In the beginning of the professional relationship John B. as a therapist could have acknowledged the dual relationship and the counter production that could possibly occur in the therapeutic relationships with the client. John B’s ethical responsibility would be not to work with the mother of his child’s friend. As a helping professional when working with a client that you may interpersonally know this may cause friction or challenging dynamics that can affect boundaries. When starting the professional relationship John B. could have also discussed the lowered fee arrangements with the client and boundaries upfront as to avoid any discretions that would disrupt the professional and ethical guidelines of the therapeutic relationship.
John B. could have intervened to avoid conflict in this case with the client by addressing all matters related to boundaries and fee scaling upfront during the initial meeting. “ Social workers should inform clients when a real or potential conflict of interest arises and take reasonable steps to resolve the issues in a manner that makes the client interest primary and protects clients’ interests to the greatest extent possible” (Reamer, 2003,pg.2). For example, John B. could clarify the roles and the responsibility the client would have to avoid conflict and confusion. This case with John B. and the client produced a dysfunctional outcome because the client was not paying the fee for any of the sessions for the entity of the 6 months and this could possibly be due to the confidence of knowing John B. personally. John B. also disregarded ethical guidelines such as confidentiality and privacy by sending the psychological bill to the clients place of employment in bold letterhead. John B’s actions of sending this bill to the clients place of employment could have been dealt with differently. For example, if he could not reach the client personally the client should either have emergency contact on file, informed consent, or John B should speak to his supervisor to find out how he should proceed moving forward.
The duties and the obligations of the worker in this case is to either have set the boundaries and discussed the fees during the initial meeting with client. The therapist could also let the client know that this would be a conflict of interest to work with the client and refer the client to someone else professionally so that there would not have been any conflict. The NASW Code of Ethics that is applicable in this situation is 1.06 Conflicts of Interest and 1.07 Privacy and Confidentiality For example it would have been beneficial for John B. professionally to follow both guidelines to avoid conflict. For example, John B. should have “ not disclose confidential information to third party unless clients have authorized disclosures” (NASW). (Cindy)