Ethics: right to die

Ethics was the first graduate course I had taken when I went back to obtain a graduate degree in mental health counseling. Ethics seems like an easy thing: do the right thing, don’t cause harm.

Life is so large that it would be impossible to list every possible ethical situation in one book. So, there are generalized guidelines. Of course there are laws too.

I was assigned to a four-person team to do a research project on the rights to die.

It is a very difficult topic.

Personally, I would not want to live on machines.

However, I do not feel comfortable making that decision for another person.

Recreational therapists who work with hospice, in nursing homes, or with people who are terminally ill may want to read this article about Brittany Maynard who was an advocate for the right to die with dignity

 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/02/health/oregon-brittany-maynard/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

Personal Code of Ethics

Doing the right thing is important to me. Ethics are essential for recreational therapists.

Here are some of my personal ethical values as a professional recreational therapist and a student in a counseling degree program (in alphabetical order)
Several of these ethical values are overlapping.

Autonomy and Self-determination: Give the patient the freedom to make decisions and take actions for her (or his) life. As a human services professional, I have the responsibility to provide all the information possible to assist the person in making a decision.

Beneficence: Promote the patient’s well-being. It is my responsibility as a practitioner to do everything I can to help the patient receive the most benefits from services that I provide. I have the responsibility to continue my education and training to stay updated on the techniques that have been proven by consistent research studies to be effective.

Competence: Maintain and develop the knowledge and skills necessary to perform tasks. I should have the right background training and experience before attempting to provide a service or treatment intervention. This will also prevent any unintentional harm.

Education: Continue to develop my knowledge, skills, and abilities. I’m a strong advocate for
reading and learning. My value in this is evident by my education level. I also enjoy self-study reading and learning on my own. I also have the responsibility as human services professional to provide education to patients who I provide services for. This will assist the patient in making well-informed decisions.

Empathy: Understand how another person could feel. I have a responsibility to understand how a patient could be feeling in the moment. I can do this by asking questions for clarification and paying attention to body language and sound of voice.

Equal Opportunity: All people should get an equal chance or opportunity to use or do something that is offered to the public. I feel I have a responsibility to be an advocate for equal rights for all people.

Humility: Being humble and modest when interacting with others. I’ve been very fortunate to have had the opportunities that I’ve had. I understand that all people may not have had the same opportunities as I’ve had. I enjoy being polite and kind to people and I wouldn’t want to do anything intentionally or unintentionally to humiliate or bring-down another person.

Non-maleficence: Beneficence is the ultimate goal. On the other end, I have a responsibility to do everything I can to prevent harm from the patient who I’m providing services for. I need to maintain and continue developing competencies to be the most effective provider that I can be. Naturally, I don’t want to cause harm to a person intentionally. Developing my skills and abilities can prepare me so that I won’t cause any unintentional harm to a patient.

Open-mindedness: Being open to other people’s ideas and opinions. Other people may not have the same thoughts and opinions about the world that I do. As a human services professional, I work with many different people. I have the responsibility to accept that they have different opinions and values and that I shouldn’t impose my own personal opinions on others. Beyond open-mindedness, I also believe in having unconditional positive regard for a person.

Personal Growth and Development: Continuing to reach self-actualization. I want to do everything I can to be the best in my own life. I also enjoy helping other people to fulfill their own potential and to assist them in reaching their own personal goals.

Realness: Being honest and upfront with people. I believe in being genuine with people. I don’t want to put on any false fronts. Being real with the people who I serve can assist them with realistic expectations.

Recreation: Participating in activities for enjoyment, amusement, pleasure, and fun offers me an opportunity to rejuvenate and prevents burn-out. I also believe that all people should have the opportunities to recreation because of its refreshing, healing, and therapeutic qualities. My background training in recreational therapy has also taught me to systematically use recreational therapies to help a patient to build on her (or his) strengths as well as to address areas of needed improvement. These opportunities should focus on the following domains: social, physical, emotional, and cognitive in order to give a person a well-balanced mix.

Self-Awareness/ Self-Concept: Having a good understanding of who I am and what I want in life. I believe I should be aware of my own personal values so I don’t unintentionally impose these on a patient through body language or comments. I also have the responsibility as human services professional to assist my patients in becoming self-aware of their own values in life that could help them in making decisions and taking action in their own life.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns about my personal ethical values. I can send examples. I’m open to criticism of these values as well.

Here are some additional links that serve as a guideline for my personal code of ethics:

American Therapeutic Recreation Association’s (ATRA) Code of Ethics

Posting information online

I thought Recreational Therapists and other people who read my blog might be interested in knowing about a teacher who had been suspended from her job without pay due to some recent comments she had posted at her blog.

Basically, she had complained about students and their whining behavior.

A good tip for recreational therapists and other allied professionals is to: never talk about other people at your blog, facebook, twitter, youtube, or other social media outlets.

These things are public. It is a good idea to keep ethics in mind, too. A recreational therapist or any professional in the mental health field should never do anything that could break confidence.

We, Recreational Therapists have a responsiblity to bring the most benefits as possible to our patients/ clients/ people who we serve and not to bring any harm to patients.

I had recently read at Jim Sabin's blog about medical students who had posted pictures of body parts after surgery at their facebook and myspace.

Imagine what harm that would do to a person if they recognized their body pictures online.

Here is the news article about the teacher who posted information online:

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/16/teacher-natalie-munroe-defends-blog-comments-about-whiny-students/?hpt=T2

Here is the Health Care Ethics blog by Jim Sabin. The article is called treating patients with respect. Go here:

http://healthcareorganizationalethics.blogspot.com/