CRC Ethics 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A rehabilitation counselor receives a gift from a grateful client upon successful job placement. The most ethical response is to:
- Accept any gift to avoid damaging the therapeutic relationship
- Decline or accept only tokens of minimal value, considering cultural context and the impact on the relationship (Correct answer)
- Report the gift offer to a supervisor as a boundary violation
- Accept the gift and document it in the client file
Correct answer: Decline or accept only tokens of minimal value, considering cultural context and the impact on the relationship
The CRC Code advises caution with gifts, recommending refusal or acceptance of only minimal-value items after considering cultural context and potential impact on the professional relationship.
Question 2: The principle of justice in rehabilitation counseling requires counselors to:
- Treat all clients identically regardless of their needs
- Provide fair and equitable access to services, treating equals equally and unequals proportionally (Correct answer)
- Prioritize clients who are most likely to achieve successful outcomes
- Follow legal mandates above all other considerations
Correct answer: Provide fair and equitable access to services, treating equals equally and unequals proportionally
Justice requires equitable treatment, meaning similar clients receive similar services while also recognizing and accommodating relevant differences in need.
Question 3: A CRC conducting vocational evaluations for an insurance company is asked to provide results that favor the company's position. The counselor should:
- Comply since the insurance company is the paying client
- Refuse to alter findings and provide an objective, accurate evaluation regardless of who commissioned it (Correct answer)
- Withdraw from the case to avoid the conflict
- Provide two separate reports — one for the company and one for the claimant
Correct answer: Refuse to alter findings and provide an objective, accurate evaluation regardless of who commissioned it
CRCs have an obligation to provide honest, objective assessments regardless of who is paying for the evaluation; integrity cannot be compromised by financial interests.
Question 4: Social media use by rehabilitation counselors is ethically governed primarily by the need to:
- Completely avoid all social media to prevent ethical problems
- Maintain clear professional boundaries and protect client confidentiality in all online activities (Correct answer)
- Use only platforms approved by their professional association
- Only connect with former clients, not current ones
Correct answer: Maintain clear professional boundaries and protect client confidentiality in all online activities
The CRC Code requires counselors to apply the same professional boundaries and confidentiality standards in online environments as in all other professional contexts.
Question 5: A rehabilitation counselor realizes mid-session that they have inadequate competence in the primary issue a client is presenting. The counselor should:
- Continue the session and hope to gain sufficient competence before the next appointment
- Honestly acknowledge the limitation and either seek supervision or refer the client to a more qualified professional (Correct answer)
- End the session abruptly to avoid causing harm
- Ask the client to wait while consulting textbooks
Correct answer: Honestly acknowledge the limitation and either seek supervision or refer the client to a more qualified professional
Counselors must practice within their competence boundaries and are ethically required to obtain supervision or make appropriate referrals when a case exceeds their expertise.
Question 6: When using standardized assessments with clients from culturally diverse backgrounds, rehabilitation counselors must:
- Use the same instruments with all clients to ensure standardization
- Consider the cultural validity of instruments and interpret results in cultural context, noting potential bias (Correct answer)
- Avoid all formal assessment with culturally diverse clients
- Only use assessments normed on populations matching the client's background
Correct answer: Consider the cultural validity of instruments and interpret results in cultural context, noting potential bias
The CRC Code requires culturally competent practice, including critical evaluation of assessment validity across cultures and contextual interpretation of results.
Question 7: Which ethical standard is most directly implicated when a CRC maintains excessive case notes about a client's personal life unrelated to rehabilitation goals?
- Beneficence — the extra information may help the client
- Privacy — clients have a right to limit information collected to what is relevant and necessary (Correct answer)
- Fidelity — counselors should document all interactions thoroughly
- Nonmaleficence — extensive notes could be subpoenaed
Correct answer: Privacy — clients have a right to limit information collected to what is relevant and necessary
The principle of privacy requires that counselors collect only information that is relevant and necessary for providing rehabilitation services, not excessive personal details.
CRC Ethics 5
A rehabilitation counselor receives a gift from a grateful client upon successful job placement.
The most ethical response is to: