Confidentiality and Relationships with Professionals - Essay Example

            Section B explains information about confidentiality and the most important section to me is B.1 (a) which talks about respecting client rights, taking into consideration multicultural and diversity issues. This section brings to mind that it is important to understand how different cultures see confidentiality, privacy views toward disclosure, and more (NCDA, p. 10).  Since we live in a global world, it is important to be well-rounded as a counselor.

            Section C speaks to professional responsibility, Capuzzi and Stauffer state that this section says that "professionals must perform at the highest level of their ability" (p. 97). I agree with this statement and section C.2 (a) is most important in this section because it says that career professionals must only work within the "boundaries of their competence" (NCDA, p. 15). This means as an example, that a career professional does not engage in mental health counseling because it is not within the scope of practice. I believe this is important because professionals must understand they cannot be everything to every client. They are governed by their "education, training, supervised experience, state, and national professional credentials and appropriate professional experience" (NCDA, p. 15).

References

Capuzzi, D., and Stauffer, M.D. (21006). Career counseling: Foundations, perspectives, and applications. NY: Pearson.

National Career Development Association. (2007). Code of Ethics. Retrieved June 15,             2010, from http://assicuatuibdatabase,cin.aws.NCDA/asset_manager/get_file/             3395/code_of_ethicsmay.2007.pdf

Assignment 3

            The standards that I chose to compare with the NCDA standards are the American Counseling Association (ACA) standards. The first difference between these two that I see is the way they are set up for reading. The ACA standards have three columns and each section is separated by a blue box so the reader knows which section they are in. The NCDA guidelines are easier to read because they are spaced out a little more.

            Both guidelines speak to the counseling relationship and they both say that counselors should avoid harm to clients. The ACA guideline says that the "primary responsibility of counselors is to respect the dignity and to promote the welfare of clients" (ACA, 2005, A.1 (a)). The NCDA states the same intention as "career professionals act to avoid harming their clients, students, trainees, and research participants and to minimize or to remedy unavoidable or unanticipated harm" (NCDA, 2007, A.4(a)). Both guidelines have this information in their first sections, the NCDA guideline on this particular issue is more concrete and it coves more ground. The ACA guidelines are longer in most sections than those in the NCDA. As an example, the section on roles and relationships with clients has very lengthy explanations of each of the counselor's roles, but the NCDA guidelines are shorter and do not go into as much detail. Both guidelines address individual and group counseling as well as consultation and private practice.

            My intended population will be teenagers as stated previously. The challenge for me is that most codes of ethics do not deal specifically with children. However, the ACA Code of Ethics is the closest to what I may use when working with children. One standard that is most important to adhere to is A.6 Roles and relationships at individual, group, institutional, and societal levels. In this area, A.6 (a) is important because it speaks to advocacy. It states that counselors should advocate at every level in order to look for barriers and obstacles that might "inhibit access and/or growth and development of clients." (ACA Code of Ethics, 2005). Children and teens need advocates, especially when they are in trouble. I believe that counselors are in a very good place to help teens because of their connections within their communities. I also think that the area of professional responsibility is an area that counselors must adhere to strictly. An example of this is C.2 (c) which states that counselors should only work in employment that they are qualified to do, based on their "education, training, supervised experience, state and national professional credentials, and appropriate professional experience" (ACA Code of Ethics, 2005). This is especially important when working with children and teens because they are already vulnerable and having people who are unqualified to work with them would make them more vulnerable.

            Two standards that may be difficult to adhere to would be confidentiality and relationships with other professionals. There may be situations that the confidentiality clause (ACA Code of Ethics, 2005) does not work well in working with teens. As an example, most teens are underage and their parents would be the ones who would decide the confidentiality. Also, if the teen becomes involved with law enforcement, confidentiality may need to be compromised if the records are subpoenaed for court.             Relationships with others would be difficult at times because there are so many different ways that professionals work. The best way to work with other professionals would be to join professional organizations and attend meetings. Also, a professional counselor can write for the journals or other written materials that the professional organization may have which can make them an expert in the field.