DSP Professionalism and Ethics 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A person you support becomes romantically interested in you. The ethical response is to:
- Pursue the relationship discreetly
- Gently redirect while maintaining professional boundaries and inform your supervisor (Correct answer)
- Transfer immediately without explanation
- Ask the person to keep it private
Correct answer: Gently redirect while maintaining professional boundaries and inform your supervisor
DSPs must maintain professional boundaries and report boundary challenges to a supervisor to protect both parties.
Question 2: Which of the following is an example of person-first language?
- The autistic client
- The disabled person
- The person with autism (Correct answer)
- The handicapped individual
Correct answer: The person with autism
Person-first language places the person before their diagnosis or condition, e.g., 'person with autism.'
Question 3: A DSP is running late and decides to skip documenting a medication given to a person they support. This is:
- Acceptable if the medication is routine
- A serious ethical and legal violation (Correct answer)
- Fine as long as it is documented the next day
- Acceptable if a coworker witnessed it
Correct answer: A serious ethical and legal violation
Skipping medication documentation is a serious ethical and legal violation that puts the person's health and safety at risk.
Question 4: What is the primary purpose of a Code of Ethics for DSPs?
- To create legal liability for employers
- To guide professional decision-making and establish standards of conduct (Correct answer)
- To replace supervision and training
- To protect agencies from lawsuits
Correct answer: To guide professional decision-making and establish standards of conduct
A Code of Ethics provides a framework for ethical decision-making and establishes expectations for professional conduct.
Question 5: When a person supported shares personal information with their DSP, the DSP should:
- Share it with all team members to ensure coordinated care
- Disclose only what is relevant and necessary for care, with appropriate consent (Correct answer)
- Keep it entirely private from all staff
- Post it in the day room for all staff to see
Correct answer: Disclose only what is relevant and necessary for care, with appropriate consent
Confidentiality requires sharing personal information only on a need-to-know basis, relevant to care, and with appropriate consent.
Question 6: A DSP witnesses a colleague physically restraining a person supported in a way that appears abusive. The immediate priority is to:
- Confront the colleague later in private
- Ensure the person's immediate safety and report the incident (Correct answer)
- Document it and wait for the next team meeting
- Ask the person supported what they want to do about it
Correct answer: Ensure the person's immediate safety and report the incident
When abuse is occurring, ensuring the person's immediate safety and reporting the incident are the top priorities.
Question 7: Which principle ensures that DSPs support individuals in making choices, even when those choices differ from what the DSP would choose?
- Beneficence
- Paternalism
- Autonomy and self-determination (Correct answer)
- Non-maleficence
Correct answer: Autonomy and self-determination
Autonomy and self-determination require DSPs to support individuals' right to make their own choices, even when the DSP disagrees.
DSP Professionalism and Ethics 3
A person you support becomes romantically interested in you.
The ethical response is to: