Counselling and the Law Essay

The law would calculate to affect the advocate predominantly everyplace issues of confidentiality which cause ethical dilemmas in a variety of areas. It would seem the counsellor tends to end up torn between their responsibility towards their clients and the law or doctors/other health officials/organisations and society in general. The counsellor essential weigh up client confidentiality against that of public post and the guidelines of what is or is non in the public interest are non al directions at a lower placestandably defined. For example, if the court decides that a counsellor must produce notes of their sessions with a client, this whitethorn not only be receive problematic from a confidentiality point of survey but also as the counsellors notes are subjective and the law deals in facts any changes within the clients thoughts/feelings which result in self-contradictory portral of events could be mis-interpreted as monstrous testimony.The private unobserved natu re of therapy and the grandness of confidentiality between counsellor and client can result in concerns over whether this provides power to promote personal change or power to malignment the privilege. Evidence of bad practice in sexual abuse and allegations of false memories from clients seem to be all too common in the the States and one has to ponder to what extent in the UK, especially in the empty-headed of the recent publicity of the alleged abuse casefuls of Saville.If any counsellors or those in a counselling role were involved in any dash with the children he had contact with it begs the question were they aware of something amiss and afraid to come forward because of who he was or for fear of repurcussions within their organisation? Thus, the counsellor can be put in a legally dangerous position whereby they are liable to pass information on to the employer under their contract and potentially liable to their client for breach of confidentiality.Counsellors may not only find themselves in an ethical dilemma regarding client self-sufficiency and client self harm or the client potentially harming others from a paid standards point of view as the law may be unclear about their legal responsibilities as well. When one thinks of the tragic case of Anna, although the counsellor did not face any legal repercussions, the law is not clear on rules or regulations to help minimise their legal vulnerability when making decisions as to what action to take or not take. code is much more clear cut in the areas of adoption and antisepsis than in other areas but still thither are un reliableties and conflicts of interest for the counsellor to wrestle with. The counsellor is presented with conflicting rights of the parent and their right to confidentiality on the one hand and the right of the child to know who their parents are on the other. When considering the case where a counsellor had to assess the degree of personal put on the line posed to the bi rth mother if personal information was released-it becomes clear that there are no clear guidelines for the counsellor which are laid raven by law. Thus, ethical and legal dilemmas could arise between the right of the single(a) to records and the right of the birth parent to privacy.Similarly, the counsellor is left to weigh up the gravity of keeping information confidential in cases of AIDS and human immunodeficiency virus whereby the client has the right to privacy but the partner has the right to be informed as they could be at risk of harm.According to Jenkins (1996), establishing a clear relationship with the law is one of the elements which is associated with acquiring full professional precondition. That is to say, a profession such as medicine, which has a recognised status in legislation and case law, is authorised to carry out certain activities and can delegate some of the responsibility for self-discipline and the maintenance of steep standards of practice.But, the l egal dimensions of therapy are not recognised in the same way and thus the legal obligations and responsibilities of the counsellor and the law remain unclear and select further exploration of the legal context in which the counsellor works. cardinal would hope that this dilemma would be worked on indepth to help counsellors to counsel effectively and of course, to avoid the fear of being sued as a result of infirm knowledge of the law or inadvertent negligence.