Ethical Conundrums, Quandaries and Predicaments in Mental Health Practice: A Casebook from the Files of Experts

Is it ethical to treat a death row inmate only to stabilize him or her for eventual execution? What happens when a military provider receives highly sensitive intelligence from a client? How can clinicians refuse costly gifts from clients without damaging the therapeutic relationship? Should a therapist disclose a client's suicidal intent to the authorities?In Ethical Conundrums, Quandaries and Predicaments in Mental Health Practice, these and other real-life scenarios constitute a comprehensive and definitive ethics casebook for mental health professionals. Inspired by the many difficult situations they themselves have faced, an eminent group of accomplished mental health clinicians provide first-hand accounts of ethical problems that defy boilerplate solutions. Each chapter begins with a compelling and ethically complex case followed by an illustrative yet succinct analysis of the key ethical issues present and a personal reflection on the case itself, along with the process of ethical reasoning used to arrive at a final decision. Every case concludes with key recommendations for promoting ethical practice within an often challenging work setting. Highlighting the human aspect of ethics in mental health practice through the use of mesmerizing narratives while also provoking the reader to reflect upon what is the "right" thing to do, Ethical Conundrums, Quandaries and Predicaments in Mental Health Practice offers trainees and seasoned professionals alike invaluable informative models for dealing with ethical dilemmas, as well as the inspiration to confront seemingly insurmountable clinical problems.

Table of Contents:
Introduction, W. Brad Johnson & Gerald P. Koocher In the Psychotherapist's Office 1. But It's a Really Nice Gift!: Ethical Challenges in Responding to Offers of Gifts from Clients, Jeffrey E. Barnett 2. Everyone I Know Knows Everyone I Know: Boundary Overlap in the Life of One Lesbian Psychotherapist, Laura S. Brown 3. Hitler Should Have Finished the Job: Counter Transference, Anti-Semitism, Abandonment, and Termination, Michael A. Grodin 4. Suicidal Blackmail: Ethical and Risk Management Issues in Contemporary Clinical Care, David Jobes 5. An Affair to Remember: Protecting Vulnerable Clients and Confidentiality When Spouses Cheat, Mary Ann McCabe 6. Trapped by Trauma: When Clients Cannot or Will Not Protect Themselves From Harm, John Peteet 7. To Warn or Not to Warn: That is the Question, David L. Shapiro 8. What Would She Think?: Disclosure of Therapy Details After Death, Dan Shapiro 9. It's My Right!: Working with a Terminally (or Chronically) Ill, Persistently Suicidal Client, James L. Werth, Jr. In the Forensic World 10. High Stakes Indeed: Forensic Psychology in Death Penalty Litigation, Richart L. DeMier 11. Is that what I said?: Ethical Challenges When Parents Divorce during Treatment, Robin M. Deutsch 12. Now you see it, now you don't: When Releases of Information are Rescinded, John C. Gonsiorek 13. The Siren Song of Silence: Ensuring a Basis for Professional Judgments, Robert Kinscherff 14. Thera-mail for a Quarter Century: Managing Complex Boundaries with a Former Client, Frederic G. Reamer 15. Jonas and His Protective, Delusional, or Alienating Mother: Advocacy, Forensics, and Boundaries with Battered Women, Lenore E. Walker In Medical Center Corridors 16. Determining a Patient's Capacity to Refuse Dialysis and Die: When Professional Competence and Credentials Do Not Overlap, James DuBois 17. When Boundaries Intersect in Cyberspace: Facebook, Multiple Relationships, and Confidentiality in a Hospital, Nabil Hassan El-Ghoroury 18. Second Chances: Decision Making in Pediatric Transplantation, Lisa M. Farley 19. On being there: Boundaries in Emotionally Intense Contexts, Gerald P. Koocher In National Security Settings 20. I've Got This Friend: Multiple Roles, Informed Consent, and Friendship in the Military, W. Brad Johnson 21. Establishing Rapport with an "Enemy Combatant": Cultural Competency in Guantanamo Bay, Carrie H. Kennedy 22. Psychotic, Homicidal and Armed: The Delicate Balance Between Personal Safety and Effectiveness in a Combat Environment, Heidi S. Kraft 23. What Do You Know that Can Help Us? Behavioral Science in National Security Settings, Susan E. Brandon In Organizations 24. A Disaster in a Suite and Tie: When Organizational Policies Undermine Ethical Obligations, Charles A. Morgan 25. Risking Your Job: On Striving to be An Ethical Leader in Difficult Organizational Circumstances, Rodney L. Lowman 26. When Bad Things Happen to People Who Try Really Hard: Ethical Quandaries in Test Validation, Nancy T. Tippins In Schools and Colleges 27. When in Doubt, Pull Them Out? Ethical Issues Related to Decisions on Child Removal from the Home, Lyvia Chriki 28. A Near Fall: The Multifaceted Challenges to Work in Sport Psychology and Intercollegiate Athletics, Edward F. Etzel 29. Doing good versus avoiding harm: Resolving Situational Contradictions, Alan Green Supervising or Assisting Colleagues 30. The Wink: Ethical Aspects of Encountering Clients in Unexpected Places, Stephen H. Behnke 31. Can you help us?: Supervising Graduate Students in a Crisis Situation, Clark D. Campbell 32. Doing it by the Book: Ethical Issues in Teaching a Group Didactically and Experientially. Gerald Corey 33. So, how exactly did you get interested in eating disorders?: Confronting a Colleague's Unhealthy Behaviors, Jennifer L. Derenne 34. Knocked Off Kilter: Supervising in the Wake of Sexual Boundary Violations. Janet T. Thomas In Religious Concerns and Settings 35. Of Course It's Confidential - Only the Community Knows: Mental Health Services with the Old Order Amish, James A. Cates 36. Working Out One's Salvation in Fear and Trembling: Ethical and Spiritual Dilemmas Around Therapeutic Boundaries, Andrew Michel In the Public Arena 37. Ethics, The Constitution, Politics, Clinical Judgment and the Case of Terri Schiavo, Brian Baird 38. Isn't this against the Law? Boundary problems in Police Psychology, Gerald Sweet

About the Author :
W. Brad Johnson is Professor of Psychology at the United States Naval Academy and Faculty Associate in the Graduate School of Education at Johns Hopkins University. As a past chair of the American Psychological Association's Ethics Committee and a former Director of Research for George Fox University's Graduate School of Clinical Psychology, Johnson is a leading authority on ethical practice in clinical psychology, having authored many publications including 10 books in the area of mental health and counseling. Gerald P. Koocher is Associate Provost and Professor of Psychology at Simmons College and a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Medical School. Having served as the President of the American Psychological Association (APA) and as the Chief Psychologist at Children's Hospital Boston, he has authored more than 200 articles and book chapters and authored or edited 15 books, including the paramount text in ethics and mental health, Ethics in Psychology and the Mental Health Professions: Professional Standards and Cases, now in its third edition.

Review :
"What an excellent, important compilation of many prickly, sticky, complex ethical practice dilemmas! The multidisciplinary 'Who's Who' of ethical experts have presented memorable cases of their own, which contribute to a very compelling, highly readable set of ethical predicaments in a wide variety of work settings, followed by each author's personal reflections. This text is brilliant, grounded in both principle ethics and virtue ethics, rooted in real world experiences. I love this book, and couldn't put it down!"--Melba Vasquez, Ph.D., ABPP, President of the American Psychological Association "Widely-respected ethicists Johnson and Koocher have edited a unique casebook that blows the dust off ethical abstractions and brings them to life. It takes us inside the minds of mental health professionals as they think their way through the conflicting values, demands, and goals of actual ethical dilemmas. The authors show us the diversity of ethical challenges we meet in our work and the diverse ways of approaching them. A valuable contribution to the literature and a wonderful gift to both beginner and seasoned professional."--Kenneth S. Pope, Ph.D., ABPP, co-author of Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Practical Guide, Fourth Edition "As rich in fundamental clinical wisdom as it is in ethics analyses of professional dilemmas, this vital book is jam-packed with courageous, self-revealing and riveting narratives from expert clinicians about their adventures in that ethical twilight zone called actual daily practice. The honesty and candor of the many authors' voices make this a unique contribution to deep understanding of decision making in the real world. Highest recommendation."--Thomas G. Gutheil, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School "Ethical Conundrums, Quandaries, and Predicaments in Mental Health Practice: A Casebook From the Files of Experts is a remarkably comprehensive, often gripping firsthand account of mental health professionals struggling with real ethical challenges. It represents a unique and long-overdue resource for students and practitioners, primarily in its illustrations of the phenomenology, the human experience, of the ethical dilemma from the point of view of the clinician." -- Andrew M. Pomerantz, PsycCRITIQUES "This is an excellent ethics guide for practicing mental health professionals. The book is unique in its narrative format that not only provides highly nuanced and useful cases, but makes for very interesting reading." -- DOODY'S