Course:PSYC537/2010WT1/Vignette9

VIGNETTE 9

As a psychologist in private practice you have a 10 year-old client that you believe has been emotionally abused. The child’s mother has been an active participant in the therapy process. The child’s parents are in the midst of a divorce and the mother has often spoken negatively about the child’s father when the child was present. In a private session with the child, he begged you to make sure that he “gets to live with Mommy”. You have expertise in the area of parental capacity evaluations in custody cases. What would you do?

STEP 1: Who are the people potentially affected by decision?

1) The 10-year-old client
2) The client's mother
3) The client's father
4) The psychologist
5) The client's extended family, who may or may not be affected by the custody decision
6) The lawyers and others involved in the divorce proceedings
7) The psychological community as a whole (if, as a result of your actions, psychologists were viewed as partial or biased in legal proceedings). (SV)

STEP 2: What are the relevant ethical issues/laws? Which ethical values/laws are in conflict? Principle II of the Code of Ethics, Responsible Caring, emphasizes that the psychologist do no harm, in reference to the well-being of the child (based on what you think vs. what the child has said) versus the importance of reporting accurate information in court. Furthermore, there is the conflict of whether you would want to testify in court which would result in having multiple relationships with your clients. (KA)

Principle I of the Code of ethics, Respect for the Dignity of Persons, states that the nature of psychologists' contract with society demands that their greatest responsibility be to those persons in the most vulnerable position, in this case, the child client.

If deciding to conduct parental capacity evaluation or provide fact or expert testimony in court, the psychologist needs to be aware of the following codes of conduct:
CPBC 11.22 Direct examination of individual A registrant must not provide a report or give testimony respecting the psychological characteristics of an individual unless the registrant has first conducted a direct, in-person examination of the individual (in this case, the father who was not actively involved in therapy) which is adequate to support the registrant's statements or conclusions.
If the psychologist decides to conduct parental capacity evaluation, he/she must use the same assessment procedures for both parents.
CPBC 11.30 Use of parallel procedures When more than one individual is being assessed on the same set of criteria, a registrant must use parallel procedures.
CPBC 11.24 Avoiding conflicting roles A registrant must avoid performing multiple and potentially conflicting roles, such as psychotherapist and assessor of competency to stand trial, or psychotherapist and assessor of parental access.
If the psychologist decide to provide fact or expert testimony (parental capacity evaluation) in court, he/she must be aware of the effect of therapeutic relationship with the child and his mother on his ability to provide objective, impartial judgment.

CPBC 11.29 Prior relationships A prior professional relationship with a party does not preclude a registrant from testifying as a fact witness or from testifying to his or her psychological services to the extent permitted by applicable law but a registrant must (a) appropriately take into account ways in which that prior relationship might affect his or her professional objectivity or opinions, and (b) disclose the potential conflict to the relevant parties. (CC)

STEP 3: How do personal biases, stresses or self-interest affect my choice of action?

As the child has expressed his desire to live with mommy, as the psychologist you must be careful to look out for the child’s best interests, whether that matches the child’s wishes or not. There is a bias towards fulfilling the child's wish.

Further, you have not met the father and should be extra careful making a judgment call about him. You have heard the mother’s side (and child’s) and opinion, but you do not have a full picture of the situation, i.e., the father’s piece is missing. This applies both in terms of biases in your understanding of parental capacity and of relationship dynamics.

You should also be watchful of how the divorce proceeds and whether there are any chances of reconciliation. Because of your belief about abuse (although, you are not certain; see above point), you are likely to have a bias against reconciliation of the parents and family.

There is a bias towards your client. In this case, the child is your direct client. But due to her active participation in therapy, the mother has in some sorts become an indirect client. That is, all of this accumulates into a bias against the father – for which you only have second hand information on.

& Because of your belief about the abuse going on and your bias, you may take actions to get involved in the legal custody case, even if it were best left to another objective party to get involved. (JK)

STEP 4: Consult with colleagues.

STEP 5: Develop alternative courses of action.
1. Do not offer to become involved in the divorce proceedings, and should the mother ask for your involvement, decline.
2. Offer to refer the mother to another professional competent in parental capacity evaluations.
3. Report your suspicions of abuse to child services. (AH)

4. Volunteer/agree to take up parental capacity evaluation for this custody case and put your best effort into ensuring that the child lives with the mother

5. Volunteer/agree to take up parental capacity evaluation for this custody case with the condition that you must be able to meet with the father to personally assess his capacity as a parent (SC)

STEP 6: Analyze likely short-term, ongoing and long term risks and benefits of each.

1. Do not offer to become involved in the divorce proceedings, and should the mother ask for your involvement, decline. 


Risks: The child might be put in danger if his custody is awarded to his potentially emotionally abusive father, the child’s preference might not be recognized, the mother’s psychological well-being might be threatened if her soon to be ex husband gets awarded custody, you might get in legal trouble for not reporting suspicions of child abuse Benefits: you (psychologist) do not have to get involved in the legal implications of this situation, you do not give a recommendation that might not be warranted

2. Offer to refer the mother to another professional competent in parental capacity evaluations. 


Risks: this other professional won’t have as much time with them and might not pick up on the potential for child abuse present, the other professional won’t know all three parties as well and therefore might not make as informed of a decision, you might get in legal trouble for not reporting suspicions of child abuse Benefits: this other professional might be more objective leading them to make a less biased decision

3. Report your suspicions of abuse to child services.

Risks: if these are false accusations, you might lose the trust of the father, if these are false accusations, he could sue you for defamation of character, if these are false accusations, you would waste the time and resources of child services, which could have been put toward an actual case of child abuse Benefits: if you are right, you just helped protect the mental health of the child, you avoided legal ramifications for not reporting, you potentially helped increase the chances that the child ends up in his mother’s custody, which is both his and your preference. (AA)

4. Volunteer/agree to take up parental capacity evaluation for this custody case and put your best effort into ensuring that the child lives with the mother

Risks: 1. You really should not be acting as expert witness/parental capacity evaluator for this case because you are biased. This is a violation of the code of ethics. You may also face a legal complaint from the father. 2. The accusations of the father may be false and the child may be influenced by the mother to tell you that he wants to live with her her instead of his father. Thus, you may not be looking out for the best interest of the child but the best interest of the mother. Thus, you would have failed your goal of looking out for the best interest of the child.

Benefits: 1. If it turns out that it is true that the father is unfit and is emotionally abusive, you are giving the child a good chance to live with his mother. 2. The rapport between you and the child client is maintained and he is likely to come back to you for therapy and deems you as someone he can trust.

5. Volunteer/agree to take up parental capacity evaluation for this custody case with the condition that you must be able to meet with the father to personally assess his capacity as a parent

Risks: 1. Even after meeting and assessing the father yourself, you still may be biased towards the mother because your longer relationship with her. Despite this, having met with the father may falsely assure you that you are now unbiased and can rightfully take up parental capacity evaluation for this case. 2. This action may be seen by the mother and child client that you are 'switching sides' and they may become untrusting of you. You may lose your rapport with the child client as well.

Benefits: 1. You will be able to gather more objective information about the father which will truly aid you to give a more thorough parental capacity evaluation. 2. By talking to the father you have a chance to assess whether the mother's allegations are true. (SC)

STEP 7: Choose course of action after conscientious application of principles.
There are two important issues that the psychologist should consider in this situation. First, is he/she able to maintain an objective, impartial stance considering the therapeutic relationship with the child and his mother? The psychologist should be impartial regardless of any prior relationship. If either the psychologist or the client cannot accept this neutral role, the psychologist should consider declining parental capacity evaluation or withdrawing from the case if it has already started, and referring the child and mother to another psychologist who is impartial and competent in parental capacity evaluation, or asking the court to appoint a psychologist to fulfill this task. In any case, the psychologist should generally avoid conducting a child custody evaluation in a case in which the psychologist served in a therapeutic role for the child or his immediate family. Secondly, tension surrounding child custody evaluation can become particularly heightened when there are accusations of child abuse. The psychologist should be very careful when providing any evaluation or testimony regarding child abuse; it would be advisable for him/her to gather more substantive evidence or collateral reports before making this accusation. If the psychologist believes that solid evidence is present, then he/she should consider reporting child abuse to proper authorities, and may offer testifying in the case as a fact witness concerning treatment of the child. However, during the course of a child custody evaluation, the psychologist should not accept any of the involved parties in the evaluation as a therapy client. Therefore, he/she will have to temporarily terminate the therapeutic relationship with the child and his mother, such that the objectivity will not be compromised. (CC)

STEP 8: Act with commitment to assume responsibility for consequences.

STEP 9: Evaluate results of course of action.

STEP 10: Assume responsibility for consequences, including corrections or re-entry into decision making process if still unresolved.

STEP 11: Take action, as warranted, to prevent future occurrences. Explain early on that as the child's psychologist you will no longer remain unbiased and as a result will not be able to be an expert witness/ conduct a parental capacity evaluation. As well make sure that you go over the limits of confidentiality at the beginning of therapy so they are aware you need to break confidentiality if there is reason to believe child abuse has occured. (HM)