Ethical Pitfalls for Psychology Professionals

Introduction

Poor communication greatly hinders the successful execution of the psychological practice since clients may give information that can be used without permission. Another problem is incompetency among the psychological professionals. Psychologists are required by the various standards in the code of conduct and ethical principles, which the psychologist are required to keep. Confidentiality is an important aspect of psychological communication, which psychologists should ensure that they attain to. As such, the areas of misconduct like rudeness, inappropriate communication, lack of consultation among colleagues, giving misleading information given by the psychologists. Psychologists, in looking at confidentiality are only allowed to communicate information that is only appropriate for specific purposes and should not be in breach of the communication given by the client (American Psychological Association (APA), 2013). Furthermore, in disclosure of the information regarding the client they need consent form the client and cannot give out information without the consent as that would be in breach of confidentiality.

When colleagues consult, they should not disclose information that can lead to the identity of their clients among their colleagues. As such, they should maintain privacy in most of their communications. In their professional work they are not required to disclose information that would identify their clients and thus or other persons that they got their information from. They can only use the information when they have been allowed by their clients or disguise the information in such a way that the client cannot be identified. As such in communicating the client’s information the psychologists should ensure that they do not disclose the information to the public without consent whether in their workings or professional undertaking while at the same time they should not breach the confidentiality of their clients or patients (American Psychological Association (APA), 2013).

The send problem is incompetency. Various boundaries govern the competence of carrying out psychological duties. As such, the professionals have to carry out their duties especially where they are competent. Professional, training and education is important in checking the competence boundaries of the professionals. Professional knowledge is thus important in this regard. As such issues associated with nationalities, language, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, gender and age are supposed to be mastered by the psychologists in order that they may deal with the various problems brought to them by their clients. Psychologist just have to undertake more training especially when they need to give new services to clients and further venture into different areas of psychology especially using new technologies. As such, it is paramount for psychologists to consider providing reasonable services for their clients especially where they do not have prior training in those areas and concentrate on not harming their clients or patients. In carrying out forensic services such psychologists can become more familiar especially in dealing with certain cases in the boundaries related to their profession.

To avoid the various areas associated with competence and communication the psychologists should ensure that they discipline themselves in handling the information from their clients. As such, they can consider placing the information in files, which are kept safely from the reach of others especially where they put the information in safes. It is therefore important for the psychologist to ensure that they only get information that is important in dealing with the client’s situation. As such, it is important to keep the organization up to date with any use of the use of information provided by the client (American Psychological Association (APA), 2013).

Professional health and the resultant wellbeing of the psychological professionals is important since as they deal with the various clients they need to have the correct state of mind and thus effectively deal with the situation before them efficiently. Another self-care strategy is to consider the problem drinking and alcohol, which further gives the professionals to asses themselves to determine whether they drink alcohol as a drug or beverage. The self-test enables the psychologists to examine themselves and thus ensure that they do not get addicted on the drug since it will hinder how they treat them clients in their professional duties especially their efficient in carrying out their duties.

As such, psychologist need to take care of himself or herself to ensure that they have a sound mind and are in a better condition to carry out their duties. Psychological functions are changing greatly in the medical field and more functions are being linked to treatment of various issues affecting their clients. As such as the filed takes on more clients there is need to ensure that, the personal health of the psychiatrists is taken into consideration and thus ensure that the various psychological professionals are well kept. Another important aspect in safeguarding the credence of the professions is to ensure that the psychologists handle the information they receive form their customers with a lot of are to prevent any breach to confidentiality (American Psychological Association (APA), 2013). Therefore, psychologists should ensure that they are well prepared to handle clients professionally and in a manner that will not leave the profession in bad light.

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