Week 7 Discussion: Practicing Ethics

Practicing ethics is central to your role a HSPP and is essential for the profession as a whole to maintain credibility and trust with service users and the wider public. Practicing ethics can be challenging when two ethical decisions may be in conflict. For example, you have to protect a service user’s right to confidentiality until doing so could cause harm to the service user or others. Knowing if a service user is going to act in a way that may be harmful to themselves or others may require a judgment call based on consultation with colleagues or supervisors. How do you err on the side of caution, when the consequences of either decision may be undesirable: the potential harm or danger the service user could cause to themselves or others; or the violation of confidentiality that could damage the service user’s relationship to the HSPP or other providers?

For this Discussion, you will apply ethical standards to a critical incident and consider how to analyze potential conflicts between ethical standards and legal obligations.

· Review the Learning Resources and Course Announcements.

· Review the Ethical Standards for Human Services Professionals

· Research news articles from the past year for a critical incident that highlights a situation where an ethical choice may conflict with the legal obligations for HSPPs.

· Choose one of the Ethical Standards found within the NOHS Ethical Standards that relates to the critical incident from the past year.

· Review the Human Services Ethical Decision Model (Eber, 2018,p.34) in the Learning Resources.

By Day 4

Post a response to the following:

· Briefly describe a critical incident from the news in the past year and how it relates to one of the Ethical Standards found within the NOHS Ethical Standards.

· Explain why the ethical standard could be challenging to apply in the critical incident and how it may conflict with an HSPP’s legal obligations.

· Explain which step in the human services ethical decision model (Eber, 2018) would you find most challenging if you were confronted with a similar situation. In your explanation, include who you would consult to assist in your decision-making process, and whether you think the situation requires you to err on the side of your ethical or legal obligations. Provide a rationale for your choice.

Eber, P. A. (2018). A pedagogical approach to ethical decision making in a human services curriculumLinks to an external site., presented at NOHS National Conference. Des Moines, IA, 2017: National Organizations for Human Services.

Note: Go to page 34 of the document to find the Human Services Ethical Decision Model.

National Organization for Human Services. (2015). Ethical standards for human services professionals.Links to an external site.

Tarvydas, V. M., Levers, L. L., & Teahen, P. R. (2017). Ethical guidelines for mass trauma and complex humanitarian emergencies.Links to an external site. Journal of Counseling & Development, 95(3), 260-268.