Dual Relationships Essay

Dual relationships, as well as conflicts of interest, is another key ethical challenge that is likely to be experienced in counseling in the technology age. Prosek & Holm, (2014) maintain that it is imperative for the counselors to prevent conflicts of interest likely to directly or indirectly harm the client. For instance, it is unethical when social workers employ subsidized online-based technology when offering their services that necessitate clients to view advertisements belonging to commercial sponsors. As such, the clients are likely to believe that their counselors endorse such products or directly benefit from them. Moreover, an ethical challenge exists especially when counselors working in agencies on full-time basis refer clients

Initially, most of the collegial interactions took place in agency-based meetings and formal settings. Conversely, technology has fostered a different phenomenon whereby collegial interactions are now taking place in remote settings that can be considered informal such as via online platforms. This requires that the counselors respectably interact with their colleagues especially during online posting. Subsequently, it is the role of the counselors to avoid posting of derogative or defamatory information likely to have negative repercussions to the clients (Pope & Vasquez, 2016). Moreover, to avoid violating social work ethics through technology-based services, the counselor ought to show respect to any online work or product that belongs to a colleague such as not plagiarizing the work. Importantly, the counselor is expected to respond appropriately to any unethical online conduct presented by a colleague. Therefore, a poor collegial relationship is a notable challenge that faces most counselors.

Technology presents other potential problems such as counselors careless tweets, blogs, and post to social media sites which have piled up unprofessional public comments about patients, colleagues, and settings. These public comments can affect a counselor’s career. For example, Rubenstein (2008) describe another kind of problem that occurred with a social networking site: