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JCPSLP Volume 17, Supplement 1, 2015 – Ethical practice in speech pathology 11
written at any point in time. Drivers such as money, lack of
support, and technology have always had an impact on
professional practice. It is the specifics of the current
financial situation, the changing world economy, and the
fast emerging newer types of technology that influence the
current emerging issues. As practitioners, researchers,
educators, and members of our professional community we
need to be ever vigilant and mindful about these factors
and be proactive in our professional lives.
As a Board, we hope that the 2010 revision of the Code
of Ethics is something that members of the profession can
use in a proactive and positive way, for example during
orientation, mentoring, and professional development
activities and not just something to refer to when things
go wrong. Through such proactive, “ethical thinking” we
should always strive to avoid ethical problems arising,
rather than wait until they do and then have to manage the
problems.
References
Body, R., & McAllister, L. (2009). Ethics in speech and
language therapy . West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
Millsteed, J. (2006). Technology and ethics. In H.
Freegard (Ed.), Ethical practice for health professionals (pp.
210–229). Melbourne: Cengage learning:
The Speech Pathology Association of Australia Limited.
(2003). Scope of practice. Retrieved from http://www.
speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/library/Core_Assoc_Doc/
Scope_of_Practice.pdf
The Speech Pathology Association of Australia
Limited. (2010). Code of ethics. Retrieved from http://
www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/library/Ethics/
CodeofEthics.pdf
The Speech Pathology Association of Australia Limited.
(2011). Competency-based occupational standards for
speech pathologists: Entry level. Retrieved from http://
www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/library/Core_Assoc_
Doc/CBOS_for_Speech_Pathologists_2011.pdf
1 This survey is available at: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/
abs@.nsf/mf/4228.0/
From a consumer and investigation
panel perspective
Finances
“People today are facing so many challenges due to rising
financial forces such as rising mortgage fees, fuel expenses,
and power bills, to just name a few. People are also in
general working longer hours and spending less family time
together. These pressures on money, time, and family seem
to be impacting decisions to bring forth a case to ethics
with some people feeling hard done by or let down by
member practitioners.”
Business relationships
“From a member perspective, there also seems to be
pressures on business relationships to succeed. At times
complaints are being made that have to be sifted through
by the panel to find the true and relevant ethical complaints
and separate them apart from purely civil and financial ones.
Complainants seem to be under more financial pressure
than in the past and complaints at times seem to shift into
this domain and may not at all be relevant to the Board.”
From a research (and clinical)
perspective
Consent
“People with communication disorders have the right to
make informed decisions about whether to participate in
research. To make an informed decision, information
statements and consent forms must include content and
format that is appropriate for the client and/or their carers.
While it is vital that vulnerable clients are not coerced into
participating in research, it is also important that people
with severe communication issues have opportunities to
take part in research – particularly when studies will provide
evidence that may facilitate intervention for people with
similar disorders. If we assume that research participation is
an added burden for a client/family, then we can fail to
recognise that some clients and their families experience
pride and satisfaction from contributing to research that
benefits the community. However, this outcome is likely to
occur only if research participants are partners in the
research process and their contributions are perceived as
valued and managed with respect.”
“We need to be very mindful of informed consent,
particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse members
of the community when we offer clinical services.”
“We need to consider the impact of low health literacy.
In the 2006 Australian literacy and life skills survey,1 47%
of the 9000 people sampled had only Level 1 or Level 2
literacy which equates to about Grade 5 level literacy. This
means they could read a short piece of text and find a
single piece of information. This has an influence on how
we write our research and treatment consent forms, our
assessment reports, and handouts!”
Summary
Looking back over the themes that emerged, one could
argue that, in some ways, this column could have been
Correspondence to:
Dr Suze Leitão CPSP, FSPAA
School of Psychology and Speech Pathology
Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University
GPO Box U1987
Perth, WA 6845
phone: +61 (0)8 9266 7620
email:
This article was originally published as: Leitão, S., Bradd, T.,
McAllister, L., Russell, A., Kenny, B., Scarinci, N., . . .
Wilson, C. (2012). Emerging ethical and professional issues.
Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech Language Pathology ,
14 (1), 33–36.