Ethics

Question 1

Court decision that established a psychologist’s duty to protect a third party when the client communicates a clear and imminent threat of physical harm to an identifiable victim or victims and the client has the ability to carry out his or her threat.

Answer 1

Tarasoff - duty to warn

Question 2

Situations where HIPAA allows you to disclose PHI

Answer 2

when info will be used for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations - BUT state law takes precedence over HIPAA

Question 3

Who holds privilege (the legal right to confidentiality)

Answer 3

clients

Question 4

Can you deny promotion if someone is under an ethics investigation?

Answer 4

No

Question 5

Dr. Hedges has been seeing Betty in therapy for three months to help her deal with the sudden death of her mother. She’s made progress toward achieving her therapy goals, and they’ve started talking about terminating therapy. During her current session, Betty tells Dr. Hedges that her best friend is going through a divorce and she’d like to refer her to Dr. Hedges for therapy. Dr. Hedges should:

Answer 5

tell Betty he cannot see her friend in therapy and offer to give her friend referrals to other mental health professionals.

Question 6

A psychologist pays the local newspaper to insert a weekly “canned column” as an advertisement for her professional services. Each column poses a different question asked by a client about a mental health issue and includes a response to the question. The column also provides information about the psychologist’s services and contact information. In terms of ethical guidelines, this is:

Answer 6

C. ethical as long as the columns are clearly identified as paid advertisements.