The American Counseling Association Code of Ethics - Case Study Example

Ethical Decision Making Agreeably, counselors and psychologists deal with from diverse cultural backgrounds and so creating and maintaining cultural awareness is necessary to be able to handle every client in a more competent and ethical manner. The American Counseling Association (ACA) code of ethics offers a set of ethical codes particularly for mental health counseling. On the other hand, the American Psychological Association (APA) provides guidelines for providers of psychological services to culturally diverse populations (Corey, Corey and Callanan, 2011). This paper focuses on a course case study that covers ethical decision-making and it particularly explores ACA and APA codes of ethics. The behavior of the counselor that are unethical and unprofessional include judging his client, trying a new technique on the client without the client’s consent, and engaging in an intimate sexual relationship with the client. Arguably, counselors are expected to be cultural sensitive and have the ability to work with different clients from diverse population and so judging the client based on her cultural beliefs and values was unethical and unprofessional. In addition, the client has a right to be fully informed about any procedure and must agree or give an informed consent before proceeding and so planning to practice something without the client’s consent is unethical. Additionally, having any non-counseling relationship with the clients is unprofessional and it violates ACA and APA code of ethics. Nonprofessional interactions should be avoided especially if it is not beneficial to the client (Levitt and Moorhead, 2013). The counselor violated the ACA code of ethics when he planned to try the new technique on his client even after the client declined and so this behavior violates ACA code of ethics of informed consent in counseling relationship. Moreover, the counselor violated ACA code of ethics by being culturally insensitive since he refused to listen to the client’s problem because of the client’s cultural rules and behaviors. He considered his culture decent and refused to discuss the client’s cultural issues. This is not in line with ACA guidelines because these guidelines encourage cultural awareness and sensitivity and urge counselors to be competent and work with diverse client populations. In addition, this counselor violated ACA code of ethics by engaging in sexual relationship with the client. ACA guidelines prohibit non-counseling roles and relationships when counseling a client (ACA, 2014). More so, the counselor terminated counseling inappropriately. He only terminated and referred his client because he thought counseling her while they are engaged in intimate relationship would be difficult and unethical. According to ACA code of ethics, counselors can only terminate a counseling relationship when the client no longer needs the help (ACA, 2014). Therefore, the termination and referral of this client was inappropriate and violated the ACA code of ethics. In this case study, some of the specific violations of ACA code of ethics include lack of informed consent, cultural insensitivity, intimate relationship, and inappropriate termination of a counseling relationship. These violations are related to the APA ethical standards, that is, APA ethical standards include unfair discrimination, informed consent, maintaining competence, sexual harassment and exploitative relationship among others (APA, 2010). APA ethical standards require psychologists to refrain from unfair discrimination of their clients based on gender, age, race, and culture among others. More so, when providing counseling, psychologists must obtain the informed consent of the client in a language that the client understands clearly. They also need to ensure that develop and maintain their competence. In addition, APA ethical standards prohibit psychologists from engaging in any form of sexual harassment especially with the client and they are expected not to exploit individuals or clients (APA, 2010). Both APA and ACA guidelines address cultural awareness in clinical settings and they both focus on the need and importance of cultural sensitivity when diagnosing any mental disorder. More so, they both encourage counselors to recognize the importance of diversity when dealing with the client to be able to deeply understand and address the client’s condition. In addition, both APA and ACA emphasize on the importance of having a non-judgmental perspective and understanding of diverse cultures worldwide as well as culturally specific interventions. They both urge counselors to develop cultural sensitivity in the course of their operations. They stress on the importance of dealing with diverse client population in a more effective and competent manner. Both focus on creating and maintaining awareness of various cultural beliefs and values in order to attend to different clients competently and without making any judgments or discriminations. Notably, some of the differences between ACA and APA guidelines include, first, ACA guidelines focus on the specifics of the therapeutic alliance whereas APA guidelines focus on cultural awareness in professional psychological interactions from a broader perspective. Nevertheless, ACA directly addresses the need for cultural competence in mental health counseling. On the other hand, APA also addresses the need for cultural competence but not in a more direct manner. An ethical decision making model involves the following steps: identifying the problem, identify the potential issues involved, review the relevant ethics codes, know the applicable laws and regulations, obtain consultations, consider the potential course of action and choose a course of action, evaluate and implement the selected course of action (Corey, Corey and Callanan, 2011). One of the ethical dilemmas in this case is cultural sensitivity. First, the problem here is that the counselor is not aware of other cultural beliefs and values and finds it difficult to address the client’s cultural issues. According to the ACA code of ethics, counselors need to be cultural sensitive and should be able to deal with diverse client population. Therefore, counselors need to be informed about diverse cultures worldwide because this is necessary when dealing with clients who have issues with their cultural beliefs and values. Another ethical dilemma is intimate relationship with the client. In every profession, it is unethical and unprofessional to engage in intimate or exploitative relationship with the client. ACA code of ethics condemns non-counseling relationships between the counselor and the client and so counselors should ensure that they avoid such relationships that might affect how they provide services to their clients. References Corey, G., Corey, M. S., & Callanan, P. (2011). Issues and ethics in the helping professions. Belmont, Calif: Brooks/Cole. Levitt, Dana H., and Moorhead Holly J. (2013). Values and Ethics in Counseling: Real-Life Ethical Decision Making. London: Routledge. The American Counseling Association (ACA). (2014). ACA Code of Ethics. The American Psychological Association (APA). (2010). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Read More