Mental health articles

A Mental Health Professional Consultant’s Code of Ethics Because there is no universally accepted code of ethics for consultants with mental health backgrounds, Gallessich (1982) created a set of principles based on information culled from the consultation literature (American Psychological Association, 1972; Benne, 1969; Division of Managerial Consultation of the Academy of Management, 1978; G. Lippit & Lippit, 1978; NTL Institute, 1980; Pfeiffer & Jones, 1977). It addresses the most important core issues in consultation, and is submitted for the reader’s consideration.

Principle 1: Consultants’ clients are the agencies that hire them. Consultants place their clients’ interest above their own.

Principle 2: Consultants are responsible for safeguarding the welfare of their consultees and client organizations. Consultants inform consultees of any potential risks in consultation activities and help consultees make informed decisions on whether or not to use any service.

Principle 3: Consultants present their professional qualifications and limitations accurately in order to avoid misinterpretation. They immediately correct any misunderstandings about their credentials and experience. They also inform consultees of any professional or personal relationships, biases, or values that are likely to affect their work.

Principle 4: Consultants are careful to present their knowledge accurately. Principle 5: When consultants perceive a consultee to behave in an unethical manner, they express their observations and the reasons for their concern to the person involved.

Principle 6: Consultants avoid involvement in multiple roles and relationships that might create conflicts of interest and thus jeopardize their effectiveness in the consultant role.

Principle 7: Consultants avoid manipulating consultees.

Principle 8: Consultants accept contracts only if they are reasonably sure that the client agency will benefit from their services.

Principle 9: Consultants establish clear contracts with well-defined parameters. They ascertain that they are sanctioned to enter an agency through the express permission of its executive officer.

Principle 10: Consultants fulfill their contracts and remain within contractual boundaries.

Principle 11: Consultants strive to evaluate the outcomes of their services. Principle 12: Consultants assume responsibility for assisting administrators in establishing confidentiality policies to govern consultation and communicating these policies to the staff members involved in consultation activities.

Principle 13: Consultants acquire the basic body of knowledge and skills of their profession.

Principle 14: Consultants know their professional strengths, weaknesses, and biases.
Principle 15: Consultants are aware of personal characteristics that predispose them to
systematic biases.
Principle 16: Consultants are alert to differences between their own social and political
values and interests and those of client organizations.
Principle 17: Consultants regularly assess their strengths and weaknesses in relation to
current and future work.
Principle 18: When advertising or otherwise promoting their services, consultants are
careful to describe them accurately and to avoid fraudulent information or claims.
Principle 19: Consultants serve public interests through offering a proportion of their time to agencies that are financially unable to pay for consultation services.
Principle 20: Consultants contribute to the growth of knowledge through their own research and experimentation.
Principle 21: Consultants are alert to the public’s welfare.
Principle 22: Consultants contribute to the training of less experienced consultants.
Principle 23: Consultants behave so as to protect the reputation of their profession.
Principle 24: Consultants cooperate with other consultants and with members of other professions.
Principle 25: Consultants acquaint themselves with the current fee standards in their area of expertise and in the agency’s geographic location.
Principle 26: When a consultant observes another professional to behave in an apparently unethical way, the consultant goes to that person to discuss these perceptions.
Principle 27: Consultants contribute to their profession by participating in the activities of peer associations and supporting their standards.
Principle 28: Consultants take active steps to maintain and increase their effectiveness.

Tags: Mental health