12/05/05
PSY 1151W: ETHICS CASE STUDY
CASE
The Ethics
Committee received a complaint by an unmarried 17-year-old student against a
psychologist employed by a university counseling service. The psychologist had supervised the student’s
counselor, who was working as a predoctoral intern in the counseling
service. The psychologist was an APA
member; the intern was not.
The complaint
alleged that the supervising psychologist had violated the confidentiality of
the client-therapist relationship by informing the student’s parents of his
suicide threat. The student had refused
to seek voluntary hospitalization, which the intern had strongly suggested that
he do. The intern informed the
supervising psychologist of the suicide threat during a routine supervisory
session. The intern was concerned about
the risk of an attempt because the student was agitated and depressed and had
made a suicide attempt several years previously. The supervisor required the intern to give
her the student’s name and other identifying data so that she could notify the
parents.
Once notified,
the parents immediately came to campus and had the student hospitalized. After his brief hospitalization, the student
initiated the complaint against the psychologist for breach of confidentiality.
In response to the Ethic’s
Committee’s inquiry, the psychologist indicated that her actions were
consistent with Principle [..] of the Ethical
Principles [and Code of Conduct]. On the
basis of the information she received from the intern, clear danger of harm to
the student existed. Because the law in
her state allowed immediate relatives to request involuntary hospitalization,
and the student had refused voluntary admission, and because the psychologist
and the intern did not want to proceed unilaterally, it was necessary and
proper to notify the student’s parent in order to protect his welfare.
SOURCE:
American Psychological
Association (1987). Casebook
on ethical principles of psychologists (p. 68).