Diploma of Counselling - Ethical, Legal and Professional Practice

This Diploma of Counselling assignment addresses key aspects of ethical and legal responsibilities within the community services and health sector. It covers the rights and responsibilities of counselors, including duty of care, client safety, building trust, and maintaining confidentiality. The assignment explores organizational policies, legal requirements, and examples of how organizations inform employees about their ethical and legal duties, including in-house training and staff meetings. It also discusses essential pieces of legislation like the Anti-discrimination Act and Work Health and Safety Laws, as well as the Privacy Act. The assignment includes an example of informed consent, the duty of care towards clients, and potential breaches of confidentiality. It also examines organizational procedures such as record keeping and reporting, mandatory reporting responsibilities, and the application of the Code of Practice. Furthermore, the assignment explores ethical principles, including respect, honesty, courage, justice, and integrity, as well as the principles and responsibilities outlined in the PACFA Code of Ethics. It also provides a framework for addressing ethical situations, dealing with unethical colleague behavior, and the importance of reflection and non-judgmental practice. Finally, it addresses cultural diversity, organizational approaches, and handling client complaints, emphasizing confidentiality and ethical boundaries.

Running head: DIPLOMA OF COUNSELLING
Diploma of Counseling
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Answer 1..........................................................................................................................................2
Answer 2..........................................................................................................................................5
Answer 3..........................................................................................................................................6
Answer 4..........................................................................................................................................8
Answer 5..........................................................................................................................................9
Answer 6..........................................................................................................................................9
Answer 7........................................................................................................................................10
Answer 8........................................................................................................................................10
Answer 9........................................................................................................................................11
Answer 10......................................................................................................................................12
Answer 11......................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................15

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Answer 1
(a) Rights and responsibilities of counselors within the community services or health sector
The Key rights and responsibilities of counselors within the community services or health
sector are as follows:
 Duty of care- counselors are obligated to exercise duty of care and is responsible for
guiding the clients in the right direction according to the competence level, qualifications
and experience of the counselors (Di Mattia and Grant 2016). The failure to perform this
responsibility shall amount to ethical breach as it would enhance the risk of harm to be
caused to the client and shall affect the ability of the profession in the eyes of the public. Client safety- as a counselor it is essential to ensure safety of clients and keep their
records securely and in a safe manner. Counselors are responsible to undertake every
possible reasonable measure to make sure that the client does not experience any form of
physical, psychological or emotional harm during the counseling sessions. Build a relationship of trust- the counselor is responsible to inform the clients about the
nature of counseling that shall be offered instead of making any unjustifiable claims
about their services. Respect confidentiality- counselors are required to safeguard confidentiality and privacy
of the clients as it is fundamental to develop safe environment and reinforces the trust
that the clients have in the counselors. Ethical practice- counselors are required to maintain professional and ethical relationship
with the colleagues preventing discriminatory practices against the colleagues on the
grounds of age, values, religion, culture or sexual identity.

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According to PACFA, Counselors are required to conduct in a manner prescribed in the
policies and procedures of the organizations. Counselors are responsible for reporting serious
cases pertaining to ethical misconduct if the counselor fails to maintain the ethical standard or
perform the responsibilities (Bond 2015).
(b) Four examples of ways in which an organization might inform employees about their
ethical or legal duties
Every organization must maintain standard legislations and policies like work health and
safety. The employees or workers in such organizations must have adequate knowledge about
such legal requirements and organizational policies (Burns 2016). Some of the organizational
policies or legal requirement that employees are required to comply with includes Equal
Employment Opportunity, Privacy, Discrimination and Harassment, freedom of information,
social justice, WHS laws, mandatory reporting, human rights and Disability standards.
It is the responsibility of the organization to provide its employees with adequate information
about the organizational policies prevalent within the organizations (Smith 2016). Four examples
of ways in which an organization might inform employees about their ethical or legal duties are
as follows:
i. In-house training;
ii. Presentations or Seminars/Conferences;
iii. Emails or Memos;
iv. Staff meetings
(c) Essential pieces of legislation

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Anti-discrimination Act 1977- In NSW, this legislation safeguards employees against
discrimination in workplace on the grounds of race, color, and ethno-religious or national origin.
In NSW, the employers are prohibited from treating the employees unfairly or harass them
because of marital status, disability, transgender status of any relative or a job applicant.
The employees must be treated as per their merits and ability with respect to their
employment packages, salaries, promotion and workplace related benefits. The employees must
treat the colleagues with respect and encourage them without mistreating or discriminating them
on the same grounds that prohibits an employer to discriminate (Robertson 2015).
Several organizations have grievance procedures to deal with harassment or
discrimination complaints. The employer conducting discriminatory practices shall be legally
liable for such harassment or discrimination.
Work health and Safety Laws- Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and the Work Health and
Safety Regulation 2017 stipulate that the employers or business owners are responsible to ensure
the safety and health of the workers in the workplace (Barak 2016). The employer must provide
adequate trainings and equipments to employees as per their specializations to ensure their
safety.
For a worker, it is important to comply with instructions provided for work health and
safety, use any provided for their safety, and receive training to use them as well. A worker must
ensure safety of other workers along with his or her own safety.
Privacy Act (1988)- this deals with records of private sector and public sector employees
separately, however, it excludes dealing with personal information of employees by employer of
private sector employer if such information is related to the employee record or present or former

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employment relationship (Wilensky 2015). For a worker or an employee, it is expected that they
cooperate with their employer regarding monitoring of certain activities if it was previously
informed to the employee. The employees are expected to respect the privacy of the colleagues
as well.
(d) Example of informed consent from a client
A counselor is expected to maintain privacy of clients of the counseling sessions to ensure
sessions are not overheard, observed or recorded by any other person except the counselor.
However, under certain circumstances, it may become important for the counselor to allow
another person to prevent life threat of client by assisting the client during the session. Under
such circumstances, the counselor must inform the client about the presence of another person
during the session and obtain his or her consent for the same.
Answer 2
(a) Every worker owes a duty of care towards every client under the employment conditions
and the common law principles of negligence. The basic duty of care towards the client is
to supervise that they comply with rules and practices that are designed for the safety of
the clients as well as of others.
(b) ‘Dignity of risk’ implies respecting the autonomy and self-determination of clients to
make choices for him or herself. Adults have a right to make choices about their health
and care even if such choices might jeopardize the adults in the opinion of the healthcare
professionals. For instance- while working with a client who requires personal care
assistant, may refuse to obtain one and decides to live by himself. The acceptance of this

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decision shall signify ‘dignity of risk’ provided such client is competent to make such
decision (Williams, Perillo and Brown 2015).
(c) Confidentiality breach may take place if counselor fails to safeguard the information
shared by the client and reveal the same. The counselor may commit negligence if it fails
to exercise duty of care towards the client when they are not provided with warnings or
essential information that would have otherwise prevented them from sustaining injuries
or damages.
(d) Counselors may be liable for legal violations if they exploit the clients in sexual, financial
or emotionally. If the counselors fail to carry out their counseling activities professionally
and undertakes the activities beyond professional scope or casually, it shall amount to a
legal violation.
Answer 3
(a) an organizational procedures might relate to the following five things:
 Record keeping;
 Reporting;
 Timetable management systems;
 Dealing with emergency situations;
 Handling grievance, complaints or conflict;
(b) Mandatory reporting responsibilities for NSW are stipulated in the Children and Young
Persons Care and Protection Act 1998 where it sets out that signs of neglect or abuse in
youth and children should be reported. Under circumstances when mandatory reporting
becomes important is when a child or client is subjected to significant danger, it is
important to attend the clients personally to provide them with proper treatments. The

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counselors as stipulated under Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act
1998 must report about children and young person in jeopardy before the NSW
Department of Family & Community Services. In case of adult clients who are in
danger, the counselors must exercise their duty of care and refer them to appropriate
medical services such as local Community Mental Health Teams, hospital emergency
departments, local refuges, domestic violence centers, etc (Wilensky 2015).
(c) The essential areas where the ‘Code of Practice’ shall be applicable include the following
three essential areas:
 Consent- informed consent is a procedure to obtain permission prior to carry out
health care measures on the client. For instance to obtain approval of client before
providing therapy to the client;
 Confidentiality, privacy and disclosure- the code of practice obligates counselors
to maintain ethical and legal duties while dealing with the clients. for instance- the
Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) safeguards use of information shared by clients and
permits its use or disclosure in workplace in a specific manner that is related to
the service rendered by counselors;
 Records Management- the code of practice requires counselors to ensure
confidentiality of data, electronic files and information management systems that
safeguards the data of clients from being accessed illegally.
(d) Good practice of a counselor can be demonstrated in the following six ways:
 Familiar with present legislation and information relevant to client in family or
workplace;
 Ensure appropriate interferences;

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 Provide accurate and adequate information within the area of expertise;
 Maintain safe and healthy working environment;
 Reporting non-compliance conducts to supervisors/company;
 Prevent discrimination at workplace;
 Maintain privacy and confidentiality, respecting dignity of all at workplace.
Answer 4
(a) Five ethical principles include:
 Respect
 Honesty
 Courage
 Justice
 Integrity
(b)
 Respect- to respect essential humanity and dignity and promote the value at
workplace;
 Honesty- to be honest while rendering services and encourage clients to be honest
with their grievances;
 Courage-to be courageous to face any situations and take responsibility for any
harm resulted from counseling;
 Justice- to be fair in rendering counseling services to the clients ensuring it does
not cause them harm;
 Integrity- to maintain professional boundaries within counseling relationships and
set out healthy and cooperative environment;

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(c) The principles of PACFA Code of Ethics:
i. Autonomy;
ii. Trust
iii. Beneficence
iv. Fairness
v. Non-maleficence
vi. Self-respect;
(d) Responsibilities of counselors under PACFA:
i. To give priority to clients;
ii. To maintain and respect confidentiality;
iii. To respect diversity;
iv. To work ethically with colleagues;
v. To respect professional boundaries;
vi. To develop a relationship of trust with clients;
Answer 5
i. The situation must be identified and assessed;
ii. The situation should be determined from a public sector perspective;
iii. The available options should be identified and considered;
iv. The options that is most appropriate to deal with the situation should be applied;
Answer 6
If a colleague is engaged in unethical practice like disclosing confidential information of his
or her client, which amounts to ethical breach,

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i. the issue may be discussed with the colleague personally;
ii. the issue may be addressed with honesty and openly to resolve before it accelerates;
iii. if not solved, to talk with experienced colleagues;
iv. to inform manager or supervisor of organization;
v. to inform the HR department of organization;
Answer 7
(a) Reflection assists in:
 comprehending strengths and weaknesses better;
 recognizing areas of potential discrimination;
 acknowledging my fears;
 recognizing potential areas for improvement;
(b) the other approaches ensuring non-judgmental practice:
 social awareness;
 self-management;
 self-awareness;
 regular feedback;
 education/training;
Answer 8
(a) building a relationship of trust;
(b) Clients belong to diverse culture and they may reflect their feeling differently. For
instance- a client may exhibit a behavior that is not acceptable in the culture of the

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counselor. However, the counselor must not be judgmental and approach such persons in
a friendly, tactful or willingly (Wilson and Pender 2017).
(c) Two different organizational approaches:
 Monitoring of the situation;
 Applying trial and error method to resolve problem;
(d) I would discuss the issue with the client that offering of gifts or gratuities is against the
protocol of the organization and being honest and open about the problem might resolve
it effectively.
(e) On receiving complaint I would:
i. Approach complainant in friendly and tactful way
ii. Exhibit common courtesy every time;
iii. Avoid being judgmental;
iv. Show compassion;
v. Take responsibility if I am liable;
vi. Exhibit patience and tolerance;
Answer 9
(a) Confidentiality- to obtain written consent from the client or his or her legal
representatives to disclose any confidential matter with the objective to prevent risk of
harm towards the client or when such disclosure is legally authorized by courts;
(b) Diversity- eliminate any fear factor or intricacies that hinder immediate solution to
problems and encourage open communication. The differences in accommodating should
be considered and different actions and approaches should be adopted to deal with
different issues.

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(c) Interactions with clients- open and honest communication should be conducted between
the clients to strengthen the relationship of trust so that they are prevented from any risk
of harm;
Answer 10
(a) By sharing my observations with my work teams shall be helpful as it will assist them to
recognize the flaws that I had committed or the areas which requires improvement. It
would encourage them to portray awareness of their personal attitudes and values as well
as prohibit them from being partial to the work practice or affect the conversations
between them and the clients (Wilensky 2015).
(b) Five reasons include:
i. Uncertainty in present processes used by staff members;
ii. Changing needs of the clients;
iii. Changes in the industry and modern trends;
iv. Risks or threats identified within an organization;
v. Changes in legislations and statutes;
(c) Five benefits include:
i. It develops stronger sense of ownership and responsibility;
ii. It endows the organization with several ideas that otherwise would not have been
taken into consideration;
iii. It encourages persistence in professional education and development;
iv. It ensures better understanding of the requirements;
v. It may enable individual to highlight valuable information to resolve issues
necessitating to review;

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(d) The organizations continually strive to develop skills and knowledge of staffs due to the
growing changes in the legislations, industries and advancement in technology. A well-
advanced staff will enhance the productivity of an organization due to their adequate
knowledge and skills (Bond 2015). It also enhances skills and knowledge of the staffs
personally providing them with the opportunity to grab better opportunities resulting in
growth and progress of the staffs as well.
Answer 11
(a) The document addresses the following key issues:
i. Ethical responsibilities- a counselor is responsible to exercise duty of care on the
clients to ensure their good health and safety and prevent them from the risk of harm;
ii. Legal responsibilities- business owners and counselors are responsible to ensure
safety and good health of the employees and clients respectively, otherwise they shall
be legally liable for failing to abide by the legal requirements;
iii. Confidentiality- disclosure of confidential matters without obtaining prior approval of
clients often lead to breach of privacy and confidentiality which further results in loss
of trust of the clients;
(b) It is very important to have adequate knowledge about the legal frameworks, instruments
or approaches related to the field of counselor as it enables to render better services to the
clients and prevent them from any risk of harm that they otherwise would have been
sustained. It provides moral support to the clients who are in need of the same, hence,
adequate knowledge is essential to guide them towards the right direction.
(c) A ‘human needs’ refers to the need for charity whereas ‘human rights’ refer to the
translation of the needs into a entitlement with dignity. A ‘need’ is a desire that is or is

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not required for survival whereas a ‘right’ is a form of freedom that is conferred by
authoritative body. The relationship between the two is that rights are based on the needs
of human and has a universal application (Bond 2015).

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References
Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW)
Australian Human Rights Commission, 2016. Willing to work: national inquiry into employment
discrimination against older Australians and Australians with disability (2016).
Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Bond, T., 2015. Standards and ethics for counselling in action. Sage.
Brett, M., 2016. PACFA submission to the Consultation on Sexual Assault Counselling
Privilege.
Burns, J., 2016. The quandary of qualified counsellors. Independence, 41(2), p.64.
Compton, R.L. and McManus, J.G., 2015. Employee assistance programs in Australia:
Evaluating success. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 30(1-2), pp.32-45.
Di Mattia, M.A. and Grant, J., 2016. Counselling Psychology in Australia: History, status and
challenges. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 29(2), pp.139-149.
Robertson, G., 2015. Unlawful discrimination in the workplace. Legaldate, 27(3), p.4.
Smith, B., 2016. How Might Information Bolster Anti-Discrimination Laws to Promote More
Family-Friendly Workplaces? Encouraging and Enabling Compliance.
Wilensky, H.L., 2015. Organizational intelligence: Knowledge and policy in government and
industry (Vol. 19). Quid Pro Books.

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Williams, B., Perillo, S. and Brown, T., 2015. What are the factors of organisational culture in
health care settings that act as barriers to the implementation of evidence-based practice? A
scoping review. Nurse education today, 35(2), pp.e34-e41.
Wilson, J. and Pender, K., 2017. Employment: An unholy trinity?: Religion, employees and the
workplace. LSJ: Law Society of NSW Journal, (39), p.90.
Zur, O. and by Clients, G., 2015. Gifts in psychotherapy and counseling. Retrieved 7/12/17 from
www. zurinstitute. com.

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