Registry Introduces New Ethics Course

  • What are the ethical issues specific to working with patients/clients in group therapy?
  • What constitutes informed consent when putting patients/clients in a group? 
  • What are the ethical quandaries produced by the introduction of fax and e-mail communications in our practices?
  • What are the psychodynamics of ethical behavior?
  • What is the relationship between morality and ethics?
  • How do we make decisions about our responses to ethical dilemmas?

The answers to these questions and others we struggle with in our desire to be ethical psychotherapists were addressed in the new ethics course sponsored by the Registry at the AGPA Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The six-hour course was modeled after the Ethics course curriculum written by Nancy Williford, MSW, BCD, CGP and supported by the Group Psychotherapy Foundation. 

The format encouraged much lively discussion between the participants as they considered such topics as theories of ethics, record keeping, consent for treatment, confidentiality, models for ethical decision-making, new ethical dilemmas related to information technology such as the Internet and e-mail, the development of morality, and the interface of ethics and morality.

Faculty for the course were AGPA members Eleanor Komet, PhD, CGP , course director; Nina Fieldsteel, PhD , and D. Thomas Stone, Jr., PhD, CGP. Ellen Fantaci, PT, MPH, JD, LLM, a New Orleans attorney who has an interest in health law, was an additional faculty member. She informed us about the new federal HIPAA regulations scheduled to go into effect in October 2003. These new rules will basically require practitioners to comply with more stringent standards related to the release of information about our patients/clients.

The 12-hour course is comprehensive and would be an excellent curriculum for anyone who is teaching ethics. The Registry has submitted to teach this course again at the 2003 AGPA Annual Meeting. Anyone who teaches ethics would enjoy taking this course.

This article was published in the June/July 2002 issue of The Group Solution.