Conversion Therapy Case Study

Many are times nurses that the efforts of nurses’ medical interventions have been rejected by the patient owing to their religious beliefs. As such this paper details out the dilemma, the nurses faces while taking care of Jehovah Witness patients and the actions they take to treat the patient without violating their rights.

First through phone communications and later by mishandling client’s records, and co-workers at the agency knew about the violations and did not report them. Allowing James to continue along in his internship by participating and facilitating groups, placing clients in harm’s way with an intern who has already exhibited incompetence in the field. Once James was allowed conduct groups his conduct did not change in fact it grew worse by eventually forming a sexual relationship with one of the clients. With the total disregard for the client’s rights James should not be allowed to work in the field of mental health counseling. If he still wants to pursue a career in this field, he needs to put on a suspension period before being allowed to practice in this

As explained by the Arizona Department of Health Services (2011), “Each behavioral health recipient has the right to participate in decisions regarding his or her behavioral health care, including the right to refuse treatment.” This individual violated multiple NASW (2013), ethical responsibilities throughout the course of professional services provided including the values of informed consent, competence, conflicts of interest, and privacy and confidentiality. Social workers should make every attempt to uphold all social work responsibilities to clients in the course of professional treatment and service. With regard to ethical responsibilities in the practice setting according to the NASW (2013), the values of supervision and consultation, education and training, and clients records appear especially relevant to this case. The individual lacked adequate experience and training in the manner in which he was practicing, however, did not consult with another professional regarding the appropriate course of action to take. In addition, client records were not properly maintained as it appeared several progress notes had not been documented along with records of informed consent, treatment plans, and releases of

David Kaplan discusses the Code of Ethics while counseling in his Journal “Ethical Implications of a Critical Legal Case for the Counseling Profession: Ward v. Wilbanks”. In this journal the case Ward v. Wilbanks is discussed on the basis of discrimination and refusal of counseling. This journal explores the background of a case filed by the ADF ( Alliance Defending Freedom, formally known as the Alliance Defense Fund) on behalf of Julea Ward against Eastern Michigan University.

The study that provides evidence that conversion therapy is both ineffective and harmful is provided by the American Psychological Association (APA) in a report entitled, Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation. The report concluded that, "efforts to change sexual

Upon the reveal of homosexuality in the bible, many young men confessed to their pastors that they were having homosexual feelings and from this, pastoral counseling exploded. Many pastors were relying on their psychology companions to aid in this movement, however, we begin to see an influx of literature on how to handle these sinners. During this time, pastors were trying to “cure” people of their homosexual thoughts through compassion and understanding. Ultimately, becoming heterosexual was the goal optimal goal. White unveils this novelty of Protestant sex-same behavior therapy.

The ACA Code of Ethics states, “when counselors are faced with ethical dilemmas that are difficult to resolve, they are expected to engage in a carefully considered ethical decision-making process,” (ACA, 2014, p. 3). Throughout these three case studies, I will use the seven-step ethical decision-making model to address the important professional issues, relevant ethical codes, and legal standards (Forester-Miller & Davis, 1996). By applying the steps to each case I will share how I came to my resolutions.

Conversion therapy, also known as reparative therapy, or Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE) has a troubled history within the United States and abroad. Conversion therapy is the use of a variety of means to attempt to change an individual’s sexual or gender orientation. Current practices include inducing vomiting or paralysis while showing a subject homoerotic images, having a subject snap a rubber band on their wrist whenever they have certain thoughts, or using tactics to create shame or aversion to same sex or transgender thoughts. Many established institutes claim that the therapy does or doesn't work and offer contradicting evidence for their position. The Movement Advancement Project, a group dedicated to providing research for the advancement of LGBT people, states in an infographic that nine states, plus the District of Columbia and a handful of municipalities have banned conversion therapy from being provided by licensed medical professionals to minors (“Kids” 1). Based on the established evidence and the overwhelming number of psychologists and sociologist that disavow conversion therapy, along with the multitude of horror stories from children who were persuaded, or forced, to participate by their parents, the federal government should ban conversion therapy for all minors.

Electroconvulsive shock therapy, copper heating wires and mind altering drugs seem like something straight out of a terrifying horror film, but these are all painful realities for some victims of conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is also known as reparative therapy, and is the widespread practice of trying to change the sexuality of gay men and women all over the world. It is an inhumane process that only hurts patients. Gay conversion therapy is a horrifying term used to rationalize physical torture, psychological damage and systematic oppression towards the LGBT community that needs to be banned.

Throughout my 13-year career in the Human Services field, spending the majority of that time working with adolescent girls in residential treatment facilities, I am very much aware of the risks that exist with regard to sexual relationships between professionals and clients. In that time, it came to my attention that at least three employees at programs where I was employed had sexual relationships with clients. In addition to the ethical issues that arose from these situations, all of the clients were under 18 years of age so the actions of these employees had legal ramifications. Many of our clients had been victims of sexual abuse prior to admission into our program. I always viewed our programs as safe places where clients would be treated with respect and could develop strong therapeutic relationships with both their counselors and program staff members. Unfortunately, the actions of a few had a detrimental effect on our programs and also the lives of our clients. Having dealt with these issues and focusing on ethical decision-making throughout my education and professional career, the ethical dilemma of

The AAMFT Code of Ethic is a written foundational ethical principles for professional prescribing mandatory direction for obligatory or prohibited action (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, 2012). The ethical code is designed to protect the professional, it is not enough for a therapist to know and follow the AAMFT Code of Ethics by itself. Because, there are other common threads that surround and overlaps the AAMFT Code of Ethics, which are developing the competences in legal laws from both state and federal level and regulations that apply to the practice of marriage and family therapy (Gehart, 2014). When it comes to laws versus AAMFT Code of Ethics, the law will always take presidents and trump everything else even the AAMFT code of ethics (Gehart, 2014). This is one of the many reasons why it is not enough for therapist to know and follow the AAMFT Code of Ethics by itself.

al., 2013, p. 253). With treatments such as “professional therapy and paraprofessional/religious ministry contexts”, Sanders and his colleagues report that thirty percent of those who participated in this form of therapy achieved “positive outcomes” (2013, p. 255). Although critics to changing one’s sexual orientation claim that there are many factors that limit the support of the research proving the success of this treatment option, Sanders states that there is data supporting successful conversions (2013, p. 255).

It is important for the federal sentencing guidelines to be fair and eliminate demographic disparities, such as gender. There are countless instances where sentencing will vary when referring to the same crime. It is common for women to be perceived as more innocent, and the caretakers. These may serve as contributing factors as to why judges’ are possibly more lenient in sentencing female offenders. Different demographic and extralegal factors such as race, ethnicity, and age are also contributing factors to this theory (Doerner,

The college campuses in the United States have the majority of the population that uses drugs among society (Wadley& Carlier, 2014). The ages of these students range from “18 to 24” that are the most likely candidates to use marijuana and are more susceptible to use and find themselves addicted while they are in college (College Drug Abuse, 2015). There is conflict on college campuses between the state and federal government laws because the college is ran by the state by falls under federal laws when marijuana is involved. The students may experience long term effects of the use of marijuana in their lifetime that they don’t factor into their health because they are not able to understand the risks involve with use. There are many aspects of marijuana that effect college campuses and the students need to find alternatives to stay on the straight and narrow path to become successful drug free adult.

Capital punishment is the death penalty, which results from committing capital crimes like espionage, treason and murder. According to Robert Dunham, the death penalty dates back to when the European settlers came to the United States, and captain George Kendall was the first to be executed in 1612. During that time, the death penalty was also practiced on criminals with minor offenses such as; stealing and killing animals etc. Death penalty before this time was carried out through crucifixion, drowning, burning alive, beating to death. After the tenth century, hanging became the usual method of execution. The United States of America also executed people with serious mental problems before 2002. According to CNN database, “1,419 people were executed since 1976 while more than 3,200 inmates await execution.” The death penalty varies between states, race and even gender.