Ethics_and_Law

Application 1: Elements and Distinctions Between Ethics and the Law The relationship that exists between mental health professions and the law could best be described as an uneasy alliance (Melton, Petrila, Poythress, & Slobogin, 1997, p. 3). Many is the field of mental health often times would consider themselves fortunate to avoid interaction with a system whose procedures and laws often seem irrelevant to the therapeutic aims of their profession. On the opposite end of the spectrum, for those professionals surrounding the practice of law, view the mental health profession as a vague and somewhat unreliable science, particularly when it intersects with the legal system. However, the shared history of the mental health profession and the legal system proves without a doubt that their future relationship is here to stay. The intersection of these two complex systems is unavoidable and can be both mutually favorable and beneficial to all who are involved. Since Muller v. Oregon (1908, U.S. Supreme Court) and critical court decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954, U.S. Supreme Court), evidence from the social sciences has been used in the judicial decision-making process (Levin & Wallach, 2002). For the professional counselor, a working knowledge of basic forensic social work would help in navigating the system of law in a way that is both helpful and contributes to the best interest of the client. Therapeutic jurisprudence is a term coined by David Wexler and Bruce Winick that describes the problem-solving process between the legal and mental health systems. Wexler and Winick examined the impact of the system of law on mental health as well as the impact of the social sciences on the law (Wexler, 1990; Wexler & Winick, 1991, 1996; Winick, 1997). With the increase in today’s society of problems such as crime, divorce, family violence, and substance abuse, as well as the clear impact of mental illness on crime, professionals and scholars in the practice of law and the social sciences have been inseparably linked when looking at societal and systematic responses to the phenomena (Levin & Wallach, 2002). Those who are concerned with this practice of therapeutic jurisprudence focus on such problems as the manner in which the court system deals with the issues such as substance abuse and domestic violence. Our nation’s criminal justice system and the mental health profession depend on the knowledge base and expertise from each respective discipline, as well as the prudence of those specialists who have combined expertise, in attempts to not only address, but to solve problems. All in all, both fields inform the practice of one another. Cultural awareness and cultural competence is a very important aspect of the mental health profession. Although cultural competence is never really achieved or completed in the lives of professional counselors, it should be viewed as an ongoing, integral part of the profession. Counselors will never fully achieve cultural competence because they are continuously encountering diverse clients with different situations and circumstances in their daily practice. Counselors must also have cultural awareness in their daily practice because there are a wide range of content areas requiring culturally sensitive and culturally competent interventions. In order to remain culturally aware, counselors must be involved in an ongoing process of learning how their clients are unique in their culture, and deal with their problems in mainstream society. As a counselor, I feel that every person is a special, unique, individual that is capable of achieving any goal they set for themselves. I also feel that the time spent in therapy should not only be a time of personal growth for the client, but for the counselor as well. As a professional counselor, I realize that in our rapidly changing diverse society that each client comes to me with a unique set of values and beliefs. Cultural awareness and competence will only be successfully maintained through continual professional development and careful, un-biased observation of others in which we have formed some type of rapport. I will strive to be a patient, respectful, empathetic mental health professional that exhibits a genuine, caring attitude each time I meet with a new or present client. References Levine, M., & Wallach, L. (2002). Psychological problems, social issues, and law. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Melton, G. B., Petrila, J., Poythress, N.G., & Slobogin, C. (1997). Psychological evaluations For the courts: A handbook for mental health professionals and lawyers, 2nd edition. New York: The Guilford Press. Wexler, D.B. (1990). Therapeutic jurisprudence: The law as a therapeutic agent. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Wexler, D.B. & Winick, B.J. (1991). Essays in therapeutic jurisprudence. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Case References Brown v.Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). Muller v. Oregon (1908, U.S. Supreme Court).