Qualities of a Councelor and Change in Standards of Counseling
The counseling profession has experienced a great deal of change, especially during the 1990's. Several of those changes occurred in 1992; these include the changing of the AACD's name to the ACA (American Counseling Association), the adding of counseling as a primary mental health profession into the health care human resource statistics of the Center for Mental Health Services and National Institute of Mental Health, and the writing of the multicultural counseling standards and competencies, which was done by Sue Arredondo and McDavies. Another major change that occurred in the 1990's was the inclusion of counselors as providers for managed health care organizations. Two of the major trends being faced by counselors in the new century include having to serve an increasing number of clients recovering from violence, crisis situations, and trauma, and helping clients cope with loneliness and isolation. The negative characteristics of the first trend are that crisis situations and acts of violence have become more deadly and prevalent in society since the 1990's, examples of these being the Columbine massacre and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and incidences of post-traumatic stress disorder have also become prevalent as a result
There are three instances in which a counselor may be sued for malpractice; the first one is when a counselor may have to face civil liability malpractice suits for supposed invasion of privacy. The second instance of a counselor facing a civil liability malpractice suit is when a counselor is accused of defamation. The third instance of a counselor facing a malpractice suit, this time for criminal liability, is when he/she is accused of serving as an accessory to a crime. The steps that counselors can take in order to avoid malpractice suits are to familiarize themselves with those elements of the law that are shared by both the mental health and legal professions, to recognize those elements of the law that are not to be found in the mental health culture, to continuously review the ethical codes of the professional counseling associations, and finally to consult with colleagues and legal professionals over ways to overcome certain ethical-legal dilemmas. The benefits of ethical codes are that they can serve as guidelines for helping counselors to arrive at solutions to ethical dilemmas, they demonstrate the increasing level of professionalism that the field of counseling has recently experienced, and they keep counselors liable for any misfired attempts towards solving ethical dilemmas without consulting the codes firs
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Approximate Word count = 897
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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