The Ethical Issue Associated With Compulsory Treatment (Essay Sample)

The Ethical Issue Associated With Compulsory Treatment
Student Name
University
Course
Professor Name
Date
The Ethical Issue Associated With Compulsory Treatment
In treating patients with eating disorders (ED), complicated problems including health, diagnosis, trauma, co-morbidity, and recurrence must be addressed. ED sufferers are more likely to be suicidal, distrustful, emotionally avoidant, and self- stigmatizing. Doctors may be unaware while dealing with ED treatments. And, with increasing therapeutic concerns, ethical issues multiply. Reviewing the available Code Of Ethics may help uncover ethical problems in ED practice (Hyett et al., 2018). While ethical principles may not address every aspect of eating disorder therapy, they offer a framework for decision-making and action. This paper discusses the problems surrounding the mandatory treatment of eating disorders.
Brief Overview of Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are classified as anorexia, bulimia, and EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified). Examples of diagnostic symptoms: Obesity, body image issues, and absence of menstrual periods are anorexia nervosa (AN) symptoms (Ernst et al., 2017). The three behavioral sub-types are restricting, binge-eating, and purging. Obesity is described as an excess of fat tissue in the body. Obese individuals tend to have unique eating patterns that make them be diagnosed. Both adolescents and adults who are overweight or obese tend to blame their eating disorders on stress. Anxiety, poor bonding, impulse control, inefficient ego orientation are all recognized as significant variables. Dieting and body dissatisfaction in young girls are major risk factors for EDs.
Eating disorders affect people of all ethnicities and genders. Obesity and diabetes are rising among Canadian youths (Al-Ghamdi et al., 2018). Although most ED research is done on women, males have similar eating and body image problems. Ethical concerns in treatment are vital due to EDs' pervasiveness and complexity. Knowledge about EDs is a public health priority.
Ethical Issues
Confidentiality
Concerns about secrecy and privacy have accounted for about 20% of recent claims against counselors. While a counselor's ethical responsibility is to preserve patient privacy, practitioners may inadvertently breach confidentiality by eagerly enlisting others' help (Şenyürek & Ulman, 2019). Counseling work with others requires careful consideration of confidentiality.
The practice may unintentionally violate ethical and training norms. The involvement of significant real-life people may help rehabilitation and therapy. Attachment concerns and interpersonal issues may hinder establishing and sustaining reliable connections, which are critical for ED treatment. Confidentiality increases trust. An excellent therapeutic connection may help you cooperate with your patient and concentrate on others' participation. Counseling effectiveness depends on the therapeutic connection (Şenyürek & Ulman, 2019). A meaningful and successful informed consent procedure helps build trust in a therapeutic partnership with ED patients.
Informed Consent
Informed consent is needed throughout the treatment procedure. The risks of treatment, suicidality procedures, and forced hospitalization should be explained to the patient. Informed consent may assist with various issues and concerns in therapy, including third-party financing, manualization, and psychopharmacology. Many patients with eating disorders are afraid of treatment, do not understand what to anticipate, and are unaware that they may leave at any moment (Williams et al., 2017). Working with parents, maintaining confidentiality with friends, exemptions from confidentiality, and how therapy is supposed to be a patient-centered practice are all possible themes.
A patient's informed consent also enables them to collaborate on goals. Empathy may be developed by discussing the counseling process and emphasizing choices and collaboration. External agendas or goals that may not include a patient focus on behaviors and create unrealistic expectations include weight control, cultural standards, and medical issues.
A therapeutic session necessitates honest discussion about minors in care's rights and responsibilities. The counselor must provide progressive education to the child and explain parental rights. Treatment procedures and numerous relationships are often addressed when dealing with teenagers. The critical question is whether a child's right to privacy exceeds the need to inform a parent or guardian when it comes to children. An ethical analysis considers a child's age, maturity, the potential for harm, and relationships with parents or guardians. Patient counseling, monitoring, documentation, and self-awareness should all be part of a counselor's repertoire. Informed consent that is well-designed and developmentally and culturally appropriate may provide a therapeutic foundation. Confidentiality and authorization are more common concerns than counselor awareness.
Counselor Awareness
Competence in counseling involves self-awareness and attitudes. Providers must acknowledge their prejudices and attitudes, or they will act on them and hinder successful therapy. Prikhidko and Swank (2018) defined an attitude as a tendency to respond irrationally to circumstances and people. These attitudes may be good or bad. When dealing with ED issues, personal prejudices frequently arise. The author showed that ED patients made therapists feel less connected, involved, and irritated than depression patients. Counselors respond negatively to overweight women compared to slim ones (Al-Ghamdi, 2018). When anorexia was referred to be a sin, Al-Ghamdi (2018) saw a negative attitude toward the disease. Implicit beliefs may result in behavioral and mental stigma. Counselors' ideas on self-worth, body image, and attractiveness may be influenced by cultural norms, leading them to propagate erroneous beliefs and ideals to their patients inadvertently. Counselors who work with people who have eating disorders must be very self-aware.
Frustrations may lead to feelings of anxiousness and rage. For example, a patient may refuse to keep a food diary, fail to show up for a session, or leave a voicemail indicating that they are thinking about committing suicide. It has been shown that working with ED patients has a negative effect on counselors (2020). It helps in the understanding of oneself and the management of one's reaction as a counselor. Adequate supervision may result in substantial improvements in self-awareness.
Successful supervision involves challenging interpersonal problems with customers and supervisors. Numerous problems confront counselor supervisors, which include customer emotions, personal issues, and supervisory issues. Avoiding problems may reduce supervisory effectiveness. The intricacies of ED work need special knowledge, skills, and supervision. For example, counselor concerns like body image, food, and weight in ED group supervision must be addressed. Counselors conducting outpatient eating disorder groups should be monitored. These parallel processes include trust, ideas about body image, attitudes toward food and weight, and the use of guided imagery to mimic a person's life with an ED-related condition. Emotional reactivity requires competent counselor countertransference monitoring (CT). A counselor's negative responses that hinder patient development are known as a counselor's CT. It may affect one's body image, body ideal, and degree of happiness with one's body. While self-awareness is an ethical obligation, health is critical while dealing with ED issues.
Counsellor Wellness
Wellness can help counsellors cope with challenging situations. It is not unusual for therapists to get so absorbed in helping others that they ignore their mental health. The professional connection is harmed when a counsellor overidentifies an ED patient. Avoiding confrontation, being excessively nurturing, and feeling in competition with customers are all signs of this. Treating ED patients cause significant changes in counselors' emotions, cognitions, and actions.
It is debatable whether ED recovery counsellors should treat ED patients. It's critical to distinguish between recovered and in recovery. According to Thompson-Brenner (2021), therapists with current eating disorders were considered to lack impartiality and be vulnerable. A counsellor-in-recovery can bring empathy, shame reduction, trust, and honest feedback. These are problems that affect everyone, not just customers. A counsellor must be conscious of their eating reactivity, body image, and self-regulation. Counselors who are anxious, disturbed, or impaired may not be able to provide their best services. The consequences may be detrimental to one's health. Counsellors dealing with ED problems may also need to handle vicarious trauma (VT).
Patients with ED issues typically have traumatic histories. Ethical management of trauma responses and wellbeing is essential. Emotional, physical, spiritual, and relational consequences of empathetically dealing with traumatized patients; these effects frequently mimic the symptoms of the traumatized patients. Harrison and Westwood (2009) listed nine protective practices. One such element is retaining active optimism while avoiding isolation. Another is setting and adhering to clear limits. Their study highlighted the ethical duty of employers, educators, professional organizations, and practitioners to address vicarious trauma.
Involuntary Treatment
Although few very ill eating disorder patients require involuntary c...