US outpatient commitment in context: When is it ethical and how can we tell?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey W. Swanson ◽  
Marvin S. Swartz ◽  
Daniel D. Moseley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Outpatient Commitment ◽  
Controversial Nature

Outpatient commitment is the legal practice of using civil court orders to mandate mental health treatment in the community for certain adults with serious and chronic mental illnesses. In this chapter, we examine the historical context in which the practice of outpatient commitment emerged in the United States. We discuss the controversial nature of outpatient commitment, examining the assumptions and perspectives of those on either side of ongoing arguments about whether the practice is legitimate, fair, and effective. In the final section of the chapter, we discuss whether, and under what conditions, outpatient commitment may be ethical. We discuss a useful conceptual framework for disentangling the various types of considerations involved in determining whether public policies are ethical. The framework identifies four principles relevant to ethical decision making in the context of outpatient commitment: (1) respect for autonomy, (2) non-maleficence, (3) beneficence, and (4) justice.

scholarly journals Embodied Ethical Decision-Making: A Clinical Case Study of Respect for Culturally Based Meaning Making in Mental Healthcare

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megz Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Hospital Setting ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Clinical Case Study ◽  
Culturally Based

AbstractHow does embodied ethical decision-making influence treatment in a clinical setting when cultural differences conflict? Ethical decision-making is usually a disembodied and rationalized procedure based on ethical codes (American Counseling Association, 2014; American Dance Therapy Association, 2015; American Mental Health Counseling Association, 2015) and a collective understanding of right and wrong. However, these codes and collective styles of meaning making were shaped mostly by White theorists and clinicians. These mono-cultural lenses lead to ineffective mental health treatment for persons of color. Hervey’s (2007) EEDM steps encourage therapists to return to their bodies when navigating ethical dilemmas as it is an impetus for bridging cultural differences in healthcare. Hervey’s (2007) nonverbal approach to Welfel’s (2001) ethical decision steps was explored in a unique case that involved the ethical decision-making process of an African-American dance/movement therapy intern, while providing treatment in a westernized hospital setting to a spiritual Mexican–American patient diagnosed with PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder. This patient had formed a relationship with a spirit attached to his body that he could see, feel, and talk to, but refused to share this experience with his White identifying psychiatric nurse due to different cultural beliefs. Information gathered throughout the clinical case study by way of chronological loose and semi-structured journaling, uncovered an ethical dilemma of respect for culturally based meanings in treatment and how we identify pathology in hospital settings. The application of the EEDM steps in this article is focused on race/ethnicity and spiritual associations during mental health treatment at an outpatient hospital setting. Readers are encouraged to explore ways in which this article can influence them to apply EEDM in other forms of cultural considerations (i.e. age) and mental health facilities. The discussion section of this thesis includes a proposed model for progressing towards active multicultural diversity in mental healthcare settings by way of the three M’s from the relational-cultural theory: movement towards mutuality, mutual empathy, and mutual empowerment (Hartling & Miller, 2004).

An Exploration of Ethical Decision-making Processes in the United States and Egypt

2007 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 587-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafik I. Beekun ◽  
Ramda Hamdy ◽  
James W. Westerman ◽  
Hassan R. HassabElnaby
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Decision Making Processes

scholarly journals Making lawyers moral? Ethical codes and moral character

Legal Studies ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 601-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Nicolson
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Moral Character ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Successful Development ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Moral Behaviour ◽  
Professional Codes

This article argues that professional codes of conduct cannot perform the important task of ensuring that lawyers uphold high ethical standards. Instead, moral behaviour by lawyers requires the development of fixed behavioural attributes relevant to legal practice - what may be called a lawyer's professional moral character. At the same time, however, along with other factors, professional codes are important in that they can either contribute to or detract from the successful development of professional moral character. If so, it is argued that in order to have the best chance of assisting the character development of lawyers, codes should neither take the form of highly detailed or extremely vague, aspirational norms, but should instead guide ethical decision-making by requiring them to consider a wide range of contextual factors when resolving ethical dilemmas.

TrustUS: Cultural Influences on Ethical Decision Making

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 217-230
Author(s):  
Bachman Fulmer ◽  
Sarah Fulmer ◽  
Zeynep Can Ozer ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
The United States ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Managerial Accounting ◽  
Multicultural Environment

This case study focuses on how divergent cultural norms can impact ethical decisionmaking between a superior and subordinate in a high-pressure workplace. In order to ensure that today’s business students (and tomorrow’s business leaders) adhere to the highest standards of ethical conduct in an international and multicultural environment, it is imperative they recognize and respond appropriately to different cultural views of ethics. In the accompanying case, Jane, a Chinese national living and working in the United States, encounters multiple ethical dilemmas during her employment at TrustUS. Readers are introduced to important cultural factors that differ between Eastern and Western societies (such as Power Distance and Collectivism) and are asked to apply these concepts to gain insight into how cultural background might influence the ethical decision making of a professional in a managerial accounting context.

The Role of Moral Intensity and Personal Moral Philosophies in the Ethical Decision Making of Marketers: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of China and the United States

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jatinder J. Singh ◽  
Scott J. Vitell ◽  
Jamal Al-Khatib ◽  
Irvine Clark
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Moral Intensity ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Ethical Judgments ◽  
Moral Philosophies ◽  
The Relationship

This study uses cross-cultural samples from the United States and China to replicate previous empirical findings regarding the relationship among moral philosophies, moral intensity, and ethical decision making. The authors use a two-step structural equations modeling approach to analyze the measurement and structural models. The findings partially replicate those from previous studies and provide evidence that the measurement model is somewhat invariant across the two groups studied but the structural model is not. In addition, there is evidence that the relationship between personal moral philosophies (mainly relativism) and moral intensity varies across the two cultures. That is, whereas relativism is a significant predictor of moral intensity for the Chinese sample, it is not for the U.S. sample. However, idealism is a significant predictor of perceived moral intensity for both samples of marketing practitioners. Finally, perceived moral intensity is a significant, direct predictor of ethical judgments, and ethical judgments are a significant, direct predictor of behavioral intentions in both instances.

U.S. Space Dominance

2020 ◽  
pp. 123-150
Author(s):  
Joan Johnson-Freese ◽  
Kenneth Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Applied Ethics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The U.S

This chapter considers the ethical implications of the United States trying to achieve “space dominance” as part of an increasingly muscular U.S. “space warfare is inevitable” outlook. The methodology used in the analysis is drawn from Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, using utilitarian, rights, fairness, common good, virtue, and technology considerations as ethical decision-making lenses. Additionally, the chapter examines space dominance as a function of time and contractarianism. It concludes that the U.S. pursuit of space dominance appears to stem mostly from fear and self-interest, and that a better approach would be to shift more closely to honor and self-interest by pursuing more balance between military readiness and assiduous diplomacy. There is, however, no evidence that the latter approach is being considered.

Israel's Involuntary Outpatient Commitment Law: Lessons from the American Experience

1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 565-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlene Kanter ◽  
Uri Aviram
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Hospital Setting ◽  
The United States ◽  
Involuntary Hospitalization ◽  
Outpatient Commitment ◽  
Health Treatment ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Involuntary Outpatient Treatment ◽  
First Time

In 1991, Israel enacted a new mental health law entitled the Treatment of Mental Patients Law, 1991. This law includes, for the first time, a provision authorizing involuntary outpatient commitment (“IOC”). In its simplest form, IOC is the procedure by which an individual who is determined to be mentally ill is ordered to comply involuntarily with mental health treatment outside of a hospital setting. The new Israeli involuntary outpatient commitment provision, known as “compulsory ambulatory care”, provides that an individual who meets the standards for civil commitment may be committed to involuntary outpatient treatment as a condition of release from inpatient care, or as a dispositional alternative to involuntary hospitalization.Originally enacted in the United States as a condition of release for persons being discharged from mental hospitals, or as an alternative to involuntary hospitalization, involuntary outpatient commitment has now been enacted in various forms in different countries throughout the world. The new Israeli IOC law is modeled after American IOC laws, (particularly those enacted in the early 1980's), which seek to provide involuntary mental health treatment to persons who do not meet a strict test of dangerousness for involuntary commitment.

scholarly journals Characterizing Ethical Decision-Making and Its Influences: Examining Higher Education Leaders in the United States

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-73
Author(s):  
Tara Shollenberger
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethical Decisions ◽  
Education Leaders ◽  
Diverse Student ◽  
Higher Education Leaders ◽  
Delphi Research

The ethical decision-making (EDM) process that leaders should follow to avoid scandals and unethical behavior is often overlooked. In addition, visit few studies have focused on EDM within higher education. Yet, educational leaders have an ethical responsibility due in part to increasingly diverse student populations enrolled that is having an impact on the growth of educational institutions. This exploratory study used the Delphi research technique to identify an EDM definition that leaders use to make ethical decisions and identify the environmental factors that influence their decisions as well as an EDM model within the U.S.

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