Ethics Issues and Challenges When Bringing Psychotherapy to the Underserved

2019 ◽  
pp. 303-322
Author(s):  
Jeffrey E. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Multicultural Competence ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Mental Health Clinicians ◽  
Not Given ◽  
Clinical Services ◽  
Underserved Communities ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
Treatment Services ◽  
The Individual

Providing effective clinical services to underserved communities brings with it a number of ethics challenges that, if not given sufficient attention, can result in potentially well-intentioned mental health clinicians causing harm and placing themselves at risk of professional sanctions. The need to possess sufficient clinical and multicultural competence relevant to the individual in question to be able to provide clinically effective treatments, addressing language differences, and appropriately utilizing interpreters are each discussed. Knowledge of local laws and regulations when providing clinical services in underserved communities is addressed. Additionally, the practice of tele-mental health and appropriately addressing fee issues for all types of professional services provided are discussed. The need to proactively address the potential for the development of vicarious traumatization and effectively practicing self-care on an ongoing basis are emphasized for all mental health clinicians who provide treatment services to the underserved.

Continuing Education Requirements Are Unnecessary and Are Not Relevant to My Professional Competence

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-100
Author(s):  
Jeffrey E. Barnett ◽  
Jeffrey Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Continuing Education ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Clinical Effectiveness ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Mental Health Clinicians ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Professional Activities ◽  
License Renewal

Even the best trained and most highly skilled mental health clinicians must take active steps to maintain, update, and expand their knowledge and skills. Failure to do so on an ongoing basis places one’s professional competence at risk. This chapter explains the fragile nature of competence and the steps to take to help ensure the maintenance of ongoing clinical effectiveness. Enhancing one’s competence to add new skills and to expand one’s clinical practice into new areas also is addressed. Continuing requirements for license renewal are described and placed within the broader context of each mental health practitioner’s overarching ethical obligation to provide the highest quality professional services possible. Specific recommendations for achieving this goal are provided in the hope that mental health clinicians will incorporate them into their ongoing professional activities.

Video Conferencing and Tele-Mental Health Technologies Are Easy Ways to Build My Practice

2019 ◽  
pp. 55-62
Author(s):  
Jeffrey E. Barnett ◽  
Jeffrey Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Video Conferencing ◽  
Health Assessment ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Mental Health Clinicians ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Treatment Services ◽  
Assessment And Treatment ◽  
Ethical And Legal Issues ◽  
Key Resources

The use of video conferencing and other tele-mental health technologies may seem like an easy way to build one’s private mental health practice. Many individuals around the world do not have ready access to qualified mental health clinicians in their local area, but they do have access to the Internet. This may then seem like an obvious way to build one’s practice. But, as this chapter explains, myriad clinical, ethical, and legal issues and challenges must be considered before providing mental health assessment and treatment services across distances utilizing these technologies. Specific recommendations and key resources are offered to prepare mental health clinicians for the ethical, legal, and clinically appropriate provision of clinical services through the use of these various tele-mental health technologies.

Burnout in clinicians working with offenders with personality disorder

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Chandler ◽  
Andrew Newman ◽  
Catherine Butler
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Mental Health Clinicians ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Group Data ◽  
Focus Group Data ◽  
Current Sample ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Organisational Level

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the levels of clinician burnout in a community forensic personality disorder (PD) service, and explores how burnout may arise and be minimised within a service of this nature. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods approach was utilised, assessing levels of burnout and making comparisons with a comparable previous study. Focus group data regarding burnout and suggestions for reducing the risk of burnout were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings Levels of burnout were generally found to be higher in the current sample when compared with the generic PD services. Qualitative data suggest that working in a forensic PD setting may pose a range of additional and complex challenges; these are explored in detail. Minimising burnout might be achieved by developing resilience, utilising humour, team coherence and ensuring that breaks are taken, and developing one’s own strategies for “releasing pressure”. Practical implications The risk for burnout in clinicians working with offenders with PD may be higher than other groups of mental health clinicians. Despite this, attempts to minimise burnout can be made through a range of practical strategies at the individual, team and organisational level. Originality/value This is the first project to assess levels of burnout specifically in a team of clinicians working with offenders with PD, and offers an exploration of how burnout may manifest and how it can be managed in this unique area of mental health.

Insurance Companies Just Care About Profits and I Care About My Patients, So It Is OK to Bend the Rules to Get Paid

2019 ◽  
pp. 32-36
Author(s):  
Jeffrey E. Barnett ◽  
Jeffrey Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Mental Health Clinicians ◽  
Treatment Services ◽  
Informed Decisions ◽  
Contractual Obligations

It may be easy to think that because insurance companies are so profitable it is acceptable to engage in ethically or legally questionable practices to ensure that clients receive needed treatment services and that one is paid at the level one thinks appropriate. Mental health clinicians should remember the ethics of their profession and always act in keeping with this. Further, it is important to fulfill all contractual obligations agreed to with insurance companies. This chapter explains these obligations, the challenges and dilemmas that commonly arise, and ways to respond to them in an ethically appropriate manner. The ethical pitfalls that commonly arise when working with insurance companies are explained, and specific recommendations for avoiding these pitfalls are provided. Further, guidance is offered on how to assess key elements of contracts with insurance companies so that thoughtful and informed decisions can be made about participation with these companies before difficulties are experienced.

scholarly journals Law Students and Lawyers With Mental Health and Substance Abuse Problems: Protecting the Public and the Individual

2008 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Rothstein
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
High Skill

The practice of law is a high-prestige, high-income, high-skill, and highstress profession. Lawyers provide important professional services to members of the public—services that can affect life and death and important matters in the lives of others. Whether because of the personalities of those who choose to enter the legal profession, professional pressures, or a combination thereof, there are significant concerns within the legal profession about the impact of stress on mental health and about substance abuse problems.

scholarly journals The Effect of Psychological Perspectives on Stigmatic Thinking Regarding Mental Disorders [University of Wisconsin River Falls]

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangeline Sigwarth ◽  
Sydney Sleichert ◽  
Richard Seefeldt
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Mental Health Clinicians ◽  
Biological Perspective ◽  
University Of Wisconsin ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Wisconsin River ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Research Studies

This study examined how an individual’s psychological perspective affects stigmatic thinking regarding mental disorders. Several research studies have examined how different explanations for mental disorders contribute to stigmatic thinking. For example, research done by Lebowitz et.al (2013) found that biochemical and genetic attributions for depression were associated with prognostic pessimism. Another study done by Lebowitz & Ahn (2014), found that mental health clinicians who held a biological perspective reported less empathy towards those who experience depression than did those that held psychosocial perspectives. Up until now, researchers have only differentiated between broad biological and psychological perspectives. This study went beyond previous research by breaking down both the biological and psychological perspectives into narrower theoretical explanations; and by attempting to assess the individual theoretical perspectives of each participant. The goal of this study was to determine whether different psychological perspectives of mental disorders related to stigmatic thinking.

Root Cause Analyses of Suicides of Mental Health Clients

Crisis ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 316-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Gillies ◽  
David Chicop ◽  
Paul O'Halloran
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Common Factor ◽  
Data Collection Tool ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Communication Problems ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Mental Health Clients ◽  
Imminent Risk

Abstract. Background: The ability to predict imminent risk of suicide is limited, particularly among mental health clients. Root cause analysis (RCA) can be used by health services to identify service-wide approaches to suicide prevention. Aims: To (a) develop a standardized taxonomy for RCAs; (b) to quantitate service-related factors associated with suicides; and (c) to identify service-related suicide prevention strategies. Method: The RCAs of all people who died by suicide within 1 week of contact with the mental health service over 5 years were thematically analyzed using a data collection tool. Results: Data were derived from RCAs of all 64 people who died by suicide between 2008 and 2012. Major themes were categorized as individual, situational, and care-related factors. The most common factor was that clients had recently denied suicidality. Reliance on carers, recent changes in medication, communication problems, and problems in follow-through were also commonly identified. Conclusion: Given the difficulty in predicting suicide in people whose expressions of suicidal ideation change so rapidly, services may consider the use of strategies aimed at improving the individual, stressor, support, and care factors identified in this study.

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