Chapter 1 of 1210.7% of exam

Professional Orientation and Ethical Practice

This domain pairs the CRCC Code of Professional Ethics with the disability laws a rehabilitation counselor works under every day. Expect scenarios that ask what a CRC must do when confidentiality, boundaries, or a legal requirement pulls in more than one direction.

Principles and the counseling relationship

The Code rests on six principles and a set of enforceable standards that are read together, not in isolation. Boundary items usually turn on exact rules: the length of a prohibition, who carries the burden of proof, and which former clients are protected permanently. Knowing the principle names helps with items that describe a behavior and ask which value it reflects.

Six principles

Autonomy, beneficence, fidelity, justice, nonmaleficence, and veracity underpin the enforceable standards; autonomy means respecting the client's right to be self-governing within his or her cultural framework.

CRCC Code of Professional Ethics (2023), Preamble

Former clients

Romantic or sexual relationships with former clients are prohibited for five years after the last professional contact, and afterward the CRC must be able to show that no coercion or harm occurred.

CRCC Code of Professional Ethics (2023), A.4.b

Vulnerable former clients

The prohibition is permanent for former clients with a trauma history, psychosis, personality disorder, marked cognitive impairment, chronic treatment needs, or inability to consent.

CRCC Code of Professional Ethics (2023), A.4.c

Gifts

Gifts are declined unless culturally appropriate or therapeutically relevant; the CRC weighs cultural practice, value, and motives and follows employer policy.

CRCC Code of Professional Ethics (2023), A.4.j

Confidentiality and its limits

Confidentiality is the default, and every exception is narrow: protect against serious and foreseeable harm, comply with law, and disclose only what is required. Placement work creates a special case, because employers need some information to accommodate a worker but not the clinical record. A subpoena from an attorney is handled differently from an order signed by a judge.

Serious and foreseeable harm

Confidentiality yields when disclosure is required to protect clients or identified others from serious and foreseeable harm, after the CRC assesses the risk.

CRCC Code of Professional Ethics (2023), B.2.a

Disclosure to employers

Written consent comes first, and only necessary job-relevant information goes to people with a need to know.

CRCC Code of Professional Ethics (2023), B.1.f

Attorney subpoenas

When a subpoena is not from a judge, the CRC informs the client and assesses potential harm before releasing anything, with proper signed releases.

CRCC Code of Professional Ethics (2023), B.2.c

Minimal disclosure

When disclosure is required, only the information actually requested and required is released.

CRCC Code of Professional Ethics (2023), B.2.d

Technology, assessment ethics, and resolving dilemmas

Later sections of the Code govern tests, forensic work, social media, and virtual counseling. They often contain concrete requirements that are easy to test, such as when revised tests should be adopted or what must happen at the start of telehealth. When law and ethics conflict, the Code sets an order of steps.

Revised tests

New or revised tests are generally used within one year of publication unless a documented reason shows the earlier version fits the client better.

CRCC Code of Professional Ethics (2023), H.4.b

Forensic fees

Payment for forensic services is never contingent on the outcome of a case or award.

CRCC Code of Professional Ethics (2023), G.4.a; L.3.d

Social media disclosure

Informed consent includes an explicit statement that the CRC does not accept client friend or follow requests on personal accounts.

CRCC Code of Professional Ethics (2023), K.4.c

Ethics versus law

The CRC relies on the Code to try to resolve a conflict; if it cannot be resolved, the CRC adheres to the law.

CRCC Code of Professional Ethics (2023), M.1.c

Disability law essentials

The domain also covers the statutes that define client rights. The ADA definition of disability has three prongs and has been construed broadly since the 2008 amendments. Leave and education laws have their own eligibility tests that differ from the ADA's.

Three prongs

Disability means an impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having one; accommodation is not owed under the regarded-as prong alone.

29 CFR 1630.2(g), (o)(4)

Broad construction

'Substantially limits' is construed broadly, is not a demanding standard, and is judged without regard to mitigating measures other than ordinary eyeglasses.

29 CFR 1630.2(j)(1)

FMLA eligibility

An eligible employee has 12 months of employment, 1,250 hours in the prior 12 months, and works where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

29 CFR 825.110(a)

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