Ethical Issues in Relation to Psychotherapy Clinical Practice

Ethical Issues in Relation to Psychotherapy Clinical Practice
Topic Analysis
Professional Practice Module: 588623

Tarsha Warin

Lecturers: Dr Antoinette McCallin & Peter Greener
Submitted: November 3rd 2005

Introduction
I will begin this topic analysis by dividing the assignment up into four sections. The topic I am choosing to analyse is the complexity of ethical issues in relation to psychotherapy practice. Specifically these ethical issues will include the relationship, privacy and confidentiality issues, and a brief discussion of sexuality and economic cost efficiency. In section one I will include a brief outline of ethics and general ethical issues within a psychotherapy context. Section two considers health reforms and professional regulation legislation within New Zealand’s health sector. In section three I discuss the specific ethical issues as stated above within a psychotherapeutic setting and finally in section four I outline the impact of the Treaty of Waitangi on ethical practice in psychotherapy.

Section One
Ethical Issues within Psychotherapy
It is important to begin this assignment by briefly defining the term “ethics.” The Oxford Dictionary (1999) describes ethics as a, “moral principle and a moral philosophy” (p.176). This gives a simple description that gives us a basic framework to begin to work from, however, it does not clarify the issues of complexity involved when dealing with ethical issues in professional practice or in general. Some of these ethical issues include, economic scarcity, delivery systems, different patient care, increasing information, advances in medical technology and changing interprofessional roles (Reigle & Boyle, 2000).

From my perspective ethics means a body of principles that we reflect on and act on both individually and corporately within a social setting. Ethics is the foundation for decision making, guidelines for professional practice and an expression of values individually and

References: Atkinson, J. (1994). Health reform and ‘thin’ democracy. Polit Sci, 46, p.193-214. Bruhn, J. (2001). Being good and doing good: The culture of professionalism in the health practice Brown, J.E. & Slee, P. T. (1986). Paradoxical Strategies: The ethics of intervention. Castigione, A. (1947). A history of medicine. Knopf, New York Charter on medical professionalism Cheek, J., Shoebridge, J., Willis, E., & Zadoroznyj, M. (1996). Society and health. Comstock, G. (1994). Spine Update: What is medicine ethics? SPINE, 19(11), p.1297-1300. Davis, P., & Dew, K. (1999). Health and society in Aotearoa New Zealand. Davis, P., & Ashton, T. (2001). Health and Public Policy in New Zealand. Dubey, J. (1974). Confidentiality as a requirement of the therapist: technical necessities for absolute privilege in psychotherapy Psychiatry, 131, 1993-6. Durie, M. (2001). Maori Ora: The dynamics of Maori health. New York: University press. Durie, M. (2003). Whaiora: Maori health development (2 E.d). New York: Oxford University Press. Fay, J. (August 2004). Scopes of Practice for Psychotherapists Registered under the Health Practitioners Competency Assurance Act Feltham, C. (1999). Facing understanding and learning from critiques of psychotherapy and counselling Gabbard, G.O. (1989). Psychodynamics of sexual exploitation in professional relationships: Washington DC Gabbarb, G.O., & Pope, K.S. (1989). Sexual intimacies after termination: clinical, ethical and legal aspects Gillett, G. (1999). The ethics of health care management. Health Manager, 6 (1),p .5-8. Guis, E. & Coin, R. (2000). Ethics between norms and values: A study of Italian psychotherapists Irvine, R., Kerridge, I., McPhee, J., & Freeman, S. (2002). Interprofessionalism And ethics: Consensus or clash of cultures Karasu, T. B. (1996). An introduction to the psychotherapies (3d Ed.). Oxford University Press. Keiha, P. (2005). Maori health and the Treaty of Waitangi. Lecture at Auckland University of Technology, 18 August 2005. Lakin, M. (1986). Ethical challenges of group and dyadic psychotherapies: A comparative approach May, L. (1996). The social responsible self: Social theory and professional ethics. McCallin, A.M. (1999). Pluralistic dialogue: A ground theory of interdisciplinary practice McCallin, A.M. (2001). Interdisciplinary practice-a matter of teamwork: an integrated literature review Melia, K.M. (1994). The task of nursing ethics. Journal of Medical Ethics, 20, 7-11. Ministry of Health. (1994). Health Information Privacy Code. New Zealand. Ministry of Health. (2003). Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act. New Zealand. New Zealand Association of Psychotherapy (1990). Downloaded from http://www.nzap.org.nz, on 10/08/2004. Okasha, A. (2000). Ethics of psychiatry practice: consent, compulsion, and confidentiality Pomerantz, A. M. & Handelsman, M.M. (2000). Informed consent revisited: An