Application of the right codes of conduct is essential in effective service delivery. On the same note, maintenance of high ethical standards is vital for client confidence, satisfaction and retention. Therefore, practicing psychologists and counselors should observe high ethical and moral values while discharging their duties and that is why it is important for them to undergo ethical training.
Although ethical training paves way for moral and legal considerations, there is need to increase awareness in the working environment. The codes contained in the Washington State Regulation (WAC) and the Revised Codes documents have a provision for client-psychologist relations in regards to legal and moral practice.
It does not focus much on ethical codes of retention and total client confidence which is vital in psychology discipline (Sanders, 2007). In this case, there is need to put in place viable tools in form of recommendations that can be used to improve the field of psychology and counseling.
To begin with, Washington Rules and Regulations together with the revised codes of Washington contain insufficiencies in definition of the level of service delivery. According to Jackson (2005), service delivery is crucial as part of boosting customer’s confidence, retention as well as assurance of privacy. As such, much of the emphasis should be laid on competency.
Additionally, there is need to clarify the level of practitioner competency. It is imperative to note that under-competency may adversely discourage clients bearing in mind that customer confidence is based on effective service delivery.
On the other hand, over-competency is also harmful to psychologist-client relations since it may lead to a feeling of self betrayal in a client and thus shield more information and consequently future avoidance of service use.
Since practitioners have more roles to play in the working environment it is imperative that they consider competency boundaries to avoid destruction of mutual client-practitioner trust by observation of the right competency level, usually considered as medium.
Secondly, there is need to observe high standards of dignity for the sake of protecting humanity. For instance, client-practitioner involvement brings with it aspects of human interactions within the working environment. Sanders (2007) argue that situations that challenge human dignity arise during these interactions. For instance, client reciprocation after service through payments may not be immediate.
Handling of the consequent situation will predetermine future relations. Although it is a right to get paid as agreed between the two parties, harsh situation handling may lead to deterioration of client-practitioner relations and thus paint a bad public image of the industry.
Client retention and trust can only be achieved through observation of high standards of dignity through respect for humanity. It is thus imperative for application of human dignity in such situations to avoid such negative outcomes.
Lastly, increasing awareness on relevant professional issues is also of great importance. The WAC and the revised Washington Codes do not indicate this as one of ethical perspectives in the psychology industry. Awareness greatly helps in determination and improvement of the course of counseling and psychological service discharge industry.
Information relevant to the psychology industry affects involved parties and awareness helps improve future services and customer confidence. For instance, some professional issues that have attracted legal attention need to be taken into account and applied for the sake of improving ethical relations (Churchill, 2006).
As discussed above, it is important that client-practitioner relations be maintained so that the discipline may grow. The WAC and Revised Codes do not exhaustively avail all dimensions of ethical considerations.
This implies that there is need to enact and implement some of the recommendations proposed above. On the same note, observation of the right level of competency is important for sustaining customer confidence and assurance of privacy.
References
Churchill, T.D. (2006). Ethical Value and practices. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jackson, S. (2005). Recommendations for the Ethical Conduct of Quality Improvement. Washington: Department of Veterans Affairs.
Sanders, R. K. (2007).Christian counseling ethics: a handbook for therapists, pastors & counselors. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.