Principles That Specifically Guide Addictions Counselors - Research Paper Example

Principles That Specifically Guide Addictions Counselors Introduction Owing to contemporary urbanization and globalization, the last few decades have witnessed escalating prevalence of drug addictions that have called for instant intervention to offset the severe drug addiction side effects (Wiseman, 2011). However, despite putting more emphasis on the existing guiding principles and professional ethics, psychologists, clinicians, and counselors who capitalizes on drug addiction cases have over years encountered rigorous challenges in complying with the laid down counseling principles and ethical code (Sanders, 2006). This is due to the erratic nature and behaviors of drug addicts (Barbara, 2005). Drug addiction is an intricate disorder that interferes with all aspects of human life. By considering the complicated nature of the disorder, treatment of drug addiction is required to involve total or partial incorporation of various intervention components (Ritsher, Finney, & Moos, 2005). Moreover, the treatment of drug addiction takes place in different settings and may utilize various psychosocial and pharmacological approaches (Elliott, Watson, Goldman, & Greenberg, 2005). Therefore, the principles applied in the treatment of addiction disorders are to a great extent influenced in different ways by prevailing treatment settings. Effective treatment of addictions is as well influenced by the manner in which different principles are applied in the intervention process. The available counseling principles apply in different ways in unrelated psychological disorders. The main principles that lead to effective treatment of addiction complications include: legal and moral standards principle, confidentiality principle, client relationship principle, inter-professional relationship, and client welfare principle (Simpson, Joe, & Brown, 2007). Total compliance with the relevant principles plays an incredibly decisive role in facilitating successful and quality service delivery to the client (Herring, 2011). Existing researches has confirmed that, health professionals who abide by the existing ethical requirements and principles have high chances of developing professionally as opposed to practitioners who are averse in complying with the existing legal and ethical requirements. However, the principles that guide addiction counselors have some legal, ethical, and socio-cultural, and individuals’ implications that can interfere with the work of health and psychological practitioners including clinicians (Tjeltvelt, 2009). The essay below addresses the five fundamental principles that guide addiction counselors. The paper will as well examine the impact of the identified principles to the operation and work of clinicians. The document will also expound on how the identified principles are influenced by different settings as well as the legal, ethical, individual, and socio-cultural implications of the specific principles that guide addiction counselors. Rationale Recent researches have confirmed that, addiction treatment is not entirely a therapeutic process but a combination of several intervention measures. As a result, the treatment of addiction requires scientific approach that demands proper utilization of the most effective addition counseling guiding principles. On the other hand, treatment of addiction results to the emergence of several ethical, legal, individual and socio-cultural complications (Herring, 2011). Therefore, total compliance with the principles of confidentiality legal and moral principles, client welfare principle as well as the principle of client relationships will play an incredibly vital role in minimizing legal and individual complications. On the other hand, inter-professional relationship principle is as well effective in advancing clinicians professional development. Therefore, the choice of the five basic principles is based on their contribution and their impacts in the substance abuse counseling intervention process. Specific Principles That Guides Addiction Counselor Legal and moral standard principle Under this principle, substance drug counselor ought to uphold, the set legal requirements that defines their professional conducts. Therefore, to necessitate effective implementation of this principle, the counselor is projected to be fully aware of the existing federal laws that relates to drug abuse (Herring, 2011). On the other hand, it is imperative for clinicians to be informed on the legal and moral necessities that guide the practices of alcoholism and drug abuse counseling. According to this principle, the substance abuse counselor should not either impartially to directly apply the skills that are not within their area of specialization. Therefore, counselors should specifically play their main role of offering socio-psychological guidelines to the clients without engaging in other responsibilities that are beyond the competence. As per the legal and moral standard principle, the techniques materials that are used in counseling process should as well meet the counseling ethical standards (Moggi, Ouimette, Finney & Moos, 2009). Therefore, it is the responsibility of all learning institutions to ensure that, counselors understand the counseling legal and ethical requirements. Client Welfare Principle Counselors are expected by client welfare principle to provide the client with services that are of best interest to the client health improvement. Meeting the interests of client significantly helps in examining the conducts of the substance abuse victims. To meet the client’s welfare, substance abuse counselor is expected to demonstrate royalty and commitment in the intervention process. On the other hand, in the state of affairs where the counseling process is not beneficial to the client, the counselor is required by this principle to instantaneously terminate the process or refer the case to another counselor (Tjeltvelt, 2009). The counselor is as well expected to hold the welfare of the client as paramount in the decision making process, in treatment procedure, during the termination of the process as well as in recommending for referrals. Counselor should also not allow the client to participate in the demonstrations, non-treatment activity or in research that could lead to harmful outcomes to the client’s health status. Counselors are as well expected to ensure that, the prevailing intervention environment offers maximum privacy and safety to the client’s health care information (Tjeltvelt, 2009). Confidentiality Principle The primary obligation of a clinical counselor is to ensure adequate protection of the clients’ right to confidentiality. Counselors are restricted from disclosing confidential information acquired in teaching, investigation, and practices without the required consent. The substance abuse counselor is under the confidentiality principle expected to inform the clients through writing on areas that are likely to violate their rights to privacy. Clinical counselors are as well expected to come up with mechanisms that will ensure total maintenance of the client’s confidentiality. All electronic information should as well be adequately protected by using appropriate security methodology. According to this principle, client information should only be accessed by authorized health professionals (Corey, and Callanan, 2008). Moreover, in the cases of disclosure of the client private information, the client ought to be informed on the possibility of disclosing their private information. Therefore, under the confidentiality principle, counselors need to be aware of the available state and federal regulations on clients’ confidentiality and the counselor role in reporting clinical information on specified situation to appropriate authorities. Counselors are as well expected to discuss the client information only in the appropriate settings for professional purposes. The disclosure of the client private information should as well be for the best interest of the client (Roth, Hill and Pilling, 2009). The Principle of Client Relationship Under this principle, the substance abuse counselor has the responsibility of safeguarding the integrity of the counseling relationship. The counselor is expected to ensure that, the clients get access to reasonable and effective treatment. On the other hand, the counselor is as well projected to give the client or guardians complete and accurate information on the level of potential professional relationship (Corey, and Callanan, 2008). Moreover, according to the client relation principle, the counselor is also needed to adequately inform the client on the areas that are likely to interfere with the clients’ participation in the intervention process. This is expected to significantly help in maintaining mutual relationship between the client and the practitioner. As per this principle, the counselor is constrained from engaging in any professional relationship with the client family members that is likely to interfere with the existing legal and ethical requirements. Moreover, to maintain professionalism in the counseling process, substance abuse counselor is proscribed against using the current or former relationship for personal interest (Corey, and Callanan, 2008). As indicated in client relation principle, it is ethically and professionally incorrect for any counselor to engage in business, sexual, or social relationship with the client. The Principle of Inter-Professional Relationship As per the principle of inter-professional relationship, substance abuse counselor is expected to treat other professionals with dignity, respect, fairness, and courtesy. On the other hand, other professionals should reciprocate by providing the counselor with the required support and dignity. Effective teamwork between clinical counselors, health professionals and psycho-social practitioners is extremely vital in facilitating effective counseling intervention process. Moreover, to maintain professionalism in service delivery, clinical counselors are expected to refrain from offering services that are not in line with their area of specialization. The counselors are as well expected to share the relevant information with other professionals with a single aim of improving the health situation of the client. However, the sharing of private information should abide by confidentiality ethical and legal requirements. As per the inter-professional relationship principle, counselors are not allowed to exploit the established relationship with other professionals such as students, research participants, supervisee, volunteers, and subordinate employees for personal interest. The primary role of this principle is mainly to ensure mutual relationship between all professionals in the counseling process. The relationship should however be based on professional ideologies and should be deliberated at benefiting the client (Roth, Hill and Pilling, 2009). The Impacts of Counseling Principles to Clinicians Total compliance with legal and moral principle as well as confidentiality principle is extremely essential in helping clinicians to develop the ability of working within the laid down ethical and professional guidelines. Through this principle, clinicians are expected to understand and employ the acquired knowledge on existing code of conducts, legislations, and ethical guidelines in their practices. The ability to apply the required guiding principles is relatively vital in facilitating effective and timely services. The inter-professional principle is as well crucial in the establishment and in the maintenance of therapeutic alliances between the clinician and the client as well as between the clinician and other professionals from different academic backgrounds. Through counseling principles, clinicians understand the most effective means of engaging the client in the intervention process (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2009). By understanding the most effective ways of applying the principle of client relationship, clinicians will develop the skills of fostering and maintaining effective and profitable relationship with the client and the clients’ family members. Counseling principles are as well essential in enabling the clinicians to gasp the client perspective on their health conditions. Through developing an atmosphere of trust, the clinician will effectively understand the health needs of the client thus leading to the adoption of the most effective means of addressing the identified health needs. On the other hand, the understanding of the basic counseling principles will also help the clinician to develop the ability of working with the clients emotional aspects which is very essential in the development of strong bonds between the client and the health practitioner (Mearns & Thorne, 2007). How Might These Principles Be Influenced By the Type of Setting in Which You Work The principle of client relationship is to some extent influenced by the existing understanding between the client and the counselor. The relationship between clients and counselors are determined by the procedure, characteristics, and parameter of counseling. Therefore, the agreement between the client and the practitioner on the nature and the procedure of undertaking the counseling process plays an incredibly essential role in necessitating effective counseling process. On the other hand, the success of any counseling process is to a great extent brought about by effective understanding of the existing boundary between the client and the counselor. Moreover, the physical setting of the counseling process is as well influenced by the principles of confidentiality and inter-professional relationship. Counseling that take place in a private environment increases the level of confidentiality in the entire counseling process. In addition, counseling process that facilitates effective and abrupt consultation results to the maintenance of effective inter-professional interaction (Mearns & Thorne, 2007). Legal and moral principle and the principle of client welfare are as well influenced by the cultural and social settings. An attractive and supportive cultural and social background encourages victims to actively participate in the counseling process. On the other hand, the client health and psychological needs are highly determined by the prevailing social cultural settings. In general therefore, it is factual to state that, the prosperity of any counseling process is notably influenced by the setting in which the intervention process is taking place (Mearns & Thorne, 2007). Ethical, Legal, Individual or Socio-Cultural Implications of These Five Principles to Clinician The application of principle of client relationship is likely to bring about severe individual implications. This is due to the fact that, the principle has failed to define who is a client in the counseling process. Although the principle has categorically explained what a clinician should do to a client, the principle has failed to clearly explain where the status of a client does begin and where it is supposed to end (Pope and Vasquez, 2008). The principle is as well not clear on whether the client’s family members are still clients in the counseling process. On the other hand, the principle does not state whether non-clinical positions such as researches, supervisors and training have clients. Therefore, due to the emerging confusion in the application of client relationship principle, clinicians may find themselves on a crisscross on who to define and treat as their client and who should not be treated as a client in the counseling process (Roth & Pilling, 2007). The principle of confidentiality and the principle of inter-professional relationship may as well lead to legal implications. The confidentiality principle states that, it is the responsibility of the counselor to ensure privacy to the client information. However, the principle has provided some situation where this principle might be violated. In the referral cases, clinicians are expected to disclose the client information to the referral professionals (Pope and Vasquez, 2008). Moreover, the inter-professional principle encourages sharing of the clients’ information among health professionals. This can as a result lead to professional gossip that can violate the basic principle of confidentiality. Excess gossiping of the client private information may result to legal implications since disclosure of the client privacy to unhelpful personnel’s is against the legal requirements. The principle of moral and legal standards may as well bring about social-cultural implications that can results to moral and legal confusion. Generally, the basic role of a clinician is to ensure that, the client get the required services at the most expeditious manner. However, there are some legal clauses that prohibit the clinician from undertaking some moral responsibilities of improving the health status of the client. Social cultural implication emergences in the situation where the clinician intend to do something that is morally right but legally wrong. On the other hand, clinicians are restricted from disclosing the client information to other people (Pope and Vasquez, 2008). However, in the referral process the clinician might be forced by moral obligations to unconditionally disclose the client private information to the referred body an action which is legally inaccurate. Conclusion In the light of the above analysis, it is clear that, clinicians have an exceptionally decisive role in dealing with substance abuse complications. Moreover, based on the available facts, it is apparent that, substance abuse has become a common peril to global economic prosperity. This is due to the fact that, a good number of substance abuse victims are youthful and energetic section of the population. Therefore, to counter the unpleasing impacts of substance abuse to the future economic prosperity, clinician and clinical counselors have an incredibly crucial responsibility of minimizing the impacts of drug abuse to the youthful population. However, to realize the best outcome in the counseling process, clinicians ought to adopt the most effective counseling principle. Counseling principles offers significant guidelines in the entire counseling process. The understanding of the most effective means of applying counseling principles has as well proved to be especially effective in advancing clinician profession competence. Conversely, despite the encouraging contribution in the success of counseling interventions, some of the basic counseling principles have serious individual, legal, ethical, and social cultural implications. It is the responsibility of clinicians to identify all complications that are brought about by application of counseling principles and institute effective mechanism of dealing with their impacts to the client health condition. References Barbara S. (2005). Substance abuse Treatment. New York, NY: McMillan Corey, G., Corey, M. and Callanan, P. (2008). Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions. 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