Author: Custom Essay

There was a time when psychologists were the primary human services professionals allowed to administer objective tests and diagnose mental and emotional disorders. However, as social workers and counselors began providing mental health services at a growing rate due to the need for more mental health service providers, many states began to authorize these professionals to provide these services if they could demonstrate competence, which could be gained from education, training, and experience.

There are advantages of allowing social workers and counselors to perform the same duties that were once exclusively performed by psychologists. For example, the services cost less when provided by a social worker or a counselor compared to the charges of a psychologist. In addition, the discipline-specific perspectives offered by social workers and counselors on mental health needs of clients have resulted in attention to the influence of factors beyond the focus of psychologists, such as housing, family problems, and other environmental factors affecting mental health. The current mental health community now considers social workers and counselors as qualified as psychologists to provide a full range of mental health services. Each state has specific rules for the scope of practice for each different type of mental health professional.

In this assignment, you will explore the differences in the scopes of practice among different human services professionals. Human services administrators have to be familiar with the laws and rules governing the practice of the different types of direct service professionals employed by their agency.

Tasks:

Review psychologist, counselor, and social worker licensure laws and rules in your state. After reviewing the laws and rules, address the following:

What are the differences in education and training requirements for competence in psychological testing among psychologists, counselors, and social workers?
What level of licensure is required for social workers to diagnose mental health disorders?
Provide your opinion about the major differences you found in your research on the competency requirements for psychologists, counselors, and social workers to engage in psychological testing and diagnosing clients

There are times when human services providers are obligated to release confidential information about clients in spite of having concerns about how the information will be used. However, they are also responsible for protecting the clients’ privacy at such times.

The case that you will analyze in this assignment illustrates the conflict faced by human services professionals when responding to requests for their clients’ confidential information.

The Case:

Assume that you are working with a client who was referred to you by his probation officer. You receive a request by the probation officer for all of your client’s records since the beginning of his treatment. You have consent from your client to release the records.

However, the records contain information that you think would cause the probation officer to misappropriate her authority with your client because the officer has informally shared with you her disdain for people who have engaged in the type of activity that your client admitted to in one of your sessions.

While you have the obligation to release your client’s records, your values about the potential abuse of authority by the probation officer cause significant internal conflict about releasing the records.

Tasks:

Consider the case and respond to the following in about 300 words:

Discuss how you would negotiate the conflict between your values and your ethical obligation to release your client’s records.

In your answer, you should address the following:

The extent of information being requested
The client’s understanding of the purpose of releasing the confidential information
Your duty to protect your client’s right to privacy
The potential result if you refuse to release the record

Compensation and benefits are designed to attract, motivate, and retain employees and to achieve an advantage over competitors. Financial forms of compensation include direct pay (including base salary) and variable pay (also known as incentives or pay-for-performance). Indirect pay is more frequently known as benefits, such as paid and unpaid time off, insurance protection, and retirement programs. Lifestyle benefits or quality of work-life (QWL) issues are very important for achieving a competitive edge in efforts to attract and retain top talent.

Describe the relationship between an organization’s business strategy and its pay systems. Demonstrate an understanding of a pay model.
Discuss a goal or objective of your current organization. What aspect of the company’s compensation system aligns with this goal/objective?
Discuss specific outcomes in the pay model an organization could impact through the use of quality of work-life (QWL) programs. What do you think is the most important outcome resulting from these programs? How can an organization formally evaluate whether a QWL program has been effective?

Research and describe at least 2 statistical methods from this week’s theory.
Explain how statistical analysis is utilized in quality control/assurance.
Why is knowing statistical analysis an important skill to learn for managers and leaders?

The requirements below must be met for your paper to be accepted and graded:

750 word minimum, APA style, see example below.
Use font size 12 and 1” margins.
Include cover page and reference page.
At least 80% of your paper must be original content/writing.
No more than 20% of your content/information may come from references
Minimum 3 references, no foeign references
NO plagarisim, Safe Assign will be used to detect any amount of plagairism
Properly Cite

Obtaining informed consent for services from clients is required of human services providers; however, it is not always an easy task. Clients typically grant consent by signing documents presented by the agency or the provider that, at minimum, explain the services that will be provided, the client rights, and information on the steps to rescind the consent.

In situations where minors or individuals under some form of guardianship are the clients, it is necessary to obtain consent from the legal guardian or authority. However, there are times when obtaining informed consent is not as simple as asking for a signature from the client or guardian. These situations require more thought by the human services providers with emphasis on balancing the client’s right to consent with other factors that might influence treatment outcomes or decisions.

In this assignment, you will review a case that illustrates the various facets of informed consent.

The Case:

Smith is a thirty-eight-year-old African American male referred for counseling by his mother to address recent incidents of aggression. Smith resides with his mother because he is not able to live on his own. Smith is unable to hold on to a job and has difficulty establishing and maintaining relationships with others. He is open to counseling but thinks his mother is overreacting to his anger outbursts because she is old and does not understand him. Recently, there have been notable conflicts between them due to Smith’s aggressive behaviors that were directed toward his mother.

Tasks:

Analyze the case and in a 2- to 3-page paper, address the following:

What steps would you, as the counselor, take for obtaining informed consent from Smith?
Would you, as the counselor, include his mother in the counseling sessions, if you believe it would help with Smith’s aggression problem? Why or why not?

In your answers, consider the following:

Smith is not able to live independently.
Smith’s aggression might put his mother at risk if he does not get counseling.
Smith has to comprehend what is being asked of him when he provides his consent to receive counseling services.
There might be cultural differences between you and Smith

A human services worker needs to be competent to work with clients from different cultures. There are times when cultural differences between the human services worker and the client influence the final service. For example, suppose a human services worker promotes the cause of independence for all people while the client’s culture values strong family cohesion. In this case, the client’s values are equivalent to dependency in the eyes of the human services worker and can lead to conflict. However, if the human services worker possesses the cultural competence necessary to work with the client, he or she would be better equipped to manage this discrepancy in personally held, culture-based views. When situations such as these arise, the human services worker should be aware of the needs of the client with strong consideration of cultural influence.

When potential ethical conflicts occur due to various differences, the human services worker faces the challenge of making the appropriate ethical decision to ensure that the rights of his or her client are protected while receiving services. The assignment will explore the role of such cultural influences in ethical decisions in human services.

Tasks:

On the basis of your readings and research, address the following in about 200 words:

Discuss the influence of culture in ethical decision making. In your answer:
Address the influence of culture on the individual perceptions of the human services worker and the client.
Focus on the potential ethical dilemmas that might arise from differences in cultural perspectives.

Part 2

Human services administrators manage agencies that employ professionals from various disciplines.

In this assignment, you will try to resolve an issue from the perspective of an administrator who is helping a psychologist in an agency. It is important to note that ethics codes might require psychologists to handle situations differently than social workers and counselors and vice versa.

Tasks:

You are the human services administrator for an agency and Shana is a human services professional in your agency. She is working with a client who was initially diagnosed with mild depression after separating from her fiancé. As Shana’s work proceeds, she realizes that her client is beginning to recover memories from a past trauma. While Shana is competent with treating depression and has worked in cases with trauma-related symptoms in the past, she has no experience treating the type of trauma identified by her client.

You are the administrator of the agency responsible for helping Shana handle this situation. Based on your knowledge and research, respond to the following questions in about 300 words:

What would Shana do in this situation if she were a licensed professional counselor in a rural area where she was the only helping professional?
What would Shana’s response as a licensed counselor be? Would it be similar to or different from the way she would handle the same situation if she were a social worker or a psychologist in the agency?

In your responses, consider the following:

There are no other psychologists, counselors, social workers, or psychiatrists within a hundred-mile radius.
Shana’s client has limited means of transportation.
Shana has no formal training in treating the type of trauma her client is experiencing.
Shana is a member of a professional organization, such as American Psychological Association (APA), National Association of Social Workers (NASW), or American Counseling Association (AC

Financial ratios are the principal tool of financial analysis. Ratios standardize the financial information of firms so comparisons can be made between firms of varying sizes. Choose two firms in the same sector; locate their current financial information both in terms of current financial statements and stock market prices. With the information, do a paper of 8-10 pages, with the following headings:

How liquid are the firms?
Are the firm’s managers generating adequate operating profits on the company’s assets?
How are the firms financing their assets?
Are the firm’s managers providing a good return on the capital provided by the shareholders?
Are the firms’ managers creating shareholder value?

Decisions regarding the approach for solving ethical dilemmas are influenced by many factors, including personal beliefs, social norms, and regulatory guidelines. However, human services professionals do not contemplate a particular model that guides their decisions or do not necessarily have insight into the factors that guide their decisions, when faced with ethical challenges.

In this assignment, you will analyze four different models of ethical decision making to understand how these models influence professionals, clients, society, and the overall field of human services. You will also see how these models might fit into your personal approach while making decisions regarding human services clients.

Tasks:

Using the Internet, the Argosy University online library resources, and professional literature, research and prepare a 3- to 4-page paper to compare the four models. Professional literature may include the Argosy University online library resources, relevant textbooks, peer-reviewed journal articles, and websites created by professional organizations, agencies, or institutions (.edu, .org, or .gov).

The paper should include the following:

The factors (personal and societal) according to each model that drive ethical decisions
The people who are affected by the decision
The application to present-day human services
The model you favor and the reasons for selecting this model

In addition, complete a detailed analysis for the deontological and utilitarian ethical orientations. Address the main philosophical differences between the two, considering the factors that influence ethical decisions. Which approach would be most beneficial to your clients? Discuss the rationale for the approach you select.

Part 2

A human services administrator is responsible for overseeing professionals belonging to diverse disciplines who work together in one agency. While the established ethics code for human services workers addresses many of the same standards that are familiar to most helping professionals, each discipline has a few ethics standards that are specific to its respective functions. For example, both psychologists and social workers protect the confidentiality of clients, are expected to be aware of their scope of practice, and have to obtain informed consent from clients before they can provide services; however, there are certain differences in other areas in their respective ethics codes. As an administrator, it is important to be familiar with such similarities as well as differences to ensure that each type of professional is managed within the specific parameters of his or her respective ethics code.

In this assignment, you will compare and contrast standards from the ethics codes of two human services disciplines and compare these with standards from the ethical codes for human services professionals in general.

Tasks:

Select two disciplines (for example, psychology, social work, counseling, or addictions counseling) for comparison with the ethics code of human services. Research and address the following points regarding the ethics codes of both disciplines as compared to those of human services in a 3- to 4-page paper:

Similarities and differences on the basis of the following ethics standards: informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, dual relationships, and competence

How personal values might conflict with or support one ethical standard (e.g., informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, dual relationships, and competence) in the work of the human services professionals?

Use the Internet, the Argosy University online library resources, and professional literature to conduct your research. Professional literature may include the Argosy University online library resources, relevant textbooks, peer-reviewed journal articles, and websites created by professional organizations, agencies, or institutions (.edu, .org, or .gov)

Questions:

1. What happened to Japan’s Big Four Automakers in 1985, and then again in 1994-1995? Why did these changes occur?

2. Hoe well did the Japanese firms respond to the changes of 1985? What will they have to do differently in 1995?

3. What lessons, if any, can other firms take from the response of Japan’s automakers to endaka?

After reading the article, follow the instructions below to write your abstract:

Make a copy of the article (including references) to hand in with your abstract.
In no more than two or three double spaced (1” margins), typed pages, write up your summary to include everything in the following format:

At the top of page one, under your name, provide full bibliographic information on the article following APA guidelines as exampled below. If you have any questions about this format, be sure to ask prior to turning in your assignment.

If the article has one author:

McCoy, Z. K. (1990). The need for interpersonal communication as a

required course for CSU students. Communication Monographs, 3, 137-196.

If the article has more than one author:

Bates, N., Krueger, F., Hess, J., & Voorhees, J. (1989). Our common

ancestors: A genealogy. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 4, 19-25.

Summarize the content of the article. You may have to read the article more than once to do this. In your own words, explain what the article is addressing and how the author(s) go about it.
What is/are the important conclusion(s) or recommendation(s) provided by the author(s)? In other words, how did they answer the questions that were asked in the research?
Explain how you think this research could be used in practice.
Evaluate the article. Would you conduct the research in the same way? How might you conduct the research? Please do not discuss the difficulty of the statistics; skip them if you need to.

Preparing an Oral Review of an Academic Article**

(25pts)

Typically, when you are asked to review an academic article your instructor will expect you to:

Ö Identify the author’s thesis.

Ö Explain the methods by which the author arrived at his or her conclusions.

Ö Explain the author’s findings.

Ö Identify the author’s theoretical perspective, if applicable.

Ö Evaluate the study’s validity, if applicable.

Ö Describe the author’s sources and evaluate their credibility.

Ö Show how the findings of the study might be applied to other circumstances, and make suggestions for how the study might lead to further research