The Ethical Challenges That May Come Up When Dealing With Intellectual Disable Clients

Besides, if a person lacks mental capacity to give valid consent, nurses caring for such a person should be involved in assessing the treatment to be administered. However, they must be “aware of the legislation regarding mental capacity, ensuring that people who lack capacity remain at the centre of decision making and are fully safeguarded.”6 The Mental Capacity Act (2005) offers assistance regarding ‘capacity’. The Act applies to all aged 16 and above and to those with learning disability, dementia, brain injury, autism and mental health issues.

We are going to explore the world of ethical issues in psychology. As in any medical or mental health fields there are rules we all must follow as professionals. In this essay today we will be exploring a case study where we have a young lady who has been stricken by a mental disability. We will be looking at the facts in which her disability was handled by a professional in the field of psychology. We also will be discussing the rights and wrongs that are presented in her case study. We will also be discussing the APA ethical codes and gain a clearer understanding of where some things went wrong and why shall we begin.

An intellectual disability, like the one had by Roland Johnson and about one percent to three percent of people, is defined as “a disability that is present at birth or occurs in the developmental period (before the age of 18) and is characterized by significant sub-average intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with related limitations in 2 or more areas of adaptive functioning” (Daul). Roland Johnson, though his life was hard, did not let his “limitations” limit him.

Patient informed consent refers to the situation where the patient is fully informed on the consequences of their health care decision after which the patient gives the decision. For there to be informed consent, there are five elements that must be discussed. The first is the nature of the patient's decision then the applicable alternatives to the proposed intervention. Third are the risks, benefits and uncertainties associated with each of the alternatives. Fourth is the assessment of the patient's understanding and last is the acceptance of the intervention or an alternative by the patient. Before the patient's consent is considered to be valid, the patient's competency to make the decision must be addressed. The criteria for evaluating the patient's competency is clearly stated in section 3 of the 2005 Mental Capacity Act which states that provided the person is able to understand, retain and use information provided and to communicate their decision in any way such as talking or sign language, they are competent to make a decision. If a patient is treated against their refusal to consent, it amounts to the tort of battery or can also be considered the crime of assault. In addition to this, laws that touch on human rights reinforce the importance of the protection of the physical integrity of the individual in terms of their right to respect of their private life. Therefore, refusal of medical treatment is a human right.

Therefore, the BA should advise his/her supervisor that the recommended actions could denote violations to the code of ethics. Finally, the code 7.02 (b) applies. The code states that if the client's rights have been violated or there is the possibility of harm; the BA must report it to the relevant agencies, following organizational policies and consulting with other professionals as well. In addition, the BA must document the sexual encounters of its client (BACB, 2014). In this case there is a greater legality: the client has mild mental retardation. People with mild mental retardation (IQ between 50-55 to 70) can receive education up to a sixth grade level, obtain vocational training, and live a relatively independent life. Nevertheless, some "normal" individuals may take advantage of the cognitive level of people with mental retardation to commit sexual abuse or take advantage of

Ethical dilemmas are a struggle for all human service professionals such as discrimination, displaying empathy and recognizing a client’s unmet needs. Discrimination is the knowledge or carelessness of destroying another’s self-esteem by focusing on their disability. Overcoming discrimination for many individuals can be a battle that they may sometimes succumb to without proper assistance and failure of the worker to apply the ethical standards properly. In the National Organization of Human Services Handbook listed in the responsibility to the Community and Society section statement seventeen is found, “Human service professionals provide services without discrimination or preference based on age, ethnicity, culture, race, disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status.” (NOWS, Adopted 1996)

Studies investigating the capacity of patients with mild-to-moderate cognitive impairment to give consent or those analyzing the decision-making of surrogates of AD patients with dementia often present conflicting results. The ethical principle of autonomy clearly recognizes each person’s right to make informed decisions with respect to participation in research. However, taking into account the nature of the disease, (which affects cognitive processing in a critical way) and its progression towards dementia there are justified concerns about the capacity of these patients to give informed consent in an AD research context. Thus, there is a need to equilibrate the protection of vulnerable adults with their right to choose to participate in such research. It is debatable whether patients with mild to moderate impairment are capable of giving informed consent. For instance, while some studies assessing the consent-giving capacities of mildly cognitively impaired AD patients conclude that they do not have these capacities (Kim et al., 2001), others seem to show that the reverse is true and a proportion of patients with mild and moderate AD are perfectly capable of making informed decisions (Karlawish et al. 2002).

When dealing with a mental disability, whether it be taking care of, diagnosing, or simply knowing how to act and react to the disabled; it can be very nerve racking wondering if what you're doing is respectful, helpful, and correct. There are hundreds of different symptoms that may or may not present themselves in hundreds of mental disabilities and a thousand more combinations of those. Knowing just what handicap you’re dealing with is normally just a shot in the dark and the hope that you got it right on the first try. My shot in the dark for Lennie is Autism.

He was “disheveled with compromised hygiene.” He had anxiety and was “more paranoid than usual.” He was “not able to focus long enough to create any meaningful time line.” In early 2010, the claimant wanted mental health treatment; however, sometime later he refused to take psychotropic medications and counseling. He had extreme difficulty with attention and concentration. His full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) score was 84, which placed him in the borderline or lower range of intellectual functioning. He was diagnosed with Asperger’s disorder, cognitive disorder, social anxiety, personality disorder, back injury, poverty, and social isolation. He could not “work in any position, even an entry level one, because of his serious cognitive and social skills

Mental and physical disabilities are often not well understood. With lack of understanding comes discrimination against people with disabilities. However a growing trend of awareness from the media, advocate groups and development of legal mechanisms have helped provide justice to these people and continues to improve the situation. 18.5% of Australia’s population (4.2million Australians) has a disability. This is a surprisingly large number, however only about 6% of the population has a severe disability. According to the World Health Organization “Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions.” In the past we have had trouble understanding disabilities, particularly mental ones, causing a lot of discrimination and stigma against people. Education and the workplace are areas in which legal mechanisms have proven to be effective when providing justice for people with disabilities. Although an area which is still improving is law enforcement surrounding people with mental illness.

The level of impairment Sam experiences is Moderate severity level of an intellectual disability. Under the conceptual domain, Sam’s conceptual skills are far behind for someone his age for an adult his academic skills are on the level of an elementary school student. Social domain spoken language is main source of communication for individuals but less complex than people Sam’s age. Relationships and friendships can be successful for a person with an intellectual disability. Friends and family are important for Sam, he has a group of close friends who have a similar

This analytical research paper will be discussing some ethical issues as illustrated in Stephen Feldman’s video, “Legal and Ethical Issues for Mental Health Professionals”, which this include; the duty to report; the duty to warn; Confidentiality; and Privilege. And also this paper will look into how these ethical issues are implemented by the State of Maryland and the ACA code of ethics. Furthermore, in the paper, there will be a discussion on my view point as to the varying discussions I saw on the video, coupled with what I read from the State of Maryland and ACA code of

Free and informed consent is one of the pillars of the right to health and to legal capacity. For people with disabilities, this principle is often violated and undermined by paternalistic attitudes and actions. So all health professional working with disability take extra care for paternalistic acts

Insofar as informed consent has been expounded, two main principles of bioethics have emerged as paramount; autonomy and non-maleficence. Although seemingly clear, the boundary of both respecting a person’s autonomy and doing no harm becomes blurred when the patients have disabilities that remove their ability to reason and justify soundly (e.g. total brain injuries or severe stroke patients). Although the participants in the proposed study will be fully-abled as per the exclusion criteria, understanding why cognitively impaired participants cannot give ‘informed’ consent further elaborates on higher-order-thinking required in the informed consent process. Without such a process, patients whom elect to become participants may not understand that this research is a separate entity to their regular treatment regime, and essentially will have become coerced into consenting due to a lack of clarification (Kerridge, Lowe, & Stewart, 2009; Rigg, 2012a; Rigg, 2012b).

The profession of rehabilitation counseling seeks to provide assistance to individuals who suffer from developmental, emotional, mental, and physical disabilities. These professionals give the support needed for struggling individuals to continue leading fulfilling lives, and maintaining their independence. In order for a rehabilitation counselor to provide their services with the highest quality, they must complete their duties all the while pertaining to the appropriate code of ethics. At times, the ability to do so can be challenging, therefore resulting in the need for a rehabilitation counselor to reference a practitioner’s guide for assistance in ethical decision making. The utilization of a secondary source insures that the specialist can make the best possible decisions regarding the person in their care. In order to complete this case study, the provided practitioners guide to ethical decision making, the Code of Professional Ethics for Rehabilitation Counselors, and two peer reviewed journal articles, will be used as supplementary tools.