Counselors and Medical Malpractice, Essay Example

Dual Relationships

Ultimately, it is important to ensure that all work relationships remain strictly professional, although there is some room for friendship outside of work. However, it is important for coworkers to avoid sharing information with one another that could impair their ability to work together. It is also necessary to avoid forming these relationships with clients because this will work against the healing process (Young et al., 1995).

In the past, individuals have been reassigned to new positions or fired altogether due to negative work relationships with others. Often, this negativity can extend to involvement with the client. When individuals feel negatively towards their workplace because of their clients or their coworkers, their quality of work diminishes. This is unfair for everyone involved because it is avoidable if employees conduct themselves properly while at work.

Sexual Issues

I would first discuss this situation with the coworker and determine whether or not this individual understands the impact of these actions. I would do my best to convince this individual that it would be best for the client to begin working with another counselor. In some cases, such an action is designated as illegal (CAN, n.d.).

Ultimately, many clients tend to feel drawn to their counselors as a consequence of the personal information they reveal and the fact that a personal connection is necessary to an extent for the therapy to be successful. However, professionals are aware that engaging in a sexual relationship with a client is taking advantage of them, and that this option should only be selected if they are willing to end their professional relationship with the client.

Cross-Cultural Issues

It is important to understand that psychological health can only be achieved if the counselor has an adequate understanding of the cultural background of the client (Pederson, 2007). For example, families of certain Middle Eastern cultures are dominated by men and women have little say in family decisions. If an American counselor works with a woman from this family, it may appear that she is being abused in some way. However, it is important for counselors to consider that this is normal for the individual, unless signs of physical abuse are present, and they should attempt to treat the patient within the context of this understanding.

This influences the way I work with clients of the same culture, because I learn how to interact with these individuals hands on. I am then able to apply what I learned from prior experiences to newer ones in order to be more effective.

Helpful Training

While gaining hands on practice is helpful to enable a counselor to work better with people from other cultures, it is also helpful to read up on different cultures before working with the individuals that come from them (Tassell et al., 2012). Furthermore, it is necessary when meeting a client for the first time to ask them a series of questions relating to their culture to be able to immediately integrate some of this knowledge into the therapy session.

In addition, it would be beneficial to have discussions with other counselors that have worked with individuals from certain cultures to determine what they did to ensure that knowledge of the culture was integrated into practice. Ultimately, a combination of resources should be used to ensure that counselors adequately understand how to work with people of different cultural backgrounds.

References

CNA. (n.d.). Counselors and Medical Malpractice. Retrieved from http://www.hpso.com/pdfs/db/x-8541-510.pdf?fileName=x-8541-   510.pdf&folder=pdfs/db&isLiveStr=Y

Pederson PB. (2007). Ethics, Competence, and ProfessionalIssues in Cross-Cultural Counseling. Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/15654_Chapter_1.pdf

Tassell NA, Lock AJ. (2012). Cultural Considerations for Professional Psychology Ethics: Te tirohanga ahurea hei whakatakato tika, whakapakari te aro ki te tangata: Te ahua ki Aotearoa. Ethics and Social Welfare, 6(1).

Young JL, Griffith EEH. (1995). Regulating pastoral counseling practice:  The problem of sexual misconduct. The Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 23(3): 421-432.