Faculty Contact Information:
1. Telephone: to be given out in class. I live in France and the first two numbers indicate the country code and the following 0 is only used when calling within France. Otherwise, drop the first 0 when dialing. I have an answering machine and will be able to contact you within 24 hours within the week.
2. Email: My email address is: priceb@faculty.ed.umuc.edu. With the number of students in class writing to me about various issues, it may be helpful to include a summary of any previous correspondence to help my memory. | |
Consultation:
| Available by email prior to class, after class on Day One, or by appointment. | |
Required Texts and Readings:
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Corey, G. Corey, M.S. and Callanan, P. (2006). Issues & Ethics in the Helping Professions. (7th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Swenson, L.C. (1996) Psychology & Law for the Helping Professions. (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. | |
Supplementary Readings:
| All graduate students should be prepared to utilize the UMUC online library at http://www.umuc.edu/library/. The library contains a large number of full text academic journals that are free of charge and immediately available. The library homepage also contains a number of links related to improving students’ research and writing skills. | |
Recommended Journals:
A variety of full-text, online, free-of-charge and pay-per-view academic journals are listed on the Counseling Webboard at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/graduate/webboards/
Some Recommended Journals:
• Journal of Counseling and Development
• Journal of Counseling Psychology
• Law and Contemporary Problems
• Law and Human Behavior
• Law and Psychology Review
• Psychiatry, Psychology, and Law
• Psychology, Public Policy, and Law | |
Course Description:
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This course is designed to provide the helping professional with the knowledge of the major ethical and legal issues in counseling and psychotherapy today. Students will be exposed to such topics as ethical theory, laws and court decisions, incompetence, malpractice, licensure and certification, privileged communications, DSM IV and Family Therapy, legal liabilities affecting psychologists, and legal obligations of psychotherapists. Ethical standards for individual practitioners will be examined in detail. Participants will be involved in case research, group discussions, group reports, and individual presentations of ethical and legal issues in the field of counseling and psychotherapy. As this course replaces PSYC 580, students may receive credit for only one of the following: PSYC 780 or PSYC 580. | |
Course Goals:
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The profession of counseling is both sanctioned and censured by aspects of the individual practitioner, the professional community, and the broader American society. The overall goal of this course is to acquaint students with moral, ethical, and legal issues that affect the practice of counseling. Such issues include individual moral development, ethical decision-making models, the ethical guidelines for professional practice of counseling described by the American Counseling Association and the American Psychological Association, the roles played by counseling experts within the American legal system, family protection laws, legal issues pertaining to regulating mental health treatment, professional licensure, and practice issues. | |
Course Objectives:
- To become familiar with the distinctions between moral, ethical, and legal behavior, as applied to the practice of counseling.
- To acquire experience using ethical reasoning skills to apply professional ethics within case scenarios to resolve potential counseling problems.
- To discuss some of the major professional activities faced by mental health professionals working within the legal system, including their potential ethical conflicts.
- To become familiar with statutory and case law as it impacts the mental health practitioner.
- To demonstrate an enhanced self-awareness of personal strengths, interests, and abilities.
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Grading Information:
| Student Evaluation: Students' performance will be graded based upon a percentage of 100 total possible points obtained during the course. In general, it will be necessary to obtain a minimum of 90% of the course points to achieve an A, at least 80% of the points for a B, at least 70% of total possible points for a C, and anything below 70% is a F. | |
Course Requirements:
The distributions of points are as follow:
1. Paper ......................25%
2. Student Presentation........25%
3. Mid-Term Exam...............30%
4. Legal research topic........20% | |
Description of Course Requirements:
The following course tasks will include:
1. Paper ( 1 total; 25% of total points). Students will explore a particular topic of personal interest. The paper must be 10 pages in length and presented in a double-spaced, typed manuscript with one-inch margins. Since this is a "review of the literature" paper (as opposed to a scientific research project paper), I am mostly interested that you know where to place the margins and page numbering and how to cite references properly. If this is your first attempt at using APA writing style, you can go to these websites for help:
2. Student Presentation (1 total; 25% of total points). During the last weekend of the course, each student will present a case or topic that raises issues for ethics, counseling and law. The subject of the presentation may be the same as the student's paper. The presentation must be approximately one hour in length. Your presentation will receive feedback by the instructor and your fellow students, although the final grade will be primarily from the instructor.
3. Mid-Term Exam (30%). These will be take-home essay type examinations regarding the readings and/or case material with one or two choices among the items. Students will be given one week to complete the exams. Usually these will consist of 3-4 essay items.
4. Legal research topic (20%). Students will be required to create a Frequently Asked Questions list with answers regarding counselor licensure or school counselor certification for five states that have direct relevance to the definition, regulation, license, and practice of counseling. Details of this project will be provided in class.
Resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an automatic failure on the assignment. | |
Course Schedule:
Weekend One
1. Introduction to regulating the profession of counseling: Differences between moral, ethical, and legal action.
Corey: Chapters 1, 2, & 10
Swenson: Chapter 3
2. Moral development theory
Corey: Chapter 3 & 9
3. Professional codes of ethics for counselors: Introduction to the ethical guidelines of the American Counseling Association and the American Psychological Association
Swenson: chapter 4
Weekend Two
1. Ethical Decision-Making Models ;
Applied Ethical Decision-Making
Corey: Chapters 4 & 9
Weekend Three
1. Overview of the American legal process. Roles played by social scientists and mental health practitioners within the American legal system. Paradigm differences between the legal system and the helping professions.
Swenson: Chapters 1 & 2
2. Expert testimony. Assessment issues: Risk assessment, malingering, and competency.
Swenson: Chapters 8, 9, 17
3. Family protection services, child custody, and guardianship
Swenson: Chapters 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Corey: Chapter 11
Weekend Four
1. Right to refuse treatment. Civil commitment and involuntary treatment;
Corey: Chapter 5
Swenson: Chapter 16
2. Duty to warn.
Corey: Chapter 6
3. Professional licensure; qualifications for making diagnoses
Corey: Chapter 8
Swenson: Chapter 5
4. Malpractice.
Swenson: Chapters 7 | |
Academic Policies:
Note: Any written assignment in this course may be submitted to TurnItIn.Com. This statement constitutes prior notice.
The official university policy on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty can be found at http://www.umuc.edu/policy/aa15025.shtml. Section I.C. states: "Faculty may determine if the resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC), partially or in its entirety, is acceptable when assigning a grade on that piece of course work. Faculty must provide this information in their written syllabi. If the resubmission of course work is deemed to be unacceptable, a charge may not be brought under this Policy and will be handled as indicated in the written syllabi."
Please refer to Description of Course Requirements for specific information on how resubmissions will be treated in this course and to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog for information on the following:
Academic Integrity
Course Load
Exception to Policy
Grade Appeal Process
Make-up Examinations
Nondiscrimination
Students with Disabilities
Hard copies of the catalog are available at your local Education Center. | |
Faculty Bio:
| For those of you curious about my professional background, I am a Collegiate Professor, teaching both undergraduate psychology and graduate counseling classes for Maryland. I grew up in the Ozarks of Missouri and have all my degrees from Midwestern institutions (Central Missouri State, University of Kansas, and Iowa State University). This is my eighth year teaching for UMUC in the overseas division. My two major professional interests include the interface between mental health policy and law and cross-cultural issues in counseling and psychology. | |