Reference no: EM132391474

Assignment: Topic Selection and Proposal

For this assignment, you will select a topic on ethical practices in human services. This topic will be the basis for your assignments throughout the course. This is the topic for which you will develop a professional training seminar for staff members in an organization or local community for the final project assignment. Your topic must address a specific ethical issue in human services that is present in organizational operations and delivery of clinical or community services.

Read all the course assignments and choose a topic. Make sure the topic you have chosen will work in all the assignments in the course.

For this assignment, select a topic from this list of possible topics:

• Duty to warn, confidentiality, and malpractice liability.

• Clinical or organizational research and counseling or organizational relationships-confidentiality and informed consent.

• Boundaries and the ethical use of power.

• Efficacy of treatment and assessing outcomes.

• Multicultural competence-ethical practice in an increasingly diverse world.

• Confidentiality and implications of HIPAA and managed care in human services.

• Multiple or dual relationships in human services professional practice.

• Ethical practice working in collaboration with multiple agencies and organizations.

• Ethical challenges working with groups, couples, families, or communities.

• Competence and the ethics of self-care.

• Other selected ethical issue to be approved by the instructor.

Once you have selected a topic, select the professional code of ethics (for example, the ethics code of the National Organization for Human Services, American Counseling Association, or the National Association of Social Workers) that you will use as your basis for analyzing the ethical issues involved.

In your assignment submission, include the following:

• In a paragraph format, the topic you selected and a discussion of the ethical issues involved.

• The ethical code you have selected to use and a discussion of the specific elements of that code of ethics that relate to your topic.

• Three current empirical research articles (no more than five years old) addressing the selected topic and the ethical issues related to your selected code of ethics. Be sure that sufficient scholarly research exists before submitting your project topic. Cite and summarize each article, and indicate how it relates to your selected topic and ethical code.

• Headings that correspond to the key points in the scoring rubrics. Review sections 3.02-3.03 of the APA manual (6th edition) for guidance on headings.

Assignment Requirements: • Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.

• APA formatting: Headings, references, and citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting.

• Length of paper: 3-5 typed, double-spaced pages, not counting the cover page and references.

• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.

Discussion 1:

Informed Consent

Review the scenarios in Exercise 3.2 on page 66 ***(SEE BELOW)***of your textbook and view any related media. In your initial post, discuss the purpose of informed consent and how it would apply to two of the scenarios. Respond to the following in relation to informed consent:

• What are the ethical responsibilities of the human service professional in the scenarios you selected?

• What are the ethical responsibilities of the human service professional to obtain informed consent for disclosures to a third party or for participation in research?

• What are the risks or challenges with disclosure in a situation where there may be a reason to breach confidentiality (such as potential harm to the client or others)?

Exercise 3.2

An Issue of Informed Consent

Directions: Below you will find a number of scenarios involving a helper and a client for whom informed consent is an issue. As you read the scenarios, identify what, if anything, you would tell the client.

• Scenario 1: Allison has been directed by her employer to go to counseling at their Employee Assistance Program (EAP) because of her "attitude at work.'' The EAP has been directed to evaluate Allison for drug use and to make a report to the employer. What, if anything, should the EAP counselor tell the client?

• Scenario 2: Timothy walks into his high school counselor's office. Timothy says that he is thinking about running away from home. Further, he states that if he is unable to get away from his parents, he will "kill himself." What information should the counselor convey to this client?

• Scenario 3: A child psychiatrist is working with an 8-year-old child with severe attention deficit with hyperactivity. The child's parent told him that this was an "allergy doctor" who may give him some "allergy" medicine. What do you feel the psychiatrist should tell the client?

Discussion 2: Working With Vulnerable Populatios

Discuss issues and concerns related to working with vulnerable populations, such as children, the elderly, those who are incarcerated, or those with physical or mental impairments. Based on readings about vulnerable populations from the studies for this unit or other literature, discuss your understanding of voluntary consent and challenges when working with vulnerable populations. Identify specific laws and ethical standards in your state that apply to working with vulnerable populations, reporting child or elder abuse, and conducting research with vulnerable populations.