Ethics for CD Counselor Discussion

You are a supervising chemical dependency counselor at an intensive treatment facility in your state. In this role, you facilitate group sessions, individual counseling sessions, and family therapy sessions for alcohol and substance abuse clients and their families. In addition to the above-described direct treatment, you also supervise several other counselors in this residential program.

Your manager has asked you to put together an in-service for the new chemical dependency counselors that will be reporting to you as the supervising chemical dependency counselor. She wants the focus of the in-service to be on ethics. Because these counselors are new to the profession, she believes that it is essential to start their entry into the profession with a clear understanding of the ethical standards of this profession.

This will be the first in-service that you create and administer, so your manager wants to make sure that you are well-versed in the ethical standards that govern this profession. She decides that she wants to test your knowledge before you begin preparing your in-service. As such, the first step in your in-service project is to prepare a memo to your supervisor in which you answer the following questions:

• According to the class materials, textbooks, and resources, what is your definition on the following questions: What is ethics? What are morals? What are values?
• Compare and contrast ethics, morals, and values.
• Explain how ethics, morals, and values interrelate.
• Why is ethics essential to the chemical dependency counselor?
• What internal and external factors motivate chemical dependency counselors to behave ethically?