In your Ethical Practice in the Human Services textbook, read the following:
Chapter 3, “Ethical Standards: Guidelines for Helping Others,” pages 55–76.
Chapter 8, “Informed Consent,” pages 183–214.
Use the Capella University Library to read the following:
Lee, L. M., Heilig, C.M., & White, A. (2012). Ethical justification for conducting public health surveillance without patient consent. American Journal of Public Health, 102(1), 38–44.
Busen, N. H., & Engebretson, J. C. (2008). Facilitating risk reduction among homeless and street-involved youth. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 20(11), 567–575.
Learning Components
This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:
Describe common ethical issues that may be encountered in human services activities.
Identify where human services activities may encounter ethical issues.
Determine which parts of a professional code of ethics relate to specific human services topics.
Identify various models for ethical decision making in the human services.
Informed Consent
Review the scenarios in Exercise 3.2 on page 66 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)?
Informed Consent
The ethical helper will demonstrate a respect for the rights of the client to be fully informed. Clients need to be provided with information that
enables them to make informed choices. Clearly, this can pose a challenge in
that the helper needs to attain a balance of providing the information needed
for informed decision-making at a time and in a manner that the client can
understand and successfully use that information. Too much information,
too soon, can prove overwhelming, anxiety provoking, and even destructive
to the helping process. The goal of informed consent is to promote cooperation and participation of the client in the helping process. The specifics
of such an informing process, in terms of what to present and how to present it, often create delicate situations and ethical dilemmas as presented in
Exercise 3.2. These will be more fully explored in Chapter 8.
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?
Parsons, R. D., & Dickinson, K. L. (2016). Ethical practice in the human services : From knowing to being. SAGE Publications, Incorporate
