ASPPB Clinical Supervision 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A supervisor learns that their supervisee has been billing clients under the supervisor's name without authorization. This constitutes:
- An acceptable billing shortcut in outpatient settings
- Insurance fraud and a serious ethical/legal violation requiring immediate action (Correct answer)
- A minor administrative error to be corrected in the next billing cycle
- An issue only the billing department should address
Correct answer: Insurance fraud and a serious ethical/legal violation requiring immediate action
Billing under a supervisor's name without authorization is insurance fraud, which is both an ethical violation and a criminal offense requiring immediate intervention.
Question 2: Bernard's Discrimination Model identifies which three supervisory roles?
- Educator, evaluator, and mentor
- Teacher, counselor, and consultant (Correct answer)
- Trainer, observer, and clinician
- Director, facilitator, and advocate
Correct answer: Teacher, counselor, and consultant
Bernard's Discrimination Model specifies teacher, counselor, and consultant as the three supervisor roles applied across process, conceptualization, and personalization skill areas.
Question 3: A supervisee asks whether their supervision sessions are confidential. The supervisor should explain that:
- All supervision content is fully confidential with no exceptions
- Supervision content may be disclosed if client welfare, legal issues, or fitness-for-practice concerns arise (Correct answer)
- Only written case notes from supervision are protected from disclosure
- Confidentiality in supervision follows identical rules to therapy confidentiality
Correct answer: Supervision content may be disclosed if client welfare, legal issues, or fitness-for-practice concerns arise
Supervision confidentiality has limits including client safety, mandatory reporting, fitness-for-practice concerns, and program evaluation requirements.
Question 4: Which of the following BEST demonstrates a supervisor appropriately managing dual roles?
- Providing personal therapy to the supervisee to efficiently address personal issues that affect their work
- Maintaining clear supervisory boundaries while referring the supervisee to personal therapy for personal issues (Correct answer)
- Acting as both employer and supervisor without disclosing the dual relationship
- Avoiding discussion of personal issues even when they directly impair clinical performance
Correct answer: Maintaining clear supervisory boundaries while referring the supervisee to personal therapy for personal issues
Supervisors manage dual roles by keeping supervisory boundaries clear and referring supervisees elsewhere for personal therapeutic needs.
Question 5: A supervisee's caseload includes a client who has made credible threats to harm an identifiable third party. The supervisor's responsibility is to:
- Allow the supervisee to manage the situation independently to build crisis competency
- Ensure the supervisee is aware of Tarasoff duty-to-warn obligations and that appropriate action is taken (Correct answer)
- Handle the duty-to-warn notification personally without involving the supervisee
- Document the threat in supervision notes and take no further action
Correct answer: Ensure the supervisee is aware of Tarasoff duty-to-warn obligations and that appropriate action is taken
Supervisors must ensure supervisees understand and fulfill duty-to-warn obligations while using the situation as a training opportunity with appropriate oversight.
Question 6: Remote or telehealth supervision requires particular attention to which of the following ethical concerns?
- Scheduling flexibility for supervisees across time zones
- Technology security, informed consent for electronic observation, and jurisdiction-specific regulations (Correct answer)
- Using only video platforms approved by the American Psychological Association
- Limiting supervision to supervisees within the same state regardless of platform
Correct answer: Technology security, informed consent for electronic observation, and jurisdiction-specific regulations
Telehealth supervision raises specific ethical issues around HIPAA-compliant technology, informed consent for electronic observation, and cross-jurisdictional licensing regulations.
Question 7: When a supervisee demonstrates a significant skill deficit that is unlikely to remediate within the training period, the supervisor's MOST ethically appropriate action is to:
- Continue supervision indefinitely until the supervisee achieves minimum competence
- Document the deficit, implement a formal remediation plan, and make fitness-for-practice determination if remediation fails (Correct answer)
- Pass the supervisee to avoid damaging their career prospects
- Refer the supervisee to personal therapy as the sole intervention
Correct answer: Document the deficit, implement a formal remediation plan, and make fitness-for-practice determination if remediation fails
Ethical supervisors document concerns, implement structured remediation, and make formal fitness-for-practice determinations when remediation fails to protect the public.
ASPPB Clinical Supervision 5
A supervisor learns that their supervisee has been billing clients under the supervisor's name without authorization.
This constitutes: