Ethics for Psychologists _______________________________________________________________________
2.02 Providing Services in Emergencies In emergencies, when psychologists provide services to indi- viduals for whom other mental health services are not available and for which psychologists have not obtained the necessary training, psychologists may provide such services in order to ensure that services are not denied. The services are discon- tinued as soon as the emergency has ended or appropriate services are available. 2.03 Maintaining Competence Psychologists undertake ongoing efforts to develop and main- tain their competence. 2.04 Bases for Scientific and Professional Judgments Psychologists’ work is based upon established scientific and professional knowledge of the discipline. (See also Standards 2.01e, Boundaries of Competence, and 10.01b, Informed Consent to Therapy.) 2.05 Delegation of Work to Others Psychologists who delegate work to employees, supervisees, or research or teaching assistants or who use the services of others, such as interpreters, take reasonable steps to (1) avoid delegat- ing such work to persons who have a multiple relationship with those being served that would likely lead to exploitation or loss of objectivity; (2) authorize only those responsibilities that such persons can be expected to perform competently on the basis of their education, training, or experience, either independently or with the level of supervision being provided; and (3) see that such persons perform these services competently. (See also Standards 2.02, Providing Services in Emergencies; 3.05, Multiple Relationships; 4.01, Maintaining Confidentiality; 9.01, Bases for Assessments; 9.02, Use of Assessments; 9.03, Informed Consent in Assessments; and 9.07, Assessment by Unqualified Persons.) 2.06 Personal Problems and Conflicts (a) Psychologists refrain from initiating an activity when they know or should know that there is a substantial likelihood that their personal problems will prevent them from performing their work-related activities in a competent manner. (b) When psychologists become aware of personal problems that may interfere with their performing work-related duties adequately, they take appropriate measures, such as obtaining professional consultation or assistance and determine whether they should limit, suspend, or terminate their work-related duties. (See also Standard 10.10, Terminating Therapy.) Psychologists generally do not attempt to perform services for which they feel incompetent; they attempt to perform services they believe they can effectively offer. As time goes on, they may be swayed by financial considerations, misdirected ideas about trying to be helpful, or beliefs regarding what is appropriate. Consider the following scenarios:
• A psychologist accepts a new position at a company offering to provide training in a new area of services for her. After she is scheduled to see patients, she finds that the “training” consists only of being given copies of out- lines of reports to follow. She begins to see patients but is immediately overwhelmed. The company complains she is not meeting performance standards. She turns in her resignation but is told she is already scheduled with patients and to leave prematurely would harm patients who had already waited weeks to be scheduled. She leaves, and the company files an ethics complaint against her. • A psychologist joins a group practice to provide produc- tion testing for a large company under contract. The psychologist has taken a few semesters of testing while in graduate school but has done no testing in at least a decade. Although the psychologist seeks supervision independently, the supervising psychologist suggests the services currently being provided are so far below the standard of practice as to appear unethical. The psychologist decides to pursue other employment. When starting a new position, it is important to know exactly what will be required to determine whether or not the psycholo- gist will be competent to perform the task. Positions that are described as “training” or “under supervision” should provide to the psychologist a clear delineation of the supervision, training expectations, methods of evaluation, and feedback or evaluation procedures. In recent years, more focus has been given to models of training and supervision, including competency-based supervision. Competency-Based Supervision Competency-based supervision has been defined as, “an approach that explicitly identifies the knowledge, skills, and values that are assembled to form a clinical competency and develops learning strategies and evaluation procedures to meet criterion-referenced standards in keeping with evidence-based practices and requirements of the local clinical setting” [11]. The focus on competency-based standards came following the 2002 revision of the APA Ethical Principals and Code of Conduct. There was a shift in education from assessment of curricula to educational outcomes and an emphasis on accountability to the public in education. Over time, the com- petency model moved into supervision and training programs as well as graduate school programs. Quality assessment and evaluation came out of program evalu- ation in business, then it slowly migrated to general health care, to the professional schools of psychology, to professional organizations, and finally to ideas about outcomes of services. The idea of determining objectively whether or not what was desired by the client was achieved and the expected outcome produced was quite novel in psychology prior to 1990. Along with this came the idea of developing benchmarks for qual- ity and guidelines for achievement to ensure that quality was maintained throughout an organization. Research designs
34
EliteLearning.com/Psychology
Powered by FlippingBook