Create a case study of your own where you as the worker are faced with an ethical dilemma. It can be a dilemma regarding a values conflict, professional competency, informed consent, confidentiality, dual relationships, multicultural counseling, or any other topic we've discussed in the Ethics portion of this class.

The authors Cottone and Tarvydas define ethics as a branch of philosophy dealing with human behavior. It involves an analysis of what is socially and culturally acceptable. Ethics is an agreed upon "shoulds" and "should nots," with a foundation rooted in morality but minimizing the religious context.

So if ethics is rooted in morality, how do we define morality? One definition of morality is human conduct as it relates to judgment about human behavior conforming to accepted rules of righteousness and virtue based upon a set of religious standards. These religious standards might be from Christian, Jewish, Islam, Hindu, or another faith. The author Terry Aichele defines morality as a set of absolute standards to define methods or values acceptable to a religion. Ethics is a set of principles of good conduct or standards defined by man for secular groups such as professional organizations, companies, and government.

In the helping professions ethics and morality usually match, but not always. For example, you might be a counselor who's set of moral principles forbids divorce, but you have a client who is exploring the possibility of divorce. Ethically speaking, you should not try to influence your client's decision based upon your moral beliefs.

Laws are the minimum standards expected to follow. Again, usually ethics and laws match, but not always. An example of this is having the courts issue you a subpoena to turn over information about a client you might be working with, but refusing to do so because ethically speaking, we are not to break a client's confidentiality without good reason (threat to self, to others, child abuse).

In your book, the Corey's and Callanan write about virtue ethics. Virtue ethics is trying to be an ethical worker because you want to be versus just doing ethical things. It demands developing an ethical attitude about one's life and decision making. With this comes the distinction between mandatory and aspirational ethics. Mandatory ethics is following the letter of the law and that's it. The worker decided the right thing to do, when faced with an ethical dilemma, is to do what the law says in order to not get into trouble (sued, fired, etc.). Aspirational ethics is going beyond what the law says. Aspirational ethics is always keeping in mind what's best for the client when faced with an ethical dilemma, not what's best for the worker or the agency, but what's best for the client, which may not necessarily follow the law. Our professional organizations' codes of ethics can help in terms of aspirational ethics.

Kitchener has given workers in the field six major moral principles to follow in working with clients. When faced with any ethical dilemma, one or more of these principles will be addressed. Helping professions codes of ethics are based upon these principles. They are beneficence (services should be of benefit), nonmaleficence (do no harm), autonomy (empowerment), justice (treating all equally), fidelity (honoring commitments to the client), and veracity (being honest with the client). Probably the most important of all of these would nonmaleficence, to do no harm to the client. If the worker remembers this one, the others should fall into place.

According to the author Welfel, ethics encompasses four dimensions: having sufficient knowledge, skill, and judgment to use effective interventions; respecting the human dignity and freedom of the client; using the power inherent in the counselor's role responsibly; and acting in ways that promote public confidence in the profession of counseling.

Finally, when faced with an ethical dilemma of some kind it would be helpful to have a model to follow. I remember when I began my clinical work, and was beginning to face ethical dilemmas, it would have been very helpful to have such a model. Corey, Corey, and Callanan have developed such a model. The steps involved in the decision-making model are as follows:

1) Identify the problem or dilemma

2) Identify the potential issues (and people) involved

3) Review the relevant ethical codes (and agency's policies and procedures)

4) Know the applicable laws and regulations (both federal and state)

5) Obtain consultation (include the client)

6) Consider possible and probable courses of action

7) Enumerate the consequences of various decisions

8) Decide on what appears to be the best course of action

9) Follow-up on course of action, including documentation

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