Ethical And Legal Issues For Mental Health Professionals: A Comprehensive Handbook Of Principles and Standards

Stay up-to-date on the ethical and legal issues that affect your clinical and professional decisions!

Ethical and Legal Issues for Mental Health Professionals: A Comprehensive Handbook of Principles and Standards details the ethical and legal issues that involve mental health professionals. Respected authorities from diverse backgrounds, expertise, and professional experience discuss contemporary theories emphasizing professional ethics, issues of a professional’s actions that help or harm a patient, and ethical standards on teaching, training, research, and publication. This informative handbook provides invaluable up-to-date information and guidelines vital for every mental health professional.

Ethical and Legal Issues for Mental Health Professionals: A Comprehensive Handbook of Principles and Standards is a thorough examination of ethical behavior which can be used as a reference source for the professional or a textbook for graduate students. The handbook itself is divided into five sections. The first section is a detailed introduction of ethics, law, and licensing. The second section presents general ethical principles like competence, integrity, and respect for people’s rights and dignity. The third section examines confidentiality, privilege, consent, and protection. The fourth section focuses on general ethical standards in practice like sexual contact, multiple relationships, and bartering. The fifth section presents the ethical principles and standards in teaching, training, and research. Appendices include the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (American Psychological Association, 2002) and the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers (National Association of Social Workers, 1999).

Ethical and Legal Issues for Mental Health Professionals: A Comprehensive Handbook of Principles and Standards discusses:

the historical overview of basic approaches and issues in ethical philosophy

the five fundamental areas in the process of competence

the necessary ingredients for the mental health professional’s practice of integrity

aspirational versus enforceable standards of ethics

concern for the welfare of others as a core ethical principle

the notion of social responsibility in the ethics codes of psychologists and social workers

ethical principles, statutes, and case law protecting privacy and confidentiality

issues involving the therapist-patient privilege

analysis of the "duty to protect" doctrine and the pertaining legal issues

the dynamics of multiple relationships and boundary violations

sexualized dual relationships between psychologists and patients

possible conflict of interest in bartering for services

the requirements and implementation of maintaining patient records to avoid ethical and legal problems

the possible ethical dilemmas involving referrals and fees

much, much more

Ethical and Legal Issues for Mental Health Professionals: A Comprehensive Handbook of Principles and Standards is an essential resource for all mental health professionals, including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, therapists, and graduate students in mental health and the related fields.

*Ethical and Legal Issues for Mental Health Professionals: A Comprehensive Handbook of Principles and Standards is the first of three volumes under this title. The following volumes will focus on forensic settings and special populations/special treatment modalities.