Laws and Ethics in Counseling

For this case scenario, a college intern in addiction counseling is presented with a client who reports excessive drinking and self-destructive behaviors. The client reports being HIV positive with the intent to continue with unprotected sex acts. These acts will include her husband (Mike) and a bartender (Jim) at a specific restaurant.

For this case the counselor is faced with the ethical dilemma related to client rights to confidentiality, privileged communication, and privacy versus exceptions of danger and legal requirements. In this situation, section B.2. Exceptions, takes precedence over other sections of the ethical code.

Section B.2.a. Danger and Legal Requirements, under B.2. Exceptions, of the ACA Code of Ethics states that the demand that counselors must "keep information confidential does not apply when disclosure is required to protect clients or identified others from serious and foreseeable harm or when legal requirements demand that confidential information must be revealed" (ACA, 2005). In this case the client reports that she intends to place her husband Mike and the bartender, Jim in danger or foreseeable harm by having unprotected sex with them. Both Mike and Jim are clearly identified, as is the danger they face, due to client's intent to expose them to HIV infection.

Also relevant to this case is B.1. of the ACA Code of Ethics, Respecting Client Rights. Unde

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ardless of any personal characteristics of the client or the situation. Fidelity refers to the fact that counselors must make honest promises and honor commitments to the parties that they serve. Thus, in this instance, the counselor must make the honest promise to help the client and maintain confidentiality to the degree possible, while ensuring that others are protected. Veracity refers to the demand for truthfulness to the profession, clients, and the counselor themselves. The counselor must remain truthful to the patient at all times while serving the profession and specifically, for this case, truthfulness to the profession and others required that the counselor disclose confidential information to protect the identified parties in danger. The two most difficult principles to apply in this counseling relationship are autonomy and nonmaleficience. It would be very difficult to promote the freedom for a client to select self-destructive behavior and it would be difficult to avoid hurting the client since the fact that she is diagnosed with HIV must be disclosed to avoid harm to others. 3. Issues of values in the helping relationship is easy to comprehend in theory but more difficult to put into practice. The ther
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Mike Jim, Issues/Diversity Assessment, Moral Principles, Section B2, Code Ethics, Confidential Information, Family Counseling, Explanation Limitations, Spirituality Counseling, B2 Exceptions, counselor inform, counselor inform client, inform client, code ethics, aca code, personal values, legal requirements, self-destructive behaviors, parties danger, mike jim, unprotected sex, aca code ethics, danger legal requirements, confidentiality throughout counseling, select own direction,
Approximate Word count = 1801
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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