The NDIS requires professionalism in every aspect of the job, which will keep the integrity of the organisation intact. As professionals we are required to meet these expectations for our clients, our organisations, and other stakeholders in the community. Q1 Care has provided the following tips to facilitate professional service delivery in our community.
Harassment is not allowed
There are two types of harassment that we need to address general harassment and sexual harassment, both general harassment and sexual harassment are defined in law, but sexual harassment goes further and is defined by inappropriate conduct within relationships, including professional relationships. A general definition of harassment is any behavior that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person. And the behavior is not considered either socially or morally reasonable texting or calling a person over and over again. When the person has indicated that they do not want to be contacted is considered harassment. Making repeated disparaging remarks about someone is considered harassment. Sexual harassment has been defined by the federal equal opportunity employment commission for behavior that occurs in the workplace. But the principles apply in all settings. There are two types hostile work environment and quid pro quo. The simple definition of sexual harassment is unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature or on the basis of gender that is severe and pervasive. It can be verbal nonverbal or written. It can be physical or visual. Sexual harassment has a range that goes from making the person uncomfortable all the way up to sexual assault. There’s a specific type of sexual harassment that is typically described in a work environment, but which also includes any relationship where one person is perceived to have power over the other person, such as the relationship of a professional with a client. This type of harassment is called quid pro quo, where submitting to the sexual advances is perceived as a condition of continuing the relationship, whether it is employment relationship or a professional one, this type of sexual harassment is the basis for the previously described prohibition of sexually intimate relationships with our clients. As our clients may perceive the sexual relationship as required for them to continue to receive services. Next on the list is discrimination, federal and state laws, prohibit discrimination based on a large list of personal characteristics categories get added to those laws because groups of people have typically experienced discrimination based on these specific characteristics.
Say no to Discrimination
A better way of thinking about discrimination is that any disparate treatment of any individual based on a characteristic of that individual is discrimination. If we think back to the five principles that underlie all ethical conduct justice is one of them. And we define that as treating all people the same next is failing to maintain appropriate boundaries, but we’ve already discussed this issue in the first half of this training. Next is a violation of confidentiality. And again, we’ll address this issue in a separate training. The final thing is impairment is best described as anything that is happening in our personal or professional lives that hinders our ability or our competence in performing our work. The things that may impair our work are varied, and they may include compassion, fatigue, substance abuse, mental health problems, or any other form of distress associated with daily living professionals have a responsibility to monitor their own wellness and their own ability to perform their work.
Check your Public Statements
The final topic that we want to address today is our public presence and public statements, especially as it relates to social media, the general ethical principle is that professionals should be cautious in public statements. As those statements are considered a reflection of both the profession and the employer with social media, the ease with which we make public statements has been greatly increased. And it is possible that some of our caution has been lessened because of the wide use of social media specific to social media. We want to remember that our social media accounts may be public information, and we want to use the privacy settings on those accounts to assure that only those that we want to be able to see the information can see it to maintain ethical practice, no information about any of our clients can be shared on social media.
Social Media
Even if we do not share personally identifiable information, we cannot go on a Facebook rant about how terrible our clients are. We’re not permitted to maintain any social media relationships with any of our clients. Those relationships would be considered dual relationships as that relationship is not confined to our professional role with the client, because we can never be sure who is able to see our social media content. We need to exercise extreme caution in posting any private information. And finally, we also need to be extremely cautious in posting sensitive or controversial information or opinions again, because these posts are considered a reflection of both our profession and our employer.
Thank you!
