Shelley's Professional Responsibilities

Client comes to treatment because she has been mandated by the court to receive services for her drug and alcohol usage. Client self-reports an extensive history of drug and alcohol usage, as well as, issues with controlling and maintaining her anger. Client is more concerned with her anger issues then her drug and alcohol usage. Client feels that if she can control her anger then she will not have to turn to drugs and alcohol. Client appears to be self-medicating with drugs and alcohol.

Regarding step 4, while there are no laws which pertain to this particular case as it does not involve a sexual relationship, but there are regulations and professional standards one must adhere to. Step 4 and step 5 are closely related and are the crux of this ethical dilemma. Ethics codes of all major mental health associations mandate that therapists/supervisors

In the story of “Old Doc Rivers,” readers learn Doctor Rivers, an alcoholic who is surprisingly able to do his job in impeccable fashion. Physicians require a tremendous amount of coordination and attention, thus seeing a physician that is consistently intoxicated is concerning. Like Morphine, Dr. Rivers appears to use the alcohol as a coping mechanism, thus generally improving his work. Physicians are not exempt from suffering from illness and addictions. Dr. Rivers, “always had a jug of it behind his desk,” an indication of his embrace of addiction. Though dangerous, Dr. Rivers generally does a satisfactory job, leaving his patients with no reason to complain about his addiction. Do physicians that suffer from deadly addictions have to be barred from practicing? Dr. Rivers brings this debate to light. Physicians should be able to practice as long as they are not harming their patients. Though physicians do have a high responsibility in their career, they cannot be treated as outcasts for dealing with problems other people face on a regular basis. Physicians deal with human problems and patients must be aware of that. The social pressures put on Dr. Rivers to address his addiction ultimately led to his decline as a physician. He was a mediocre physician while sober, but a great physician while under the influence of his alcohol or dope. As Dr. Rivers comes to terms with his addiction, he starts messing up more, indicative of the mental battles some physicians face. He epitomized the saying, “doctors make the worst patients,” creating a dangerous situation for himself as he began to decline further into his addiction

Decision making and best interests of the patient in the care for people with mental health problems are one of the main concerns in nursing practice. Healthcare professionals should be knowledgeable enough to practice the legal code regarding decision making and protection of the patient with mental health problems (NMC, 2008).

The decision made by the Virginia Board of Nursing concluded with an indefinite suspension of her license until a monitoring rehabilitation program has been completed. The Health Care Practitioners Program will be customized for the specific criteria that the defendant needs. If the defendant does not complete all parts of the program, she will have to come before the board to discuss the issue. The defendant stated during the hearing that she “does not trust herself around narcotics and needles.” Therefore, the board decided that she will not be able to work in a setting where she has access to either of those. The rest of the details of her implications are to be determined as a later time.

Ethical dilemmas happen frequently in the social work and how one handles them could be the difference on how a clinician keeps their license or not. The problem is there is no way to prepare a person from knowing what situations will arise. Scenarios arise all the time and new ways to handle them is constantly changing. The ethical dilemma can happen anywhere and at any time with anyone, it could be a client, co-worker, and even supervisors. No social worker is safe from them. One however can practice with scenarios and be aware of personal biases. A social worker needs to evaluate each dilemma with the different frameworks and principals to determine which one applies best, anticipate what possible outcomes could happen, and what interventions a social worker would implement.

Potential ethical issues with this case is the sexuality of the clients but Human service professionals provide services without discrimination or preference based on age, ethnicity, culture, race, disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status. Also obtaining or sharing information with Todd’s psychiatrist Human service professionals protect the integrity, safety, and security of client records. All written client information that is shared with other professionals, except in the course of professional supervision, must have the client 's prior written consent. A legal issue is the fact that Reggie is physical with Todd and although it was the past, if it happened again I must keep in mind If it is suspected that danger or harm may occur to the client or to others as a result of a client 's behavior, the human service professional acts in an appropriate and professional manner to protect the safety of those individuals. This may involve seeking consultation, supervision, and/or breaking the confidentiality of the relationship. Also Reggie smokes marijuana which is not good for urine tests with his parole officer along with Todd’s cocaine use. Human service professionals protect the client 's right to

The first thing that I learned from this conversation was that the Harm Reduction program may not work in all clinical settings. Rusty Foster and Luis Lopez both commented that Harm Reduction may not be accepted in all settings, because it depends on the client’s assessment. For example, if a client is in a position where he/she needs medical attention, then Harm Reduction may not be the best intervention at the moment. The Harm Reduction program should be used if the client is willing to reduce their current addiction. I believe that case managers should not force their

As a counselor works with clients, one may have to work with a client that are taking psychotropic medication. A client named Kimberly disclosed in a session that she has Bipolar Disorder. She is a 19 year old African American woman. Kimberly has been experiencing symptoms of Bipolar Disorder for three years. Before beginning to take lithium, Kimberly has run away from home, displays erratic behaviors, has using marijuana to relieve symptoms, and attempting suicide when experiencing severe depression. Kimberly has also attempted suicide. Kimberly’s mental illness has affected her relationship with her mother and put a financial strain on the household. Kimberly was arrested and charged with the possession of marijuana.

What I really cannot understand is the punishments given to patients for “misbehaving.” For instance, if Saks said anything too crazy, such as saying she could stab someone with her plastic fork, she would immediately be placed in restraints for long hours at a time. No one in the hospital seemed genuinely interested in treating her beyond pumping her system with drugs. The New Haven hospital was similar to “the Center” that Saks went to for her drug problem as a teenager: more time was devoted to having people just “get over it” rather than hearing a patient’s problem and addressing it. Furthermore, the rules on ethics and doctor-patient confidentiality seemed to be nonexistent at that facility. They contacted her parents against her earlier wishes and even essentially pulled her out of school. Although they may have believed they were acting in her best interest, ethically they should not have been able to disclose medical information of an adult to

A drug addict, who was homeless and drunk, was brought in by the police during a midnight shift, and had to stay in the ER until she sobered up. The drug addict was belligerent and causing problems, but doctor told the charge nurse, who is the head nurse of the ER, not to send her out until she sobers up. Since the patient was causing problems and a frequent patient at the ER, the charge nurse was annoyed and did not want to deal with this patient anymore. She did not want to listen to the doctor’s orders because she felt she knew how to handle the situation better since she was directly dealing with the patient. Because the paperwork was ready to go and the patient could be discharged, the

He must go to any length necessary to make things right and suffer any consequences or financial loss incurred. After all, integrity is critical in the life of a therapist as he or she models integrity to their clients. In the words of Edward E. Sampson & Archie Smith Jr “Honesty and dishonesty and the willingness to make decisions, think critically and contextually matters when dealing with the moral life of providers, help seekers and the recipients of care” (Sampson and Smith, 2014)

Conducting interviews is fundamental as a case manager. In order to understand more about good interviewing, I decided to watch an interview about an addict mother conducted by Dr. Phil. While watching this interview, I made some notes on attitudes and characteristics that I considered important for good interviewing. The characteristics will be presented in the following paragraphs.

For any professional working in the substance abuse treatment field, they will very likely come across situations and be presented with dilemmas relating to personal beliefs, judgments, and values. Drug or substance use and abuse have been a controversial and heated topic around the world for centuries. Drug abuse, in a way, is a facet of human culture that has been present for a great deal of human history in general. Every culture handles the issue of drug abuse differently. The history of how a society views persons with addictions is intermeshed with emotion, misperceptions, and prejudice that directly affects the care of drug abusers. This is a kind of awareness that drug users and those who provide drug treatment or rehabilitation should have. They may be susceptible to treating patients different because of their own personal views or because of the culturally normative views of that particular society. Just like teenagers may be automatically considered dangerous or irresponsible, it is fairly normative in a health care setting for a patient to be perceived negatively just because that person is a known drug user. Because of the highly charged emotional nature of the substance abuse treatment field, providers should possess the tools to explore ethical dilemmas objectively. By doing so, and by examining their own reactions to the situation, providers can proceed with the most ethical course of action. Ethical practice is

A top consultant at a firm is a no show at a client installation. The employee’s manager has uncovered damaging information while searching for his missing employee. According to other clients he has arrived late or not at all to previous appointments and has an increasing problem with his temper. The manager finally locates the missing consultant by contacting his neighbor. The employee explains he is having problems due to his wife leaving him and has abused alcohol. He states that he is not an alcoholic and will get his act together. The manager agrees to give him another chance. I agree with the manager’s decision; however I would make attending a treatment program and counseling mandatory.