Ethics: Top 10 Mistakes Made by Mental Health Professionals

CPD

Handouts

Faculty

Frederic G. Reamer, PhD Related seminars and products

School of Social Work, Rhode Island College

---

Frederic G. Reamer, PhD, Professor Emeritus has taught in the graduate program of the school of social work, Rhode Island College, Providence, Rhode Island for 40 years. Dr. Reamer received his PhD from the University of Chicago and has served as a social worker in correctional and mental health settings. He chaired the national task force that wrote the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics and served on the task force that added technology standards to the code. Dr. Reamer lectures both nationally and internationally on the subjects of professional ethics, professional malpractice and liability, and documentation. In addition to ethics, his research and a teaching have addressed a wide range of human service issues, including mental health, health care, criminal justice, and public welfare. Dr. Reamer has conducted extensive research on professional ethics and has been involved in several national research projects sponsored by The Hastings Center, Carnegie Corporation, Haas Foundation, and Center for Bioethics of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Reamer has been an expert witness and formal ethics consultant in more than 130 litigation and licensing board cases throughout the United States. He is the author of many books and other publications on ethical standards in behavioral health, risk management, and documentation.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Frederic Reamer has employment relationships with Rhode Island College, Rhode Island Department of Corrections, and Providence Police Department Training Academy. He receives royalties as a published author. Frederic Reamer receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Frederic Reamer serves as an advisory board member of Ocean State Stories, Pell Center, Salve Regina University and an advisory editor for the Encyclopedia of Social Work Online.

Objectives

1. Identify high-risk areas for mental health professionals, including confidentiality, professional boundaries, dual relationships, conflicts of interest, and documentation, among others.
2. Establish how to maintain ethical standards when utilizing technology to deliver services remotely (for example, using video, social media, text, and email), communicate with clients, and manage and store sensitive information.
3. Apply practical, ethics-based protocols to protect clients and prevent lawsuits and licensing board complaints.

Outline

How Would You Handle These Ethical Challenges?

1) Failure to Protect Confidentiality

• Scenario – A clinical psychologist disclosed clinical records in response to a subpoena without proper authorization.

2) Not Properly Balancing Minors & Parents Rights

• Scenario – The mother of a 15-year old client requested a full copy of the psychotherapist’s notes.

3) Self-Disclosure – A Slippery Slope

• Scenario – A client in an addictions treatment program asked his clinician whether he is in recovery and who he voted for in the last presidential election.

4) Challenging Dual Relationship Traps

• Scenario – The clients of a marriage and family therapist offered her the free use of their vacation home.

5) Sticky Financial Issues - Billing, Fees and Gifts

• Scenario – A client who was an unemployed painter had a large unpaid counselling bill and offered to paint the counsellor’s home to pay off the debt.

6) Duty to Warn – When to AND When Not to

• Scenario – A clinical social worker in a mental health centre counselled a client who made threats against an unidentified estranged partner.

7) Inadequate Informed Consent

• Scenario – A clinical psychologist provided distance counselling services to a client who filed a licensing board complaint alleging substandard informed consent protocols.

8) Social Media Common Ethical Challenges

• Scenario – A case manager in a mental health agency received a Facebook “friend” request from a client with whom he often exchanged text messages using a messaging app that is not HIPAA compliant.

9) Distance Counseling

• Scenario – The client of an addictions counsellor in private practice moved to another state and asked the counsellor to continue providing services to him using Skype and text messaging.

10) Complex Documentation Decisions

• Scenario – The client of a mental health counsellor divulged that he had committed a murder several years earlier while under the influence of illegal substances. 

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Psychologists
• Psychiatrists
• Case Managers
• Addiction Counselors
• Therapists
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals