Accountabilities of Counselors Peterson & Nisenholz 1987 As state registered and licensed professionals, counselors are protected. They are governed by scientific theories, practices and processes as well as professional standards and ethics.
They are responsible for the practice of their
profession in accordance with their mandates and professional guidelines and ethics. They are accountable to their clients, the professional body, and the government.
It is critical that the counselor and the client
fully understand the nature of the concerns, which leads to a contract to take action on a mutually agreed upon problem. 3.5. Code of Ethics of Counselors Counselors must observe confidentiality at all times.
They should not do harm to their
clients.
They should be people of high
moral standing. One of the oldest professional organizations in guidance and counseling is the Institute of Guidance Counselors, established in 1968.
Now the Institute of Guidance Counselors has a
professional body representing over 1,200 practitioners in secondary schools, colleges, adult guidance services, and private practice in other settings ( http://www.igc.ie/about-us/code-of-ethics).
Its preamble provides that guidance counselors work
with clients.
They come as individuals and in groups.
They supply professional services concerning educational, vocational, and personal/social development.
Guidance counselors must respect the dignity, integrity,
and welfare of these clients.
They must work in ways that promote clients’ control
over their own lives.
They must respect clients’ ability to make decisions and
engage in personal change in the light of clients’ own beliefs and values. To protect clients' interests, the body produced a Code of Ethics for its members' compliance. The Code makes explicit the values underlying their practice. The values include an assertion that the work of the guidance counselor involves a special relationship of trust. That trust is safeguard and promoted by setting and monitoring appropriate boundaries in the relationship, and making this action explicit to the client and relevant others.
While the client is the primary concern, it does not exist
in social vacuum. For this reason guidance counselor have a sensible regard for the social context of their work, which includes the wider community, the law, and the professional colleagues. The Institute of Guidance Counselors' Code consists of four overall ethical principles: Principle 1: Principle 2: Respect for the rights and Competence dignity of the client. Guidance counselors honor and Guidance counselors maintain promote the fundamental and update their professional rights, moral and cultural skills, they recognize the values, dignity & worth of limits of their expertise, clients. They respect clients’ engage in self-care, and seek rights to privacy, confidentiality, support and supervision to self-determination & autonomy, maintain the standard of their consistent with the law. As far as work. They offer only those possible, they ensure that the services for which they are client understands & consents qualified by education, to whatever professional action training and experience. they propose. Principle 3: Principle 4: Responsibility Integrity Guidance counselors are Guidance counselors seek aware of their professional to promote integrity in responsibility to act in a their practice. They trustworthy, reputable, and represent themselves accountable manner toward accurately and treat others clients, colleagues, and the with honesty, community in which they straightforwardness, and work and live. They avoid fairness. They deal actively doing harm, take responsibility for their with conflicts of interest, professional actions, and avoid exploiting others, adopt a systematic approach and are alert to to resolving ethical inappropriate behavior on dilemmas. the part of colleagues. Many other similar codes exist with the same expectations for ethical conduct. The fundamental principles include the following: Respecting human rights Equal opportunity to clients for dignity. availing counseling services Respect for the client’s right Ensuring integrity of to be self-governing practitioner-client A commitment to relationship Fostering the practitioner’s promoting the client’s well being self knowledge and care for Fostering responsible caring self Enhancing the quality of Fair treatment of all clients professional knowledge and and the provision of its application adequate services Responsibility for society Summarization The CODE OF ETHICS goes into specifics to detail professional behavior from respect to fundamental rights, moral and cultural values, dignity and worth of clients to respect for rights to privacy, confidentiality, self-determination and autonomy, consistent with the law, and ensuring that the client understands and consents to whatever professional action they propose. Hence, Codes define parameters for general respect, privacy and confidentiality, informed consent and freedom of consent, and recognition of limits of competence.