Boundary Issues and Dual Relationships in the Human Services - 3rd Edition by Frederic G Reamer (Paperback)

About the Book

Frederic G. Reamer offers a frank analysis of a range of boundary issues that human-service practitioners may confront. This third edition brings the book up to date, adding discussion of the ways in which practitioners' online communications and technology-based relationships with clients can violate ethical standards.

Book Synopsis

Should a therapist disclose personal information to a client, accept a client's gift, or provide a former client with a job? Is it appropriate to exchange e-mail or text messages with clients or correspond with them on social networking websites? Some acts, such as initiating a sexual relationship with a client, are clearly prohibited, yet what about more subtle interactions, such as hugging or accepting invitations to a social event? Is maintaining a friendship with a former client or a client's relative a conflict of interest?

Frederic G. Reamer offers a frank analysis of a range of boundary issues that human-service practitioners may confront. He confronts the ethics of intimate relationships with clients and former clients, the healthy parameters of practitioners' self-disclosure, the giving and receiving of gifts and favors, and the unavoidable and unanticipated circumstances of social encounters and geographical proximity. With case studies addressing challenges in the mental health field, school contexts, child welfare, addiction programs, home health care, elder services, and prison, rural, and military settings, Reamer offers effective, practical risk-management models that prevent problems and help balance dual relationships.

Since the publication of the previous edition of Boundary Issues and Dual Relationships in the Human Services in 2012, digital technology has transformed how human-service professionals deliver services to clients. This third edition brings the book up to date, adding discussion of the ways in which practitioners' online communications and technology-based relationships with clients can violate ethical standards and providing practical advice for how to resolve boundary issues.

Review Quotes

Boundary Issues and Dual Relationships in the Human Services provides an in-depth and clear presentation of ethics, dual relationships, boundary violations and boundary crossings, and a risk-management approach to avoiding ethical and legal issues for clients and practitioners.--Sandra Kopels, editor, School Social Work Journal

As an attorney who has represented mental health professionals for decades, I find this book to be an invaluable and comprehensive resource filled with practical examples and advice. Reamer understands the legal issues better than most attorneys and explains the issues facing behavioral health providers in an easy to understand and compelling manner.--Robert Landau, Roberts, Carroll, Feldstein & Peirce, Inc.

Dual relationships constitute the most problematic complaint registered against experienced practitioners. Reamer's framework should become the centerpiece of continuing education and part of all social work academic programs.--Stephen M. Marson, editor, Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics

Frederic G. Reamer has updated his important work on boundary issues and dual relationships to include the many boundary challenges presented by technological and digital advances. Replete with cases covering numerous compelling clinical situations, this work remains an important contribution for all health service professionals and a wonderful teaching tool for trainees.--Arlene Steinberg, coeditor of Sexual Boundary Violations in Psychotherapy: Facing Therapist Indiscretions, Transgressions, and Misconduct

Reamer's unique ability to connect historical ethics with current trends is unmatched. His exceptional ability to tell the stories of the dilemmas faced by human service professionals is what makes him stand out as the most renowned ethicist in the social work profession. Boundary Issues and Dual Relationships in the Human Services will prove to be vital to all social workers and others in the human service field.--Dawn Hobdy, vice president of Ethics, Diversity, and Inclusion, National Association of Social Workers

About the Author

Frederic G. Reamer is a professor at the School of Social Work at Rhode Island College. His Columbia University Press books include Social Work Values and Ethics (fifth edition, 2018); On the Parole Board: Reflections on Crime, Punishment, Redemption, and Justice (2016); and Risk Management in Social Work: Preventing Professional Malpractice, Liability, and Disciplinary Action (2015), among others.