La. Admin. Code tit. 46 § LX-4705

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 11, November 20, 2024

Section LX-4705 - Responsibility to Clients

A. Licensees advance the welfare of families and individuals. They respect the rights of those persons seeking their assistance and make reasonable efforts to ensure that their services are used appropriately.

B. Licensees provide professional assistance to persons without discrimination on the basis of race, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, gender, health status, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation.

C. Licensees obtain appropriate informed consent to therapy or related procedures early in the therapeutic relationship, usually before the therapeutic relationship begins, and use language that is reasonably understandable to clients. The licensee will provide all clients with a statement of practice subject to review and approval by the advisory committee (See §4720, Appendix). The content of informed consent may vary depending upon the licensees areas of expertise, the client(s) and treatment plan.

1. Informed consent generally necessitates that the client:

a. has the capacity to consent;

b. has been adequately informed of significant information concerning treatment processes and procedures;

i. has been adequately informed of potential risks and benefits of treatments for which generally recognized standards do not yet exist;

c. has freely and without undue influence signed a statement of practice.

2. When persons, due to age or mental status, are legally incapable of giving informed consent, licensees obtain informed permission from a legally authorized person, if such substitute consent is legally permissible.

D. Licensees are aware of their influential positions with respect to clients, and they avoid exploiting the trust and dependency of such persons. Licensees, therefore, make every effort to avoid conditions and multiple relationships with clients that could impair professional judgment or increase the risk of exploitation. Such relationships include, but are not limited to, business or close personal relationships with a client or the client's immediate family. When the risk of impairment or exploitation exists due to conditions or multiple roles, therapists take appropriate precautions.

E. Sexual intimacy with clients is prohibited.

F. Sexual intimacy with former clients is likely to be harmful and is therefore prohibited for two years following the termination of therapy or last professional contact. In an effort to avoid exploiting the trust and dependency of clients, licensees should not engage in sexual intimacy with former clients after the two years following termination or last professional contact. Should licensees engage in sexual intimacy with former clients following two years after termination or last professional contact, the burden shifts to the licensee to demonstrate that there has been no exploitation or injury to the former client or to the client's immediate family.

G. Licensees comply with applicable laws regarding the reporting of alleged unethical conduct.

H. Licensees do not use their professional relationships with clients to further their own interests.

I. Licensees respect the rights of clients to make decisions and help them to understand the consequences of these decisions. Licensees clearly advise the clients that they have the responsibility to make decisions regarding relationships such as cohabitation, marriage, divorce, separation, reconciliation, custody, and visitation.

J. Licensees continue therapeutic relationships only so long as it is reasonably clear that clients are benefiting from the relationship.

K. Licensees assist persons in obtaining other therapeutic services if the licensee is unable or unwilling, for appropriate reasons, to provide professional help.

L. Licensees do not abandon or neglect clients in treatment without making reasonable arrangements for the continuation of such treatment.

M. Licensees obtain written informed consent from clients before videotaping, audio recording, or permitting third-party observation.

N. Licensees, upon agreeing to provide services to a person or entity at the request of a third party, clarify, to the extent feasible and at the outset of the service, the nature of the relationship with each party and the limits of confidentiality.

La. Admin. Code tit. 46, § LX-4705

Promulgated in accordance with the Department of Health and Hospitals, Licensed Professional Counselors Board of Examiners, LR 29:168 (February 2003), Amended by LR 41755 (4/1/2015).

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 37:1101-1123.