HUS3505 Personal Code of Ethics
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Florida State College at Jacksonville *
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3505
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Philosophy
Date
Dec 6, 2023
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docx
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7
Uploaded by CoachGorillaPerson1322
RUNNING HEAD: PERSONAL CODE OF ETHICS
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Personal Code of Ethics
Mark Pless
Florida State College at Jacksonville
HUS3505 Ethics in Human Services
Professor Carlene Cush-Ouseley
01/29/2022
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PERSONAL CODE OF ETHICS
Personal Code of Ethics
As a Human Services professional, having a personal code of ethics helps set the
environment for the client, and guide the interaction between client and professional. When
thinking about a code of ethics, there are six words that come to mind for me when thinking
about my code of ethics: excellence, personal integrity, responsibility, ambition, accountability,
and determination. Excellence helps guide you in providing the utmost quality care for your
patient and setting targets or goals for all patients. Having personal integrity and accountability
enables one to make ethical and empathic judgements throughout one’s life, and the life of the
person you are taking care of. Determination and ambition ensure that every task is done in full
completion and is the best possible outcome. Introducing informed consent at the beginning of
the first interaction is an important step in anyone’s personal code of ethics before being able to
proceed with the relationship and incorporate your own code of ethics in the counseling
environment. In order to develop one’s own personal code of ethics, it’s important to first
understand what a code of ethics is.
Code of Ethics
When thinking of a code of ethics, one must understand what exactly ethics is. Ethics is
defined as the study of what contribute good and bad conduct, including related actions and
values. Our textbook refers ethics “to the standards that govern the conduct of its professional
members” (Corey, G., p 7). Essentially ethics concerns itself with the nature of the “goodness” or
“badness” of specific decisions that were made in terms of the consequences that come with
those decisions. It goes hand and hand with the moral choices that people make, and the ways
people try to justify those same actions. A good example of this is in addiction scenarios where
“a key element in some addiction treatment programs is that clients accept that there is a power
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PERSONAL CODE OF ETHICS
higher than them-selves” (Corey, G., p 73).
The level of justification one imposes can revolve
around that person’s current mental state.
In aiding clients, it’s important to be careful not to impose one’s on beliefs and values
towards a situation. “The imposition of values by the counselor is an ethical issue in counseling
individuals, couples, families, and groups” (Corey, G., p 73). Academically, a code of ethics
focuses primarily on corporate codes of ethics. However, this is not always good with more
specifical ethical situations such as in counseling environments because there can be a lack of
clarity about what exactly one’s code of ethics consists of. While a general code of ethics exists,
each counseling professional has their own personal code of ethics that they follow along with
the general code of ethics in their own counseling environment. The lack of clarity can cause
confusion between other ethical documents that could compromise ethical guidelines.
A code of ethics consists of seven principles: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy,
justice, truth-telling, and promise-keeping. Involving those fully in the planning, and decision-
making, processes during a therapeutic process, as well as showing the best interests of the
patients refers to the principles of autonomy, beneficence, and non-maleficence. Truth-telling and
fidelity in terms of complete clarity and honesty between a counseling professional and client
express these principles of ethics as well. Through accessibility to those with disorders and
disabilities expresses the principles of social and distributive justice, and fidelity (American
Counseling Association Code of Ethics, 2016). The main purpose of a code of ethics is to ensure
public safety and fairness to all, along with these principles, are extremely important in a code of
ethics, including acquiring informed consent.
Informed Consent
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