Question:
Describe about the Counselling Case Study of Joe Levonian who belongs from Balgowlah?
The study has been undertaken for researching an ethical breach that may have occurred in specific specialization. Further, the professional, legal and ethical element will be discussed relating to the breach conducted by specialist. Therefore, for the purpose of this study, a hypnotherapist has been selected and his unethical code of conduct will be discussed. Moreover, the social context will be analysed in relation to ethical issues and appropriate intervention will be mentioned along with policy and legislation.
The case revolves around Joe Levonian who belongs from Balgowlah, Australia. He is a hypnotherapist. The problem aroused from him when he was found breaching the Code of Conduct for Unregistered Health Practitioners. The hypnotherapist was using erotic techniques for treating the smoking addiction of woman and the having sex with them. On the other hand, he was also accused of giving sexual massages to women considering it as a personal research project part. No appropriate professional boundaries were maintained by Joe as per Health Care Complaints Commission (Aston, 2012). Apart from that, a woman complaint about him to commission that during hypnosis session he touched her breast and was saying “You are getting more and more aroused”. Therefore, it is clear that Mr. Joe Levonian used his profession to have a sexual pleasure by unethical treating the women. Moreover, the commission became aware about the research project of Levonian into anorgasmia. Thus, when the intervention was done then Mr. Joe Levonian was found guilty and he was banned by the commission from practicing therapy for two years (Abs.gov.au, 2015). Thus, it can be understood code of conduct was completely breached by Joe without knowing its consequences. Further, when Mr. Joe was banned from practice he felt guilty and his errors for the unethical code of conduct which made him depressed. Therefore, breaking or not following the code of conduct can result future losses for anyone. It was found when erotic treatment was known by the people they stopped visiting Joe Levonian for treatment.
Social Issues: It can be found out from the case study that Mr. Joe Levonian turned his profession of hypnotherapist to a sexual therapist. Therefore, may women felt offended by such act of practice of Levonian. Due to such practice, women felt emotionally depressed and they lose trust over the treatment of therapist. As the code of conduct was breached by Mr. Levonian, it de-moralised the patient to trust him. Moreover, the cost of getting treatment is continuously increasing and if the therapist continues with such unethical practice then it can increase the number of patients. Apart from that, women may not be able to have faith on the doctors or therapist that they will follow code of conduct in their practice (Apsc.gov.au, 2015). As per the case study, the women were sexually harassed by Levonian so that he can fulfill his sexual desire. Moreover, the women were treated as object by him as he thought the women will do as he would say. Therefore, it increased stress among women that are suffering from smoking addiction. Further, the patients were mislead by Mr. Levonian and due to that patients were not able to recover as per their expectation. The women were exploited by him, that makes the morale of the women down and they were not able to take decision to re-visit him for further treatment (Aston, 2012). Therefore, it can be noted down that if fair treatment is not done under the code of conduct then it can increase the social issues and trust from the health care practitioners can be broken.
Legal Issues: In the proposed case study, it can be understood that rules were completely broken by Mr. Joe Levonian in practicing his hypnotherapy. He used his profession as a weapon to exploit women and treat them with sexual object. The hypnotherapy was used as sexual therapy and applied erotic techniques to woo the women for having sex and touching the assets. Apart from that, Health Care Complaints Commission provided that Code of Conduct for Unregistered Health Practitioners was violated by Joe Levonian. On the other hand, it was also mentioned that Clause 13 of Code of Conduct was broken by him by engaging himself in sexual intercourse with the patient. Therefore, laws was completely sidelined by Mr. Joe and continued with his unlawful practice (Chae, 2012). On the other side, it can also be known that Clause 2(2) (b), 3 (2) (b1), 3 (2) (c) and Clause 12 of Code of Conduct was also infringed him and mislead the patients regarding the treatment. Further, Mr. Levonian did not take any approval from any client to conduct his research into anorgasmia and falsely tried to include them in sexual treatment. Moreover, Mr. Joe Levonian did not have any experience to practice such research but he did intentionally and exploited the women. Therefore, it can be put forward that conducting unlawful code of conduct can lead to public health and safety at risk (DailyTelegraph, 2015).
Ethical Issues: Considering the ethical issues, it can be noted that Mr. Joe Levonian adopted completely wrong path. In order to fulfill his desire, he used his profession and treated women unethically and gave it a name research project into anorgasmia. Erotic technique was practiced by him in order to have sex with clients. Moreover, he used his possession of hypnosis for misleading the clients as to showcase his competence in handling sexual problems. On the other hand, health and safety was not considered by Mr. Levonian and provide right treatment to the patient that visit to him. Further, patients were not treated with dignity and did not care about the well-being of the clients (Jarvis, 2014). Apart from that, Mr. Joe gave sexual massage by misleading clients in which he had no experience and the professional boundaries were crossed by him by doing continuous unethical practice. Also, the clients were manipulated and violated by Mr. Levonian to have erotic techniques of treatment in order to get relief from the health or addiction issues. On the other hand, commission mentioned that Mr. Levonian was not qualified enough to practice sexual treatment. Further, it was also found that Mr. Joe Levonian provided wrong judgment regarding treatment to one of his client Claire Mallon and due to that she suffered harsh reactive depression which affected her health. Thus, it is clear that Mr. Joe Levonian did not acknowledge the code of conduct and carried unethical means of practice to treat women in his own way (Hccc.nsw.gov.au, 2015).
Professional Issues: In this section, Mr. Joe Levonian used his practice of hypnotherapist for his own benefit and fulfills his desires. Moreover, he used his profession to give sexual massage or treatment to women as a part of his research without seeking approval or consent of the clients. It can be clear from the evidence of Client A that during the hypnosis session Mr. Joe touched her breast for the sexual intercourse. Thus, it can be said that he used his profession in wrong way that can pose risk to the health of the public (Kenneley, 2012). Apart from that, embarrassing and costly disciplinary action was conducted by him under his practice and due to that he was banned for rest of the two years in carrying his hypnotherapy profession. Therefore, Health Care Complaints Commission proposed that Mr. Joe Levonian will not provide hypnotic or hypnotherapy treatment, therapy to handle sexual dysfunction or conditions and not conducting any research without seeking approval from the concerned parties. On the other hand, it has been found that sexual treatment has been conducted by Joe Levonian without having any training or experience in such field. Moreover, in practicing his profession of hypnotherapist, legal and ethical code of conduct was not followed by him and due to which allegation was put on to him by the client and thus he was banned (Lambert, Barry & Stokes, 2012). Therefore, professional issues too aroused in the case of Joe Levonian which affected the clients emotionally and physically.
As Mr. Joe Levonian was accused of avoiding professional and legal code of conduct therefore, the response toward such act was completely negative. The false activity of Joe Levonian leads to ban of two years from conducting his practice. On the other hand, NSW Health Care Complaints Commission made sure that Mr. Joe is not involved in any research involving humans before getting any consent from the Human Research Ethics Committee (Montgomery, Perna & Ziontz, 2012). Apart from that, Mr. Joe Levonian was advised on the completion of prohibition order, he should have membership of Association of Australian Hypnotherapy and should have supervised clinical practice for a phase decided by that Association and having approval of supervisor by the ethics committee of Association. On the other side, the professional standard was not maintained by Mr. Levonian and he used his profession in assaulting women sexually and the other thing is that he does not had any training and experience in the field of sexual issues (Paavilainen, Lepisto & Flinck, 2014). Moreover, through his practice he tried to give sexual massage to women. Therefore, in a response, it can be said that legislation regarding the health service was violated by the hypnotist and overlooked the code of ethics. Therefore, his practice was not under ethical manner and exploited women under his research into anorgasmia. According to Senturias & Baldonado (2014), there were other health professionals such as Maria Hayden and she responded that Mr. Joe Levonia has to be banned for life long as he did not followed professional standard and breached the legislation of Health Practitioners. Further, he also tried to manipulate the clients to have sexual intercourse through his hypnosis. Moreover, no ethical consideration was taken into account by him and he misleads women.
From the case study, it can be understood that Mr. Joe Lenovian breached the code of conduct. According to Williams (n.d.), the breach of conduct is outlining the formal document which is prepared by an individual or companies for ethical behavior. The code of conduct has to be followed so that work can be carried in ethical manner without eliminating laws. On the other hand, code of ethics can help in aligning the work in sequence manner and providing better service to people without harassing or assaulting anyone. Moreover, the users of service may feel satisfied in using the service provider by the service providers. In the given case, Mr. Joe is a service provider but he breached the code of conduct due to which he was prohibited for two years. On the other hand, if he would have followed the code of conduct then it there may not be any allegation and he could have carried his practice and doing his research into anorgasmia (Winsor, 2012). Moreover, the people could have connected well with hypnotist. Apart from that, Health Care Complaints Commission of NSW has given different orders to Mr. Joe that need to be followed by him so that he can start his practice once again. Therefore, it can be mentioned that concepts related to code of conduct completely relates with the case of Mr. Joe Levonian (Yahui Hsieh, 2012).
Conclusion
From the whole study, it can be concluded that Mr. Joe Levonian was carrying his work unethically and unprofessionally. The code of conduct for Unregistered Health Practitioners was broken by him as he practiced sexual treatment by applying erotic techniques without having any training or experience in that field. As a result, the client felt emotionally depressed that affected her health. On the other hand, clients were deceived by him to fall into sexual intercourse for better result and also doing his research into anorgasmia. Therefore, his false behavior and act resulted into ban for two years by Health Care Complaints Commission. Apart from that, several clause of code of conduct was breached by Levonian that put the life of clients at risk. Moreover, the report clearly discussed about the various issues related to social, legal, ethical and professional so that better picture can be drawn. The code of conduct has been mentioned as a relevant concept to the given case.
References
Abs.gov.au,. (2015). Managing Breaches of the Code of Conduct (MISCONDUCT). Retrieved 5 February 2015, from https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310114.nsf/Home/Managing+Breaches+of+the+Code+of+Conduct+(MISCONDUCT)
Apsc.gov.au,. (2015). Australian Public Service Commission – Breaches of the Code of Conduct. Retrieved 5 February 2015, from https://www.apsc.gov.au/aps-employment-policy-and-advice/merit/review-of-breaches-of-the-code-of-conduct
Aston, H. (2012). Two-year ban for ‘erotic’ therapist. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 February 2015, from https://www.smh.com.au/nsw/twoyear-ban-for-erotic-therapist-20120121-1qb7g.html#ixzz1kuw7Q4C7
Chae, Y. (2012). Management Issues in Healthcare Information Technology. Healthc Inform Res, 18(2), 85. doi:10.4258/hir.2012.18.2.85
DailyTelegraph,. (2015). Balgowlah hypnotist Joe Levonian banned for ‘sexual healing’. Retrieved 5 February 2015, from https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/balgowlah-hypnotist-joe-levonian-banned-for-sexual-healing/story-fn6b3v4f-1226250340547?nk=6e8f51ba6f230c8233dfa5a55d9aae59
Hccc.nsw.gov.au,. (2015). Public Statement in relation to Mr Joe Levonian – NSW Health Care Complaints Commission. Retrieved 5 February 2015, from https://www.hccc.nsw.gov.au/Publications/Media-Releases/Public-Statement-in-relation-to-Mr-Joe-Levonian-
Jarvis, D. (2014). Legal Developments in End-of-Life Issues. Healthcare Quarterly, 17(2), 52-56. doi:10.12927/hcq.2014.23878
Kenneley, I. (2012). Infection Control in Home Healthcare. Home Healthcare Nurse, 30(4), 235-245. doi:10.1097/nhh.0b013e31824adb52
Lambert, K., Barry, P., & Stokes, G. (2012). Risk management and legal issues with the use of social media in the healthcare setting. Journal Of Healthcare Risk Management, 31(4), 41-47. doi:10.1002/jhrm.20103
Montgomery, G., Perna, R., & Ziontz, M. (2012). Critical issues in health care. [Seattle, Wash.]: Washington State Bar Association.
Paavilainen, E., Lepisto, S., & Flinck, A. (2014). Ethical issues in family violence research in healthcare settings. Nursing Ethics, 21(1), 43-52. doi:10.1177/0969733013486794
Senturias, Y., & Baldonado, M. (2014). Fetal Spectrum Disorders: An Overview of Ethical and Legal Issues for Healthcare Providers. Current Problems In Pediatric And Adolescent Health Care, 44(4), 102-104. doi:10.1016/j.cppeds.2013.12.010
Williams, L. Review of the 2011-2012 Annual report of the Health Care Complaints Commission.
Winsor, P. (2012). Adhering to the medical technology industry’s code of conduct. Healthcare Management Forum, 25(3), S71-S76. doi:10.1016/j.hcmf.2012.07.019
Yahui Hsieh, S. (2012). Using complaints to enhance quality improvement: developing an analytical tool. International J Health Care QA, 25(5), 453-461. doi:10.1108/09526861211235946
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download