When a counseling intervention is intended to benefit a patient, ethical considerations appear. It is critical for healthcare practitioners to have an ethical framework to use at the stage of the counseling interventions. Because of the potential for adverse outcomes, it is critical for healthcare practitioners to have some framework in place to assist them in evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of taking action (or not taking action) in order to make ethical judgments (Kurpad, 2018). Two of the ethical standards can be considered as the most important: non-maleficence, benevolence.
Firstly, non-maleficence, which is intended to assess the risk of the intervention from different points of view. In order not to bring more harm to the issue, counseling specialists should properly weigh possible outcomes and the consequences of the intervention. An example would be if an unskilled therapist attempted to deal with domestic violence in a person who was abusing alcohol, an issue that requires training and sensitivity. Several difficulties may develop during the intervention, including safeguarding the family from more violence, resolving legal issues, and attempting to modify the patient’s overall conduct (Kurpad, 2018). Thus, the ethical issue of non-maleficence is crucial at the stage of counseling intervention.
Secondly, benevolence should be the primary goal and the foundation of any counseling intervention. In other words, the ethics of doing good should be at the forefront of any intervention. When patients seek care, they are often quite vulnerable, especially if they are in a crisis. When it comes to interventions, they don’t always know what they want to achieve. Any counseling intervention must be evidence-based in order to be effective (Kurpad, 2018). A well-trained therapist should be able to determine whether the patient is truly benefiting from the treatment. Thus, the ethics of beneficence plays a vital role in the overall process of counseling intervention.
References
Kurpad, S. S. (2018). Ethics in psychosocial interventions. Indian journal of psychiatry, 60(4), 571.