Legal And Ethical Obligation Paper

When clients come to therapy, they should be aware of all benefits and consequences of therapy. Counselors have a legal and ethical obligation to its clients and should provide the client with information about policy and the limitations of confidentiality, and the type of the care they will receive. Explaining to a client the importance of confidentiality and its limits, what information is privilege, and when they have a legal obligation to report information disclosed in the counseling session. The purpose of ethics is to provide professionals with guidelines for acceptable behaviors, helping to avoid slippery slopes, and provide fairness without bias, prejudice, and destructive behaviors. Counselors deal with a diverse population and

The therapist in this case fails to warn a woman about an impending threat against her life. The therapist notified campus police about the danger of the client and they had no reasonable cause to detain him. The client went to the woman’s house with a knife and pellet gun and killed the woman. He was tried and convicted but was release on a technicality. Since his first trial and appeal was so expensive the prosecutor struck a deal with the defense for him to return to India. The woman parents sued the University because they fail to protect her daughter the case was dismissed because the university had no obligation to her daughter. There are a number of states that have passed a statue protecting a therapist from being sued for breach of confidentiality and some that haven’t. The case went for appeal: Did the doctor or university have a duty to warn a third party about a patient’s threats to do

Information can only be released by expressed consent of the client or by legal or ethical reason. During the entire counseling process counselors explain the boundaries of confidentiality and try to find situations when confidentiality must be broken. Confidentiality does not apply when the safety of the client or others are in danger as required by law (B.2.a). With regards to end of life, clients have same expectations of confidentiality depending pertinent laws and certain conditions after consulting with other professionals and legal entities (B.2.b). If a client reveals that they have a disease that is infectious and life threatening, counselors may disclose this information to third parties only if the parties involve are at risk of becoming infected. Before notifying individuals the counselor must assess if the client have the objective is to notify others of their condition or the client manners suggest they are going to put others at risk. Counselor must abide by the state laws concerning disclosure and the status of the disease (B.2.c.). If a counselor has been court ordered to release privilege information about the client, the counselor should try to get written consent from the client or take measures to limit and prevent information from being revealed