Saturday Sep 21, 2024
[Update] here is the information about who the Secretary of the ACA is https://theaca.net.au/board-and-gover... , however again, no easily / readily accessible information on their contact details. Could the statement, "A member will not make any derogatory or insulting remark against the Association" be perceived as a restriction to your free speech as a member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA)? What if the ACA didn't provide you with a definition of what a derogatory or insulting remark was? And what if the Code of Ethics and Practice requires you as a member, to take your concern only to the Secretary and then to abide by their direction to you, yet the information on who the Secretary is, is not readily accessible (ie, they are not included on the website with the rest of the Employees), nor is their contact information readily accessible and nor is any information provided about the Directions that the Secretary can provide to you? The latest version of the Code of Ethics and Practice V16 seems to be largely consistent with its previous V15 except for the introduction of 16.5: Responsibility to Colleagues and Others, subsection iv. My guidance to members of the ACA is to reflect on the newest clause and consider requesting definitions of 'criticism', 'derogatory remark', and 'insulting remark' are included in the Definitions section of the Code; that the details and contact information for the Secretary be included in 16.5 (iv) for ease of reference and that a list of Directions that can be made by the Secretary are also included for transparency. This aside, other suggestions would be for the ACA to incorporate inclusive language in the Code and to include definitions of Counsellors v Registered Counsellors. This is important as the two terms are used at different times throughout the document without explanation. It is difficult for members to know what applies to them (or not) without such definitions. The podcast you are about to listen to is a side-by-side comparison of the previous version of the Code with the newest version. I am not a member of the ACA and have attempted to be impartial with respect to the critique / overview of the Code.Any opinions expressed in the video are my own and are my professional opinion only. All comments, thoughts and questions on this video are welcome if they are respectful. I love hearing different perspectives, different points of view and differing opinion and believe that's a wonderful way for us all to learn from each other. If you would rather watch the video and see the side-by-side comparison, you can do so here.#aca #counsellors #codeofethics
