Discussion board 1 with two parts so please follow the instructions carefully!
Part 1
A human services worker needs to be competent to work with clients from different cultures. There are times when cultural differences between the human services worker and the client influence the final service. For example, suppose a human services worker promotes the cause of independence for all people while the client's culture values strong family cohesion. In this case, the client's values are equivalent to dependency in the eyes of the human services worker and can lead to conflict.
However, if the human services worker possesses the cultural competence necessary to work with the client, he or she would be better equipped to manage this discrepancy in personally held, culture-based views. When situations such as these arise, the human services worker should be aware of the needs of the client with strong consideration of cultural influence.
When potential ethical conflicts occur due to various differences, the human services worker faces the challenge of making the appropriate ethical decision to ensure that the rights of his or her client are protected while receiving services. The assignment will explore the role of such cultural influences in ethical decisions in human services.
Tasks:
On the basis of your readings and research, address the following in about 200 words:
• Discuss the influence of culture in ethical decision making. In your answer:
o Address the influence of culture on the individual perceptions of the human services worker and the client.
o Focus on the potential ethical dilemmas that might arise from differences in cultural perspectives.
Part 2
Human services administrators manage agencies that employ professionals from various disciplines.
In this assignment, you will try to resolve an issue from the perspective of an administrator who is helping a psychologist in an agency. It is important to note that ethics codes might require psychologists to handle situations differently than social workers and counselors and vice versa.
asks:
You are the human services administrator for an agency and Shana is a human services professional in your agency. She is working with a client who was initially diagnosed with mild depression after separating from her fiancé. As Shana's work proceeds, she realizes that her client is beginning to recover memories from a past trauma.
While Shana is competent with treating depression and has worked in cases with trauma-related symptoms in the past, she has no experience treating the type of trauma identified by her client.
You are the administrator of the agency responsible for helping Shana handle this situation. Based on your knowledge and research, respond to the following questions in about 300 words:
• What would Shana do in this situation if she were a licensed professional counselor in a rural area where she was the only helping professional?
• What would Shana's response as a licensed counselor be? Would it be similar to or different from the way she would handle the same situation if she were a social worker or a psychologist in the agency?
In your responses, consider the following:
• There are no other psychologists, counselors, social workers, or psychiatrists within a hundred-mile radius.
• Shana's client has limited means of transportation.
• Shana has no formal training in treating the type of trauma her client is experiencing.
Shana is a member of a professional organization, such as American Psychological Association (APA), National Association of Social Workers (NASW), or American Counseling Association (ACA).
Discussion board 2 and please include references for both discussion boards.
There are times when human services providers are obligated to release confidential information about clients in spite of having concerns about how the information will be used.
However, they are also responsible for protecting the clients' privacy at such times.
The case that you will analyze in this assignment illustrates the conflict faced by human services professionals when responding to requests for their clients' confidential information.
The Case:
Assume that you are working with a client who was referred to you by his probation officer. You receive a request by the probation officer for all of your client's records since the beginning of his treatment. You have consent from your client to release the records.
However, the records contain information that you think would cause the probation officer to misappropriate her authority with your client because the officer has informally shared with you her disdain for people who have engaged in the type of activity that your client admitted to in one of your sessions.
While you have the obligation to release your client's records, your values about the potential abuse of authority by the probation officer cause significant internal conflict about releasing the records.
Tasks:
Consider the case and respond to the following in about 300 words:
• Discuss how you would negotiate the conflict between your values and your ethical obligation to release your client's records.
In your answer, you should address the following:
• The extent of information being requested
• The client's understanding of the purpose of releasing the confidential information
• Your duty to protect your client's right to privacy
• The potential result if you refuse to release the records
Discussion board 3 and please include references and use 300 words
There was a time when psychologists were the primary human services professionals allowed to administer objective tests and diagnose mental and emotional disorders. However, as social workers and counselors began providing mental health services at a growing rate due to the need for more mental health service providers, many states began to authorize these professionals to provide these services if they could demonstrate competence, which could be gained from education, training, and experience.
There are advantages of allowing social workers and counselors to perform the same duties that were once exclusively performed by psychologists.
For example, the services cost less when provided by a social worker or a counselor compared to the charges of a psychologist. In addition, the discipline-specific perspectives offered by social workers and counselors on mental health needs of clients have resulted in attention to the influence of factors beyond the focus of psychologists, such as housing, family problems, and other environmental factors affecting mental health.
The current mental health community now considers social workers and counselors as qualified as psychologists to provide a full range of mental health services. Each state has specific rules for the scope of practice for each different type of mental health professional.
In this assignment, you will explore the differences in the scopes of practice among different human services professionals. Human services administrators have to be familiar with the laws and rules governing the practice of the different types of direct service professionals employed by their agency.
Tasks:
Review psychologist, counselor, and social worker licensure laws and rules in your state. After reviewing the laws and rules, address the following:
• What are the differences in education and training requirements for competence in psychological testing among psychologists, counselors, and social workers?
• What level of licensure is required for social workers to diagnose mental health disorders?
Provide your opinion about the major differences you found in your research on the competency requirements for psychologists, counselors, and social workers to engage in psychological testing and diagnosing clients.