How Can One be a Great Mental Health Counselor? Psychology Assignment
Question Description
Locating and Integrating State Laws and Ethical Codes
RESOURCES
Website icon Locating and Integrating State Laws and Ethical Codes Scoring Guide.
Website icon APA Style and Format.
Website icon How Do I Find Peer Reviewed Articles?
Presentation icon Locating and Integrating State Laws and Ethical Codes | Transcript.
Website icon Turnitin.
MS Word icon Unit 3 Paper Template.
By now, you should have located several current sets of ethical standards used by various counseling professionals. For this assignment, reference the ACA Code of Ethics as well as any other ethical codes from professional organizations specific to your program (that is, ASCA’s 2015 Ethical Standards for School Counselors, AMHCA’s 2010 Principles of AMHCA Code of Ethics, NBCC’s 2012Code of Ethics, NAADAC’s 2011 Code of Ethics). This assignment has three (3) parts.
PART ONE
Research two ethical codes that are relevant to your specialization. Identify at least two specific standards in each of the codes that address ethical issues that you did not consider prior to researching the code. Explain why the standards stand out as important for counselors in your specialization. The description of the standards should be written in your own words in third person, paraphrasing the information you have located; do not use any direct quotes from the materials. Address how you will remain abreast of changes as the ethical codes are updated.
PART TWO
Document the location of the laws regulating the practice of counseling in your state. These will be the regulations that outline the requirements for becoming licensed/certified in the state, as well as the laws pertinent to the practice of counseling (such as requirements for continuing education, mandated reporting laws, and so on).
Do notuse Counselor-License.com. The laws regulating the practice of counseling in your state can be found on your state counseling board website, or through your state counseling association. School counselors should check with the state board of education. There are also helpful resources found on the Capella Licensure Tool on iGuide.
In your own words: Describe where you found these laws and include the link to the Web site.
How are notices about new laws and regulations in your state made available to practicing counselors? For example, some states allow counselors to sign up for email notices of new legislation; or it is published in the state counseling journals/newsletters. Do some research to find out how this information is provided in your own state and provide a brief description of how you will stay informed about new laws and pending legislation made available to counselors in your state. Include the full references to publications or links to Web sites where this information is provided.
PART THREE
Use the presentation Locating and Integrating State Laws and Ethical Codes in this unit’s study (located in the assignment resources) to apply your knowledge of laws and ethical codes to particular issues:
Select three (3) issues from the presentation that may arise in the type of setting in which you will be working and for each selected issue, complete the following:
Determine whether your response to the situation would be guided by an ethical standard, a state law, or both, for each issue.
Identify at least 2 specific state laws and 2 specific ethical standards that are relevant to each issue. In other words, list the code number for the applicable laws and the ethical standards. For example, if the case involves supervision of a counselor, I might reference the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) 4757-17-01 “Counseling supervision”, and the ACA (2014) code F.2.a. “Supervisor Preparation”.
Write a description of why these laws/standards are applicable in this case, considering how the specific laws and codes inform responsible counseling practice.
What are the specific decisions, actions, and/or steps you would take in order to behave in a legal, ethical, and professional manner?
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Your paper should meet the following requirements:
Written communication: Develop accurate written communication and thoughts that convey the overall goals of the assignment and do not detract from the overall message. Your paper should demonstrate graduate-level writing skills.
References: Your reference list must include:
The 2014 ACA Code of Ethics and another relevant set of standards (ASCA, AMHCA, etc.) .
An APA-formatted link to your state’s rules and laws.
Distinguished submissions will likely exceed this minimum requirement.
You must use APA sixth edition style to format your references. Refer to the iGuide page APA Style and Format for more information.
Number of pages: The length of your paper should be 4-5 double-spaced pages. Note: Page count does not include cover page or references.
Formatting: Use 12-pt, Times New Roman font; MS Word documents only.
Use APA sixth edition formatting, including correct in-text citations, proper punctuation, double-spacing throughout, proper headings and subheadings, no skipped lines before headings and subheadings, proper paragraph and block indentation, no bolding, and no bullets. Refer to the iGuide page APA Style and Format for more information.
You are required to submit your final version of this paper to Turnitin to generate a final report prior to submitting the assignment for grading. From the Turnitin tool, first submit to the draft link to check your work for any necessary edits. Once the paper is finalized and all edits have been made, submit your final paper to the Final report option for the assignment. Please be advised it can take up to a day to obtain the percentage from Turnitin. When your paper is downloaded and viewable in Turnitin, save the originality report. Refer to the Turnitin.com Tutorial: Viewing Originality Reports (linked in the assignment Resources) for guidance.
Submit your assignment using the following file naming format: Your Name_AssignmentNumber_Assignment Title (example: Ima_Learner_u03a1_ClientDescription).
In the comment section, provide the percentage from the final Turnitin report (example: Final turnitin percentage = 4%). Please be prepared to provide your faculty member with a copy of the Turnitin report should this be requested of you.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.