Jane Doe
(Q1) The stakeholders for this case study on Leo include current and future clients, as well as peers who are affected by Leo’s behavior. These individuals will be affected by how Dr. Vaji resolves this dilemma either by allowing Leo to harm clients if given permission to continue, or perhaps the clients could be prevented from the harm that would be incurred if Dr. Vaji removes Leo from the case(s).
(Q2) Dr. Vaji should collect as much information as he can from clients that are being treated by Leo to help develop an accurate picture of Leo’s multicultural and professional skills. It is important to contact Leo’s supervisor in order to correct the mistakes and damage Leo may be responsible for incurring, yet it would possibly become and ethical dilemma in client patient privacy issues by contacting Leo’s supervisors. It seems that recording Leo’s sessions with clients would be completely understandable considering the situation. It would be crucial to inform the clients that their sessions were being recorded for Dr. Vaji to monitor how the therapist in training is handling his clients.
(Q3) Dr. Vaji’s relationship to Leo as his external supervisor and professor could possibly become an ethical issue for in moving forward with how to handle Leo’s situation. On the one hand he must make sure that Leo is learning and behaving in accordance with the expectations that a supervisor would have with his trainees, yet as his instructor he may be seeing good quality work that is turned in by Leo, which should technically be kept separate from what he knows about Leo as his supervisor. Perhaps it would be best for Dr. Vaji to be only his supervisor and not his professor or vice versa.
(Q4) Once the dilemma is resolved it is not necessary for Dr. Vaji to have a meeting with the students who complained about Leo because it could become a violation of privacy between Dr. Vaji and Leo. It is best that the only thing that Dr. Vaji does with regard to the other students is that he inform them that he promises to handle the issue responsibly with Leo, and then to follow through on his promise. It is understandable that the other students may have concern, but ultimately it is not important for Dr. Vaji to provide answers for these other students, but it is important for Dr. Vaji to deal with Leo for his lack of mindfulness in his interactions with multi-cultural clients and people.
