Ethics in Community Mental Health Care: Commonplace Concerns

Ethics in Community Mental Health Care: Commonplace Concerns examines everyday ethical issues that clinicians encounter as they go about their work caring for people who have severe and persistent mental disorders. Individuals (psychiatrists, social workers, case managers, nurses, psychologists, peer counselors, primary care physicians) who serve on the front line of community mental health clinical and social services find that they must deal, on a daily basis, with significant ethical dilemmas that involve personal, social, and policy matters: overstepping personal boundaries and coercive practices, dealing with violence in the home and in the workplace, breaching confidentiality, and ensuring the rights and welfare of vulnerable individuals. This book prompts and provokes readers to recognize, to analyze, to reflect upon, and to respond to the range of commonplace ethical concerns that arise in community mental health care practice with persons who have mental disorders that may impede their ability to protect their own interests.