Confidentiality When Dealing with Suicidal Client
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What are some legal and ethical responsibilities when working with a client who is seriously contemplating suicide? Suppose you are faced with a terminally ill client in the advanced stage of illness that is in a great deal of physical pain. The client indicates to you in a calm, reasonable way that she is going to drive out to an isolated spot in a state park, drink a thermos of margaritas, put on her favorite CD, take out her 9mm automatic, get out of the car, go sit under her favorite tree, make an audio tape telling her family how much she loves them and how she does not want to be a burden on them and then kill herself.
What are some moral view of suicide and concerns?
300 words or more with scholarly references
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Solution Summary
This solution discusses the ethical, legal and moral issues associated with suicide.
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Suicide is a personal and professional challenge in crisis situation. Most often, suicide is not the problem; it is the client's reaction to the problem. For instance, the potential seriousness of someone wishing to end their life can be traumatically challenging. Suicide is unpredictable. For example, there is the concern that if an action is not taken by a person or professional, a person with suicide ideation may initially avert an immediate crisis. However, the person could later complete the suicide act. Cutcliffe & Links (2008) point out that it is evident that ethical issues are important topics for consideration for those involved in the care of the person who is suicidal. However, they assert that despite the relationship between caregivers (e.g. mental health nurses, and the person who is suicidal), there has not been a lot of emphasis regarding this ethical crisis.
They further assert that due to the harming of our bodies and the inconsistency in ethical responses, they question whether there is a time when it is right to commit suicide. Cutcliffe & Links (2008) authors eventually accept this contemporary view of suicide on the reasoning that there is a lack of ethical responses, and a legal position that has been taken ...
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