Gift Giving Essay

Gift giving or Receiving

For Human Service Professionals it is very important that we understand our boundaries for gift giving or receiving. If we begin to take gifts or receive them this could potentially cause an ethical problem however if we try to be that super ethical person we could possibly damage one’s therapeutic relationship. What is recommended is that each situation is looked at case by case to determine if appropriate to give or receive gifts.

According to The AAMFT (2001), “marriage and family therapist do not give to or receive from clients (a) gifts of substantial value or (b) gifts that impacts the integrity or efficacy of the therapeutic relationship. (3.10).”

The question may arise what is a substantial value for a gift, simply because what may seem expensive to one may not seem expensive to another. For example let’s say you have 2 clients, both clients are aware they you’re a coffee drinker, so client A decided to get you a gift card to Starbucks for $20.00 dollars and then client B decides to get you a $1500 Coffee espresso machine, now which do you think would be a better choice to accept? One of the things we must consider is what the motive behind the gifts is and why the counselor has accepted or declined the gifts. Would accepting the more expensive gifts lead to inappropriate and unethical behavior? Therefore we must be careful when making those decisions to except or decline a gift.

The latest version by the ACA ethics (2005) it was added as a new standard for receiving gifts. It’s says that “counselor understand the challenges of accepting gifts from clients and recognize that in some cultures, small gifts are a token of respect and showing gratitude. When they are determining whether or not ...

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...racted to a client or vice versa, however this is one of those boundaries that should never be crossed between a human service worker and his/her client, nor should we have business relationships, accepting gifts or bartering. However social relationships is not always looked upon as being negative but we still must maintain boundaries.

Let us keep in mind that in any area we chose to work in there is always a code of ethics guidelines to follow or to go to when there are questions of concern in regards to a particular behavior or in regards to how the human service professional should conduct him or herself at all times. The human service professional is responsible to maintain and know polices for his or her area of concentration. This is to assure we are as affective in our jobs and to our clients so that we can always give them what is in their best interest.