The situation To set the stage for the ethical dilemma that I faced I have to first give some background. Around nine years ago when I first began working in the field of community mental health, I was considered pretty “green” having worked in education and not community mental health. I received one of my very first clients, he was 14 years old with a mental health diagnosis. He lived with his mother (a single mom, who was reported as having been “low functioning”) and an older brother who was 16 years old, was legally blind, unable to get gainful employment, and struggled with behavior problems. The 14 year old that I was working with was also struggling with physical, verbal aggression, and school attendance, and had recently been put
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I was shocked to see the concern on my Clinical Supervisors face. Here I was thinking I was showing an ethic of care for the family and clearly my Clinical Supervisor did not feel the same way. She asked me all sorts of questions ranging from, “why I thought it would be okay to bring milk out the family?” to “did you every think to call to consult with me before you brought out the milk?” I quickly understood that I done something wrong in her eyes, but could not figure out what it was that I had done. I thought bringing out the milk was just a kind gesture, not something that was going to get me into trouble. I asked my supervisor, “did I do something …show more content…
I continued to problem solve with my Clinical Supervisor and she helped me come up with a much better solution. She made me realize that yes, while I was a part of their community, I was a temporary part of their community. She told me I could serve the family much better by linking them to permanent resources in the community, after all, when I was no longer providing the family with services would I continue to bring them milk? The answer was clearly “no.” My supervisor helped me come up with a plan to teach the family the skills they needed to help themselves (much like the, give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime motto). Instead of me buying milk and giving it to them, we did a three mile search for all foodbanks and community resources the family could use and walk too in the area where they were
I was shocked to see the concern on my Clinical Supervisors face. Here I was thinking I was showing an ethic of care for the family and clearly my Clinical Supervisor did not feel the same way. She asked me all sorts of questions ranging from, “why I thought it would be okay to bring milk out the family?” to “did you every think to call to consult with me before you brought out the milk?” I quickly understood that I done something wrong in her eyes, but could not figure out what it was that I had done. I thought bringing out the milk was just a kind gesture, not something that was going to get me into trouble. I asked my supervisor, “did I do something …show more content…
I continued to problem solve with my Clinical Supervisor and she helped me come up with a much better solution. She made me realize that yes, while I was a part of their community, I was a temporary part of their community. She told me I could serve the family much better by linking them to permanent resources in the community, after all, when I was no longer providing the family with services would I continue to bring them milk? The answer was clearly “no.” My supervisor helped me come up with a plan to teach the family the skills they needed to help themselves (much like the, give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime motto). Instead of me buying milk and giving it to them, we did a three mile search for all foodbanks and community resources the family could use and walk too in the area where they were