Clincial Psychology - Essay Example

Clinical psychology which was in the past practiced in buildings at a distance has become increasingly in the mainstream. Clinical psychologists today are able to do far more than their counterparts in the 1960's and 70's. They are engaged in the application of psychological principles to the diagnosis and treatment of emotional behavior problems, mental illness, juvenile delinquency, criminal behavior, drug addiction, mental retardation, marital and family counseling's, teaching and researches etc. they are practicing independently or affiliate to various organizations at various level. As the area of operation expanded there is a need for formulating ethical standards of practices. In a global village where geographical distances have no meaning multicultural societies are coming up. In these changing and challenging situation psychologists have to develop their skills all the time. Clinical psychologist Clinical psychology is related to identifying and treating the problems/conflicts which people face. These conflicts may involve, emotional thinking, learning as well as social and sexual problems. The person practicing in the area of providing diagnostic, therapeutic and counseling services to an individual, a family, or a group is called clinical psychologists. In general, the psychologist associated with the word clinical helps people to achieve changes in life style and habit to correct health problems. Now being a professional associated with and committed to increase the scientific and professional knowledge of people's behavior to improve the condition of individuals & organization, they have to protect lots of information's about their clients. Now confidentiality is the key area, where psychologists, has to take care of. They have to take certain steps to prevent misuse of client data related to various tests and other relevant information's into the public domain. But being a professional not only providing therapeutic role they have to perform the duties of researcher educator, diagnostician, supervisor, consultant, administrator, social interventionist expert witness and may more. In providing may more services and exciting various roles often do the job professionally some ethical standards has to be formulated which can provide them the common set of principles and standards upon which psychologists build their professional and scientific work. To fulfill these requirements, American Psychological Association (APA) has formulated the Ethics code in 2002. It has been divided under ten major categories which are like some common issues like psychologists must take reasonable steps to minimize the misuse or misrepresentation; psychologists must adhere to ethical commitment first in case of conflict with law or regulations and try to resolve the conflict between law or rules governing legal authority with ethics; psychologist must stick to their ethics code in case of conflict between ethics and organizational demand or interest and to the extent feasible, resolve the conflict in a way that permits adherence to ethics code, psychologists must have the responsibility to resolve ethical violence and report these kind of violations to state or national committees on professional ethics or state licensing boards or appropriate institutional authorities and wherever possible cooperate in ethics investigations, proceedings and resulting requirements of the APA or any affiliated state psychological associations to which they belongs psychologists do not file or encourage any malaise or willful complaints but do not deny persons employment, advancement and admissions to academic or other programs, tenure or promotion, based solely upon their being subject of an ethics complaint. For clinical psychologists another area which is relevant and addressed for ethical standards is the competence. Psychologist must provide services, conduct researches & teach within their areas of competencies. They must have adequate professional knowledge and understanding of the factors associated with age, gender, race , ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientations, disability, language or socioeconomic status etc, but in case of emergencies on the basis of in competencies, services can not be denied until emergencies has ended or appropriate survives are available. The must work based on the established scientific and professional knowledge. They may delegate services but with certain precaution so the services provided to client could not be compromised. In case of personal problems & conflicts of professional and personal requirement, psychologist must limit, suspend or terminate their work related duties. Psychologist should not or never discriminate on the basis of age, gender race, identity, ethnicity, culture, national origin or nay basis prohibited by law. They should never indulge in sexual harassment or any other harassment and avoid harm to anyone. Having duties to serve each and everyone who require their services, they have to maintain multiple relationships and in maintaining these relationships they never exploit these relationship and objectivity, competence or effectiveness in performing their functions as psychologists. In performing their job they must well inform the client find out consent. One of the main areas where psychologists have to concentrate on to perform their duties with ethical standard is to maintain privacy and confidentiality. They have the primary obligations and take reasonable precautions to protect confidential information obtained through or stored in. they must obtain permissions from clients before recording any information. They must not disclose any information to anyone unless received consent of the client or legal authorization to do so. Psychologists should not indulge in false and deceptive advertising, promotions or endorsements. They must provide public advice or comment via print, internet or other electronic transmission with consistent with Ethics code. Psychologists must document their professional and scientific work and maintain records. They may maintain, disseminate and dispose confidential records for professional and scientific work. Psychologists must provide services and accept remunerations reasonable. Psychologist must take reasonable steps to ensure that program is designed and provide the appropriate knowledge and experiences. They must ensure proper teaching & provide accurate information; they must inform and take consent with the clients. Psychologists must have institutional approval for research and conduct research accordingly. Psychologists do not conduct study involving deception unless they have determined that the use of deceptive techniques is justified. Psychologists must substantiate their judgments on the basis of recommendation, reports, diagnostic or evaluative statements including forensic testimony or information and techniques sufficient to substantiate their findings. They must interpret assessment solely on scientific and professional knowledge base. In providing therapy they must inform and take consent of the client. These are the basic parameters of ethical practices, which every psychologist have to follow. These ethical codes provide them the standard for practice and more or less regulate their professional behavior. The ethical codes are thoroughly enumerated and it has been formulated in a way that it encompasses almost all the practicing area of clinical psychologists. The strengths of ethical conduct lies in the details of do's and don'ts for practicing psychologists. These ethical codes directed them to behave in a way that clients' interests must be protected at any cost by the clinical psychologist during performing his/her duties. Clients' interests are at the highest level and to be protected first and then come all the other aspects of psychologists' job profile. These ethical codes set a benchmark for practicing clinical psychologists. In case of ethical dilemmas, all the codes especially reference to committees or national bodies provided them the way out of conflicting situations. These ethical codes have certain limitations in the area of implementation, supervising and monitoring of ethical practices. They do not have any mechanisms' to implement these ethical codes. Now for the practicing psychologists, it's very important to understand the differences of personal beliefs, cultural values, and background and social identities so that they could treat client with an objective, professional and unbiased approach. Many factors influence and shape people as well as Psychologists. These include their cultural heritage(s), various dimensions of identity including ethnic and racial identity development, gender socialization, and socioeconomic experiences, and other dimensions of identity that predispose individual psychologists to certain biases and assumptions about themselves and others. In performing research work and therapeutic duties, clinical psychologist come into contact with different people of various age, culture, ethnicity, race, color etc. Psychologist personal orientations and belief could play a major role in their research and therapeutic activities. Cross-cultural and multicultural literature consistently indicates that all people are "multicultural beings," that all interactions are cross-cultural, and that all of our life experiences are perceived and shaped from within our own cultural perspectives (Fouad & Brown, 2000). So it is important that clinical psychologist must understand the cultural differences, social identities and behaviors, individuals' personal beliefs to reach an objective, rational and unbiased diagnosis or results. He/she must understand that his/her individual beliefs, cultural orientations, background and social identities are altogether may be different from his/her client and his/her results or recommendations should be solely based on scientific and professional knowledge not on any other factors. In the changing environment and shrinking world clinical psychologists must aware of the changes in technologies such as communication and social and cultural migrations and mixing of populations across the world. Psychologists play a variety of roles in a society that is undergoing rapid change, and are therefore encouraged to familiarize themselves with methods, frameworks and models for multicultural organizational development (Sue, 2001). Psychologists are playing a major role in structural changes as well as likely to be the most suitable person to implement new developments. For example, universities have begun to create positions for campus diversity directors and ombudspersons. Both roles often require knowledge and skills that are psychological and well-grounded in the understanding of diversity and multicultural issues. To be hand to hand with changes psychologists must acquire knowledge about different learning models and approaches to teaching from multiple cultural perspectives. As the Psychologists, they are encouraged to review philosophical models that influence multicultural training. These include race based models (Carter, 1995); theories regarding oppression (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1998); Multicultural Counseling and Therapy (MCT) (Sue et al., 1996); Multicultural Facets of Cultural Competence (Sue, 2001); common factors within psychotherapy and healing (Frank & Frank, 1998) and multicultural competency-based models (Arredondo & Arciniega, 2001). To ensure sound ethical judgments and scientific and rational practices clinical psychologists must acquire new skills to update their knowledge base. Psychologists have to develop cultural sensitivity and understanding to be the most effective practitioners (therapists) for all clients. Psychologists are encouraged to acquire an understanding of the ways in which these experiences relate to presenting psychological concerns (Byars & McCubbin, 2001; Hong & Ham, 2001; Lowe & Mascher, 2001). Psychologists must acquire knowledge about sociopolitical conditions and ethnic/racial identity. Culturally centered practitioners assist clients in determining whether a "problem" stems from institutional or societal racism (or other prejudice) or individual bias in others so that the client does not inappropriately personalize problems (Helms & Cook, 1999). Psychologists are also encouraged to be aware of the role that culture may play in the establishment and maintenance of a relationship between the client and therapist. Culture, ethnicity, race, and gender are various factors that may play a role in the perception of, and expectations of therapy and the role the therapist plays (American Psychiatric Association, 1994; Seely, 2001). Psychologists must know and consider the validity of a given instrument or procedure. This includes interpreting resulting data appropriately and keeping in mind the cultural and linguistic characteristics of the person being assessed. Cross-culturally sensitive practitioners are encouraged to develop skills and practices that are attuned to the unique worldview and cultural backgrounds of clients by striving to incorporate understanding of client's ethnic, linguistic, racial, and cultural background into therapy (American Psychiatric Association, 1994; Santiago-Rivera et al., 2002). Psychologists are encouraged to participate in culturally diverse and culture-specific activities. They are also encouraged to seek out community leaders, change agents, and influential individuals. Psychologists are also encouraged to respect the client's boundaries. Psychologists are encouraged to examine traditional psychotherapy practice interventions for their cultural appropriateness, e.g., person-centered, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic forms of therapy (Bernal & Scharoon-del-Rio, 2001). Now in continuously changing and varied environment it is one of the Herculean tasks for the clinical psychologist to fulfill the aspirations of the whole population but they must keep themselves open to any ideas and situations and adopt accordingly to be more and more relevant. ******************************************************************** References: 1. American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. 2. Arredondo, P., & Arciniega, G. M. (2001). Strategies and techniques for counselor training based on the multicultural counseling competencies. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 29, 263-273. 3. Atkinson, D. R., Morten, G., & Sue, D. W. (1998). Counseling American minorities. (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. 4. Bernal, G., & Scharro-del-Rio, M. R. (2001). 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