APA Ethics Code
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I want you to assume you have been called as an expert witness in a court proceeding. What considerations or limitations does the APA Ethics Code place upon you in terms of what you may disclose as part of your testimony? What potential challenges might this present to your professional relationship with your client?
There are various limitations which the APA Ethic Code places upon me in terms of what I may disclose as part of my testimony. The first limitation is that the APA Ethics Code permits a judge’s discretion to override privilege between client and therapist in order for the interest of justice to outweigh the interest of confidentiality. Another limitation is limit of privilege to civil actions and especially during court proceedings. Another limitation is that the confidential communication can fail to qualify as a privileged before the court making the situation a bit complex (Hazard & Dondi, 2011).
There are potential challenges this might present to my professional relationship with my client. The first one would present to me as violating the law. In addition, the ethical principles and the law might conflict meaning that the ethical principles are considered to be illegal. In fact this would be a challenge to my profession as the basic ethic principles are misused. Another challenge is civil disobedience as a course of action. In most cases, this can be a challenge to me as APA Ethic Code does not mandate psychologists actively to resolve such conflicts. This affects my profession in a negative way (Hazard & Dondi, 2011).
In conclusion, an APA Ethic Code limitation limits the profession of psychologist in many ways. In addition, the limitations are basically caused by practicing privileges which are illegal and which are against the law. In other words, it is important for any government to consider any legal issues concerning the law and especially in branches such as psychology as this limits their work performance.
References
Hazard, G. C., & Dondi, A. (2011). Legal ethics: A comparative study. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press.
Psychology Questions
Why do you believe the security of confidential therapy and health records is important to the ethical practice of psychology? What is the role of HIPAA in regards to the confidentiality of records?
The security of confidential therapy and health records is important to the ethical practice of psychology in some ways. For one, it persuades a patient to seek care and be as honest as possible when the course of a health care visits. Furthermore, the approach increases a patient willingness to have care. Finally, for any condition s which might be stigmatizing such as public health, sexual, reproductive, psychiatric health matters, and confidentiality reassures that any private information cannot be disclosed to any person without their assent (Willard & Schell, 2012).
HIPAA is federal Health insurance portability and Accountability Act of 1996.There are various roles of HIPAA in regards to the confidentiality of records. The first role is to ease how people keep their health insurance records. In addition, it helps in protecting confidentiality and security of healthcare information and helps heath care industry in controlling administrative costs. HIPAA electronic data are very crucial as they assures the health care industry in moving the handling and transmission of patient information from manual to electronic system for the purpose of increasing security, lowers the error rate, and also lowers the cost. Finally, HIPAA provide a protection to individually identifiable health information which is maintained or transmitted in a medium or any form (Iyer, Levin,Shea & Ashton, 2011).
Upon conclusion, the security of confidential therapy and health records is impacts operations of every organization which provide medical concerns and maintain personal health information. Thus, I oversee security of confidential therapy and health records as important components to the ethical practice of psychology.
Iyer, P. W., Levin, B. J., Shea, M. A., & Ashton, K. (2011). Medical legal aspects of medical records. Tucson, AZ: Lawyers & Judges Pub. Co.
Willard, H. S., & Schell, B. A. B. (2012). Willard & Spackman"s occupational therapy. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.