Ethics
docx
keyboard_arrow_up
School
Health Services Academy *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
12
Subject
Health Science
Date
Nov 24, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
5
Uploaded by mashkarry
1
Ethics
Student’s Name
The Department, Institutional Affiliation
Course Number and Name
The Instructor’s Name and Title
The Assignment’s Due Date
2
Ethic
Case Study
On one auspicious day, a young man by the name of JK visited a local health facility, and
he complained of having painful urination. The healthcare provider took a series of examinations
and determined that the patient was suffering from gonorrhea, which was in its full brown stage
after remaining in the body for a long time. JK was married to a beautiful lady with two children.
However, in about a month, JK had met another woman in his workplace and had developed an
intimate relationship behind the back of his wife. When the healthcare practitioner found out
about the situation, she sent JK to a human service professional to see how she could help the
patient and his intimate partners. During the discussion, JK mentioned that he did not want the
human service provider to disclose this information to his wife as this would break his family
apart on the basis of cheating and infidelity. Despite his concern, there was a need for the
healthcare professional to ensure that all three parties were treated to deal with the whole
situation. The situation created a dilemma as the human health professional would have to break
the patient’s privacy for the good of the other parties while JK could not consent to this step.
8-Step Ethical Decision-making Mode
l
Step 1
The dilemma in this case study is to maintain confidentiality and privacy of the patient’s
information. With the new revised code of ethics, confidentiality was addressed. Under the code
of ethics, human service providers have the responsibility to protect patient information. Besides,
it is significant to let the patient or the client know what is shared will remain confidential,
protected, and not shared with other parties.
3
Step 2
The main issues involved in this case include confidentiality, consent rights, and the
welfare of all three parties. If the human services professional does not provide the information
to the other two parties, then they will not consent to visit the healthcare facility for treatment.
On the other hand, by providing the information, they would be breaching the privacy code of
ethics.
Step 3
Since there is no way the human service professional will obtain consent to break the
information from JK, confidentiality will not be ensured. Therefore, Principle II, 2.2 of the
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy’s Code of Ethics will apply to the
dilemma.
Step 4
Some of the applicable laws and regulations, in this case, will be the Uniform Adoption
Act (1994). This will help in looking at how JK and the other parties would like to proceed after
the information is given out.
Step 5
When dealing with such an ethically related case study, the human service professional
needs to seek guidance from the ACA Code of Ethics (2014) and consult with other health
professionals, using the available principles and resources.
Step 6
It is apparent that the secret would make the situation more badly. Therefore, the therapist
must make a mature revelation of the secretive information in group therapy involving the three
parties.
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
4
Step 7
When the above cause of action is taken, there would be psychological risk involved at
this point as the wife would feel disrespected by the husband. The action on how the parties
would like to proceed, the wife and the woman at the workplace would like to end the counseling
process at the point or decide to participate in the healing process. However, there will be a need
to end the session with the purpose of addressing the main issue.
Step 8
The best cause of action to handle this situation is to request JK to consent to give this
information to the other parties as he sees fit. However, the human service provider must
maintain their role of being supportive during the group therapy sessions and respect the
decisions of the patients.
5
Reference
American Counseling Association. (2014). 2014 ACA code of ethics: As approved by the ACA
governing council.
[Electronic version]
.