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Códigos de Ética do Exterior |
In 1995 the NBCC® Board of Directors appointed a WebCounseling Task Force to examine the practice of on-line counseling and to assess the possible existence of any regulatory issues NBCC® might need to address. The Task Force established a listserv composed of more than twenty individuals who had specific knowledge, expertise, skills and opinions regarding the practice of what is herein referred to as WebCounseling. Soon it became apparent that counseling had a diverse presence on the Internet, from web sites that simply promoted a counselor's home or office practice, to sites that provided information about counseling and others which actually claimed to offer therapeutic interventions either as an adjunct to face-to-face counseling or as a stand alone service.
Some sites were poorly constructed, poorly edited and poorly presented. Others were run by anonymous individuals, individuals with no credentials or fraudulent credentials, and some sites were operated by individuals with appropriate credentials and years of professional experience. However these credentials were all based on education and experience gained in face-to-face counseling, and the relevance of these credentials to the practice of WebCounseling was unknown. No one knew if the lack of visual input made a difference in the outcome of the counseling process. No one knew about the legality of counseling across state or national boundaries. No one knew if there was any relevant research in any field of communication which could shed light on these questions.
In the meantime other professions were being transformed because of electronic communications. In California, for example, Telemedicine was not only introduced but was legalized by the state legislature. And in the counseling profession, it became apparent that while some professionals didn't like the concept of on-line counseling, no one was going to be able to stop burgeoning numbers of individuals from opening practices and soliciting clients from all over the globe.
With this as background, the WebCounseling Task Force started to develop guidelines for the practice of WebCounseling. Guidelines that could hopefully give the novice on-line counselor a vision of some of the professional, ethical, and legal pitfalls that might exist, guidelines which evolved into Standards for the Ethical Practice of WebCounseling. While NBCC® does not advocate the practice of WebCounseling, it is hoped that these voluntary standards, formally adopted in 1997, will give counselors and other behavioral health professionals the direction needed to minimize risk and danger to WebCounselor and WebClient alike.
The relative newness of the use of the Internet for service and product delivery leaves authors of standards at a loss when beginning to create ethical practices on the Internet. This document, like all codes of conduct, will change as information and circumstances not yet foreseen evolve. However, each version of this code of ethics is the current best standard of conduct passed by the NBCC® Board of Directors. As with any code, and especially with a code such as this, created for an evolving field of work, NBCC® and CCE welcome comments and ideas for further discussion and inclusion.
Further, the development of these WebCounseling standards has been guided by the following principles:
These standards are intended to address practices which are unique to WebCounseling and WebCounselors,
These standards are not to duplicate non-Internet-based standards adopted in other codes of ethics,
Recognizing that significant new technology emerges continuously, these standards should be reviewed frequently,
WebCounseling ethics cases should be reviewed in light of delivery systems existing at the moment rather than at the time the standards were adopted.
WebCounselors who are not National Certified Counselors may indicate at their WebSite their adherence to these standards, but may not publish these standards in their entirety without written permission of the National Board for Certified Counselors.
The Practice of WebCounseling shall be defined as "the practice of professional counseling and information delivery that occurs when client(s) and counselor are in separate or remote locations and utilize electronic means to communicate over the Internet".
In addition to following the NBCC® Code of Ethics pertaining to the practice of professional counseling, WebCounselors shall:
Liability insurance policies should also be reviewed to determine if the practice of WebCounseling is a covered activity. Local, state, provincial, and national statutes as well as the codes of professional membership organizations, professional certifying bodies and state or provincial licensing boards need to be reviewed. Also, as no definitive answers are known to questions pertaining to whether WebCounseling takes place in the WebCounselor's location or the WebClient's location, WebCounselors should consider carefully local customs regarding age of consent and child abuse reporting.
Encryption methods should be used whenever possible. If encryption is not made available to clients, clients must be informed of the potential hazards of unsecured communication on the Internet. Hazards may include authorized or unauthorized monitoring of transmissions and/or records of WebCounseling sessions.
Session data may include WebCounselor/WebClient e-mail, test results, audio/video session recordings, session notes, and counselor/supervisor communications. The likelihood of electronic sessions being preserved is greater because of the ease and decreased costs involved in recording. Thus, its potential use in supervision, research and legal proceedings increases.
Because of the relative ease with which e-mail messages can be forwarded to formal and casual referral sources, WebCounselors must work to insure the confidentiality of the WebCounseling relationship.
WebCounselors may wish to ensure that, minimally, the WebClient has the same data available about his/her service provider as would be available if the counseling were to take place face to face (i.e., possibly ethnicity, gender, etc.). Compelling reasons for limiting disclosure should be presented. WebCounselors will remember to protect themselves from unscrupulous users of the Internet by limiting potentially harmful disclosure about self and family.
WebCounselors who have contacted an individual to determine his or her willingness to serve as a Counselor-On-Call (either in person, over the phone or via e-mail) should also ensure that the WebClient is provided with Local crisis intervention hotline numbers, 911 and similar numbers in the event that the Counselor-On-Call is unavailable.
This means explaining exactly how often e-mail messages are to be checked by the WebCounselor.
While no conclusive research has been conducted to date, those topics might include: sexual abuse as a primary issue, violent relationships, eating disorders, and psychiatric disorders that involve distortions of reality.
The WebCounselor
- gives instructions to WebClients about calling if problems arise,
- discusses the appropriateness of the client calling collect when the call might be originating from around the world,
- mentions differences in time zones,
- talks about dealing with response delays in sending and receiving e-mail messages
For example, suggesting the other person simply say, "Because I couldn't see your face or hear your tone of voice in your e-mail message, I'm not sure how to interpret that last message."