Counseling -- Ethical Dilemma -- Case Study
A 17-year-old Jewish female student advises a counselor that she went to a party last weekend with an African-American 17-year-old boy, and ended up passed out in an upstairs bedroom. She was awakened by the boy forcing himself on her. She protested loudly, but said that no one came to help her. The client claims the counselor is the only person she has told that she was raped. For the past five days, she has endured the snickering and sneering of Derrick and his friends in the hallways "as they smugly march around with their worlds intact" while she "dies a little more inside each day." She says she has been having trouble focusing on school, and she blames herself for the incident, saying she drank way too much even though she doesn't think she had very much to drink that night. She wonders aloud to the counselor if she could have been drugged. She begs the counselor not to tell anyone, especially her parents. How should the counselor proceed?
B. Body: Corey, Corey and Callanan's Decision-Making Model
The decision-making model chosen is Corey, Corey and Callanan's eight-step model, which employs the six essential moral principles for ethical decision-making: autonomy; non-maleficence; beneficence; justice; fidelity; and veracity (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2011, p. 24). Their model is acknowledged as an effective tool for ethical decision-making because it does not leave the counselor adrift in his/her own values and sometimes arbitrary assessments (Cottone & Claus, 2000, p. 279). The influences of those six moral principles are highlighted in the following employment of the eight-step model: identify the problem or dilemma; identify potential issues involved; review the relevant ethics codes and sections; relevant laws; consult with colleagues; consider possible and probable options; list the implications of the various options; choose the apparently best course of action (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2011, pp. 24-6). In addition, the counselor must document his/her work in every step, for at least two reasons: to be more effective as a counselor; to document for other colleagues and professionals, both to assist them and to avoid any negative outcomes in malpractice issues.
1. Identify the Problem or Dilemma
At this step, the counselor gathers as much information as possible and determines whether the situation poses a dilemma that is ethical, legal, clinical, professional and/or moral (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2011, p. 24). Briefly, a 17-year-old Jewish female student claims she was sexually assaulted by a 17-year-old black male student while she was in various states of incapacity at party: first passed out; then unable to effectively stop the attack due to consumption of alcohol and possibly being drugged. Her cries for help were ignored and now that she is back in school, the alleged perpetrator and his friends have reportedly been snickering and sneering at her in the hallways "as they smugly march around with their worlds intact" while she "dies a little more inside each day" and has trouble focusing in school. I am the only person she has told, she does not want me to tell anyone else and she at least partially blames herself for drinking alcohol, though she asserts she did not have much to drink and may have been drugged prior to the assault.
This situation poses: an ethical problem regarding confidentiality; a possible legal problem of professional reporting requirements for a sexual assault and possible illegal drugging. and a professional problem, as I'd like to observe the alleged perpetrator and his friends in the halls and if they are snickering and sneering at his victim, I'd like to at least slap each of them in the head and "read the riot act" to them to stop the snicker and sneering.
2. Identify Potential Issues Involved
By examining the information, involving the client as much as possible, list the critical issues and shed the irrelevant ones (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2011, pp. 24-5). Here as much as anywhere else in the process, diversity is an important facet, as the counselor considers the rights, responsibilities and welfare of everyone involved in the situation. Diversity issues are woven into the situation because the victim is a Jewish-American teenaged girl whose culture may impose and advance certain attitudes about teenaged sex, sexual assault, a teenaged girl's responsibilities in exposing herself to possible harm by attending a party and drinking alcohol, and attitudes toward African-American teenaged males. In addition, diversity issues are presented by the alleged perpetrator, who is an African-American teenaged male, whose culture may have differing attitudes about teenaged sex, sexual assault, the girl's responsibilities in exposing herself to possible harm by attending a party and drinking alcohol, and attitudes toward Jewish-American teenaged girls.
The critical issues are: client confidentiality, as she has asked me to tell no one else about a criminal...
APPLYING COOPER'S ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING MODEL Case #1 -- a Questionable Hire On the main issue of the ethical propriety of the group's decision to forego hiring Anne, Cooper's model and other objective ethical analyses would suggest that the group's decision was unethical. On the second issue of Felicia's choice to violate the strict rule about maintaining the confidentiality about the decision, Cooper's model would likely have permitted certain kinds of rule violations
Uustal (1993) proposed a decision-making model concrete steps arrive a morally acceptable solution faced ethical dilemma. What type ethical dilemma encountered clinical setting? How decision-making model identified Uustal applied situation? Be specific describing steps. Much of what constitutes nursing is being able to make decisions and carry out tasks according to those decisions. What nursing is often confronted with and feels unable to respond to in an effective manner at
COOPER'S ETHICAL MODEL Cooper's Ethical Decision-Making Model The ethical decision-making model: Application to the workplace According to Cooper (2012), ethical decision-making encompasses different 'levels' of analysis. The first, expressive, level is based upon gut instincts. Often, these may run counter to formal ethical systems, since they may be based upon impulses of disgust or prejudice. Conversely, our favorable feelings for certain employees may bias us in one way or the other. Next, the
Managerial Social Responsibility - Volkswagen Diesel Scandal In 2015, Volkswagen was accused of installing secret software in its engine management computers to cheat strict fuel economy and emissions tests. In order to determine the ethical decision Volkswagen should have made, one can use ethical decision-making models, such as: Utilitarianism; Kantian Ethics; Ethical Rights; and Distributive Justice. Though these four models use different approaches, one or more of them can result in
Output losses attributed toward alcohol were projected at $119 billion for 1995 (1). As this Alcohol Alert clarifies, several issues give to problem drinking that goes on in the workplace. Employers are in an exclusive situation to alleviate some of these factors and to inspire workers to seek assistance for alcohol problems. IDENTIFY the key values and principles involved. First, ethics or rules were broken because it is illegal to come
Fidelity is also an obligation, to the journalist's ethics in particular truthtelling. Beneficence could be applied to helping law enforcement. As the decision at hand consists of two mutually exclusive options, one of these obligations would need to be overriding. It is most likely that for the journalist this would be to communicate all of the information in keeping with the journalistic code of ethics. This approach, however, does
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now