ETHICS IN MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT

Course overview

This advanced-level course discusses how healthcare professionals are charged with providing services in an ethical manner, where ethical means in accordance with professional principles and standards of behavior. Ethics are profession-centric and differ from values, which are person-centric, or morals, which are society-centric. Ethics are used to define what is important to a profession or organization in how it conducts its business. Professional practices related to the delivery of mental health care are governed by various professional organizations, most of which are organized by practice discipline, academic degree, and/or license type. Organizations developed a professional code of ethics and conduct by which its members are required to abide. Ethical codes include aspirational principles that describe the ethical ideals central to the organization¿s mission, as well as mandatory ethics that set minimum requirements for acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Given the complexities of the human condition, it is not surprising that situations arise in providing mental health services that require the professional to make decisions based on competing ideals and principles. When a decision involves compromising one or more ethical standards, practitioners are faced with an ethical dilemma. The information presented in this course applies to the ethical provision of mental health services to adults across a variety of practice settings such as outpatient community mental health clinics, private practice settings, and inpatient psychiatric care. The course is intended for healthcare professionals, including social workers, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, advanced practice and psychiatric nurses. 1. Describe the core ethical principles of professional mental health practice. 2. Identify effective strategies for ethical decision making. 3. Explain standards for professional conduct. 4. Differentiate between ethical and unethical behavior. 5. Describe ethical issues related to mental health treatment and service delivery.