of the first steps in counseling, which is the informed consent. The informed consent provides the basis of what happens or will be happening in a counseling setting and serves to inform the client to their rights, responsibilities, and what to expect. Most importantly, the informed consent is in place for the client’s benefit. It also is important to understand that culture and environment play a role in the treatment of a client and how theories can positively or negatively impact this treatment. Therapists need to understand how to work within the context of a theory while being able to understand the individual in their own environment. Although theories are put into place to serve as a framework, there are also alternative ways to approach counseling, one example being evidence-based practice. Such an approach is very specific, which presents a series of solutions for counseling as a whole, but also brings forth many problems. Every approach or theory introduces ethical concerns that need to be taken into consideration by the entire counseling community and how each can positively and negatively affect clients and the pr...
Health care workers are expected to be compassionate and helpful to the people diagnosed with this chronic virus, but instead patients are often faced with more discrimination. Meili et al. (2015) discovered that many physicians were denying patients access to necessary HIV treatment because of their substance use addiction. This is dangerous because by not attaining the proper care HIV positive individuals can end up with worse problems including progression to AIDS, transmitting the virus to others, and even death. People reported having unreliable support systems in their home life, so when they turn to health care providers they expect them show support considering they are professionals (Harvey et al., 2014; Meili et al., 2015), but instead they are met with prejudice. This can be so frustrating for individuals who only want to better themselves and seek the necessary care they require. Patients should be met with an open mind and a patient centred approach instead of the inequity they are currently facing.