ETHICAL STANDARDS OF HUMAN PROFESSIONAL
INTRODUCTION
Human service workers do various types of jobs in their organizations in which they work hard to help to meet client’s needs and improve their lives. Human service professionals work with individuals, families, communities by helping them to improve their lives, meet their basic needs and help them in solving problems. Their work is to protect and motivates other people. For example, they help individuals who are at risk and motivate and strength their skills necessary to better their future. Because of the nature of the job they perform, human service professionals have code ethics that protects their rights. Also, this code ethics protect the dignity of human service workers, their clients and the community as a whole, and to institute principles of their everyday work routine (Kanel, & Mallers, 2015).
This report will focus on analysing the character of Dr. Cawley portrayed in the film Shutter Island as a human services worker while applying Ethical Standards of Human Professional. Dr. Cawley is a psychiatrist at ashecliffe hospital. He believed that mental illness patients should be treated with psychoanalysis and cognitive therapy, instead of surgery or anti-psychotic drugs. He is an intelligent man and he believed he has all the power and answers when it comes to declaring a patient sane or not.
Dr. Cawley together with other medical professionals in that hospital upheld integrity and ethics by protecting patient’s integrity, safety and security of their records. Records or information of patients is either kept in written form or electronic form that is shared with other medical professionals. Doctors should only share patient’s information when they are legally obligated or permitted to share such information. When technology is used as a mode of capturing and transferring data of a client, precaution should be considered to ensure and maintain privacy or confidentiality of the patient. Laws and requirement needed for storing data, transmitting and retrieving data should be complied with (Woodside, 2014). Doctors should alert their patients to any leakage of their information and how technology might affect them positively or negatively. Teddy was not allowed by the hospital to access personnel records of a patient who he believed would break the case wide open and he was limited to enter ward c of the hospital.
Dr. Cawley protects the patient right to privacy and confidentiality. If suspected that danger may harm the patient or other people around him or her, doctors should take precautions to protect them by seeking consultations, supervision or breaking the privacy of the patient (Knapp, 2015). Dr. Cawley and other medical professional had a major difference on what therapy are good to treat the patients. This is portrayed when Teddy Chuck arrived at the hospital and they meet Cawley who showed them around and explained a bit about the hospital and psychiatry. He told them that there are some doctors who believe in surgical techniques like lobotomies to treat patients, while other doctors insist on psychotropic drugs. Dr. Cawley believed that just listening to the patient and making their life comfortable is one of the ways of treating the patient. Dr. Cawley together with other professionals should have actively collaborated and coordinate in helping their patients. Also, they should continually seek out new technologies which are effective for treating mentally ill patients. When using technology which is very new, they should inform the patient of the technology and the risks which might be involved (Woodside, 2016).
References
Kanel, K., & Mallers, M. H. (2015). An overview of the human services.
Knapp, H. (2015). Therapeutic communication: Developing professional skills.
Woodside, M. (2014). An introduction to human services.
Woodside, M. (2016). The human services internship experience: Helping students find their way.
