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Mental Health Code Of Ethics

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Social workers are expected to follow the National Code of Ethics and uphold the ethical values of the social work profession. Not all social workers and mental health clinicians are adhering to the Code of Ethics especially when it comes to accurately diagnosing clients. Some are purposely under or over diagnosing clients and are in direct violation of the ethical standards of the profession. Clinicians, at times, may feel pressured by external and internal forces to use a label even though they do not believe it is the best description of a person's symptoms.
According to Kirk and Kutchins( 1988), mental health professionals are intentionally misdiagnosing their clients for reasons many reasons. One reason this is occurring is for third …show more content…

The implications for committing acts of misdiagnosing clients affect not only the clients but also the clinicians. The saying “ Do no Harm” is often associated in the field of social work and is a reminder to all social workers to put the needs of clients before those of the clinician (NASW Code of Ethics 1996). Clients trust their clinicians and view them as the expert to help them resolve the issues that have led them to seek assistance in the first place. Trust is broken when the clinician expresses their reasoning to the client for the misdiagnose, and the innocent client is easily manipulated into believing that the clinician has their best interest in mind, when in fact, they do not. Not providing the client with the proper may lead to catastrophic outcomes for the client. By breaking the confidence on the clinician by faulty and intentionally misleadings for whatever purpose, may prevent the client from trusting the social work/mental health profession as a whole. If this were to occur, it might prevent someone from future …show more content…

Insurance fraud has caused the government to tighten its declaration against these unlawful practices. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996(Braun and Cox, 2005). This Act led to the formation of the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program which is responsible for overseeing, investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraudulent acts related to insurance fraud. This a reasonable risk that clinicians make when misdiagnosing to receive reimbursement or for purposes for treatment to be paid for by the third party

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