Ethical Decision Making Paper Scenarios

The purpose of this assignment is to develop the ability to apply professional values, codes of ethics, and a decision-making model to the process of ethical decision making.

Choose 1 of the ethical dilemmas below to read and analyze, applying the American Counseling Association's (ACA) Decision-Making Model as outlined in the document, "A Practitioner's Guide to Ethical Decision Making." Divide the body of your paper - formatted in current APA style - into the steps outlined in the ACA document, making sure to address all questions for each section.

The body of your paper must be 6-9 pages. Your paper must also include an abstract, title page, and reference page with at least 6 references, all in current APA style. Your paper must be well-thought-out and demonstrate critical thinking.

When you have completed your paper, save it as a Microsoft Word document under your name and assignment title (Example: Doe_J_Ethical_Decision-Making_Paper). Submit your paper through SafeAssign using the draft link provided in Module/Week 8. Your goal is to get a SafeAssign similarity index of less than 25%. When your report is less than 25% matching, submit your final paper through SafeAssign using the regular (non-draft) link. If the final paper you submit has a similarity index greater than 25%, it may indicate either unintentional or intentional plagiarism. You may be contacted by your instructor.

Scenario 1

Jane is a hardworking, licensed professional counselor who has a very successful private practice. Jane has not had a vacation in over a year. She is feeling the stress and burnout and knows she needs to do something quickly for her own mental health. Thus, she decides to go on vacation for a week. She quickly makes the arrangements and then emails all of her clients with whom she has appointments during the week of vacation, informing them of the need to cancel. She fails to let her other clients know she will be gone; since none of her clients are in crisis, she decides to not worry about getting someone to cover her clients while she is gone.

Scenario 2

John is a counseling intern working for an outpatient facility that specializes in alcohol and drug addiction recovery. John has been interning with the facility for 9 months. He is particularly involved in co-leading many of the groups at the facility and has gotten to know many of the clients. Overall, John really likes most of the clients at the center. One evening, while checking his email, he notices a friend request for his personal Facebook account. John recognizes the email as originating from Ben, one of the clients at the center. John has enjoyed his interactions with Ben, so he grants Ben his request. A few days later, Jeanne, another client at the center, emails John with her request to befriend John on Facebook. John is not as fond of Jeanne because she is often argumentative in group. John decides to deny the request, explaining to Jeanne he does not befriend women.

Scenario 3

Amy is a professional counselor in a private practice. She is currently in graduate school working on her Ph.D. in Counseling, so Amy must be careful with her money as most of it is paying for her education. Amy attends a seminar, given by Live Healthy Industries, on making extra money by selling their line of multivitamins and homeopathic remedies. Seeing the opportunity to make some extra money and really believing in the benefit of vitamins and homeopathic remedies, Amy signs up to become a representative of the company. As part of her marketing strategy, Amy places advertisements for the products in the waiting room of her office and on her professional web page. Several of her clients begin inquiring about the products they are seeing in the advertisements on Amy's webpage and in her waiting room. Soon, Amy has several of her client's buying the products, and Amy's money problems resolve.

Scenario 4

Robin is admitted to an intensive residential facility for drug addiction. During the first week, she is given a number of assessments including the Beck Depression Inventory, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, and the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory. Robin wonders why she is getting the inventories and how they will be used. Finally, six weeks into her admission at the facility, Robin asks her therapist for the results. She is told that clients are not allowed to see the results or any other part of their records.