Week 6: Professional Issues

Question 1

What is typically the vision of a clubhouse model of mental health treatment?

Answer 1

-Mental health recovery
-Involvement in activities that reduce isolation and enhance wellbeing
-Reducing stigma and supporting people in being respected community members, reaching their potential
-Addressing social determinants of health, such as employment, food security, housing, and belonging

Question 2

What is Solution Focused Brief Therapy?

Answer 2

A short-term (less than 10 sessions) approach focused on identifying solutions to problems, rather than their causes, based in positive psychology

Question 3

In Solution Focused Brief Therapy, what is the underlying assumption about the client?

Answer 3

The client already has the knowledge and ability to solve their problems; the clinician’s role is to help the client construct a new use for knowledge they already have, elicit a description of how the client would like their life to be, and identify exceptions to the problem/what is needed to reduce the problem.

Question 4

What symbols describe gender in a genogram?

Answer 4

Square = male
Circle = female
Circle within square = FtM
Square within circle = MtF

Question 5

How is age communicated in a genogram?

Answer 5

A number written within the gender symbol

Question 6

How is a marriage or other life partnership communicated in a genogram

Answer 6

A horizontal line drawn under the relevant people’s symbols, connecting them to one another

Question 7

How are child/parent relationships communicated in a genogram?

Answer 7

A vertical line below a parent connects them to their child; the child can also be connected to a marriage/relationship line between their parents

Question 8

How is a pregnancy/miscarriage communicated in a genogram?

Answer 8

A triangle symbol in place of a gender symbol

Question 9

How are biological, foster, and adopted children differentiated in genograms?

Answer 9

Biological = solid line to parent(s)
Foster = dotted line
Adopted = 2 parallel lines, one solid and one dotted

Question 10

How is the quality of a relationship communicated in a genogram?

Answer 10

Different types of lines:
-2 parallel solid lines = close
-1 faded/dotted line = distant
-3 solid lines = fused
-Broken line = cutoff
-Jagged/zig-zag line = hostile
-Jagged line with an arrow = abuse (direction indicated)

These lines are separate from marriage/child lines; they reach directly between two people from the centre of their symbol

Question 11

How many generations are typically captured in a genogram?

Answer 11

3 generations

Question 12

How are health/illness communicated in a genogram?

Answer 12

Half the symbol is shaded in:
-Solid = known
-Lined = suspected
-Faded = past
-Bottom = substance use
-Left = mental/physical illness
-3/4 fill = both mental/physical illness and substance use

Question 13

What are ethics?

Answer 13

Practical rules/principles about what is right which guide our professional behaviour

Question 14

What is the relationship between ethics and values?

Answer 14

Our professional ethics are informed by our personal/professional values

Question 15

What are the 5 steps in the framework for ethical decision making?

Answer 15

1. Collect information and identify the problem
2. Specify feasible alternatives
3. Identify morally significant factors
   in each alternative
4. Propose and test possible resolutions
5. Make a final decision

Question 16

What is the purpose of a code of ethics? (3)

Answer 16

-Create unity within a profession
-Serve the interests of the profession and its clients
-Act as a guideline for ethical decision making

Question 17

What are some limitations of the CASW Code of Ethics? (

Answer 17

-Does not prescribe responses to certain situations/dilemmas
-Does not sufficiently address diversity, ethnocentrism, Truth and Reconciliation, or intergenerational trauma
-Does not address the use of technology in practice

Question 18

What are the 6 approaches to understanding ethics?

Answer 18

1. Duty-based/Kantian: commitment to “dignity for all” and the “right thing” without consideration for the social situation
2. Utilitarian: greatest good for the greatest number of people (does not necessarily investigate biases in defining what is good and for whom)
3. Virtue-based: based on one’s particular disposition/ideals (honesty, generosity, integrity, etc.)
4. Principle-based: respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice
5. Feminist, critical, and anti-oppressive: rights-based critique of oppressive powers, emphasizing impartiality, autonomy, and intersectionality
6. Intuitionist: rejects the notion of there being a rational way to make ethical decisions or that conscious deliberation is necessary to be ethical

Question 19

What are Rogers’ 3 conditions for use of self

Answer 19

1. Congruence (genuineness): the inner and outer experience of the therapist matches
2. Unconditional positive regard & acceptance: the client is cared for, accepted, and valued without fear or judgement or rejection
3. Accurate empathic understanding: the therapist recognizes that the client’s experience is subjective and strives to see things from the client’s perspective; is able to reflect the experience back to the client

Question 20

What are the differences between vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout? What are the similarities?

Answer 20

Vicarious trauma: practitioner experiencing trauma symptoms after exposure to clients’ trauma stories

Compassion fatigue: the broader experience of emotional, psychological, and physical fatigue that professionals experience due to chronic use of empathy

Burnout: a gradual process of accumulating fatigue, leading to a state of exhaustion

Shared characteristics: loss of empathy, cynicism, depression, anxiety, personal relationship/financial challenges, exhaustion, etc.

Question 21

What are the ABCs of addressing vicarious trauma (Richardson, 2001)?

Answer 21

A: awareness of one’s needs, limits, emotions, and resources

B: balancing work home, play, rest, and all aspects of oneself

C: connection to oneself, others, spirituality, hope, etc.

Question 22

What three realms to the ABCs of addressing vicarious trauma apply to (Richardson, 2001)?

Answer 22

The ABCs must be addressed in your…
-Professional life
-Organisational context
-Personal life

Question 23

What are transference and countertransference, and where did they originate?

Answer 23

Transference: feelings evoked in a client towards a practitioner that are related to the client’s past/external experiences and relationships

Countertransference: feelings evoked in a practitioner towards a client that are related to the practitioner’s past/external experiences and relationships

Both concepts come from psychodynamic therapy

Question 24

What is immediacy?

Answer 24

Discussion or feedback in the present moment about what is going in in the client-worker relationship (emotions, behaviour, transference/countertransference); a description moreso than an evaluation