Am i overreacting?

I have a staff person who teaches a class for our adult clients. He was teaching for about 2 years and was recently laid off due to funding. I found out that he has been "counseling" one of the clients who is having marital problems. He began visiting her in her home and "offering advice and healing" (apparently he's a healer off the clock- he told me he's healed people from cancer). According to him, yesterday he met with the client and her husband and they communicated very well. Also, it seems that the client trusts him very much and is able to confide in him.

I told him this was entirely inappropriate, that he should have referred the client to her case manager (yes the client has her very own case manager). He told me he didnt see anything wrong with it and if he was ever to be rehired to the same position, he would refer her to another counselor. I asked him why that didnt occur to him in the first place and he said it just didnt. He started gong on about how he cousels therapists and his methods etc. I highly doubt that he has any formal or traditional training.

Although he's a very talented in what he does, I can't trust him anymore. Would you hire him back if more funding becomes available? I just want to know if I'm overreacting, but I don't think I am. BTW he's done other smaller things in the past to make me not want to trust him.

Message edited 1/6/2011 11:30:58 AM.

Re: Am i overreacting?

It DOES seem inappropriate to me.

What kind of setting is this? Are there rules laid out?

If he's good in every other way and seemed to "get it" when you told him he was wrong, I'd probably consider hiring him back. Some people do have blind spots. Unless there;s a specific policy about it.

Re: Am i overreacting?

i dunno it doesn't seem that inappropriate to me bc he's acting as a healer and the client is actually buying into what he's doing and wanting to try him out. if it was interfering with whatever she was doing at your office then i would think it was inappropriate

Message edited 1/6/2011 11:45:02 AM.

Re: Am i overreacting?

Re: Am i overreacting?

I agree that the setting is important. These are adults with full capacity? Is he acting a "life coach" or a therapist? What is the case manager for? As in social worker?

if he's acting as a therapist & isn't one, obviously it's illegal. Is he getting paid?

Either way I agree that professional boundaries are crossed. Did he sign a confidentiality agreement with a non-compete clause? Is he "competing" with the case manager from your office?

That alone is enough to make me pass on him. Teachers should not be soliciting additional business from students. Ex-teachers - while it's a gray area - ethically it's problematic.

Re: Am i overreacting?

It's hard to say without the setting. If these are fully functional adults and it's a teaching setting then I can see that the life coach thing is kind of crossing the line, but it's as bad as if this is a therapy setting, or a mental illness type of setting.

For example, I tutor , and if one of my students also knew that I bake cookies, and wanted to hire me for that, I wouldn't see an ethical problem with it, nor would I see it, if it were one of my employees. However, if it were another teaching gig, obbviously that goes against the non-compete.

I think we're on murky ground either way because this life coach thing is VERY personal, and there's a lot more downside potential.

Re: Am i overreacting?

____________
These are adults with full capacity?
--Yes, but they are seniors, some not entirely in sound mind. this particular senior is of sound mind. her husband, not so much

Is he acting a "life coach" or a therapist?
--His term was healer

What is the case manager for? As in social worker?
--Pretty much, yes

if he's acting as a therapist & isn't one, obviously it's illegal. Is he getting paid?
--not that i'm aware of

Either way I agree that professional boundaries are crossed. Did he sign a confidentiality agreement with a non-compete clause? Is he "competing" with the case manager from your office?
--not really since we dont have such a clause. however, im going to have the teachers sign the confidentiality agreements now. it wasnt an issue in the past. i hate when things like this happen because it makes us have to create more and more rules. kwim?

That alone is enough to make me pass on him. Teachers should not be soliciting additional business from students. Ex-teachers - while it's a gray area - ethically it's problematic.
--ITA thanks!

Re: Am i overreacting?

As a social worker, what you write sounds totally unethical to me.

I have seen situations like this all too often, and it's people like this that give our field such a bad rep.

I used to work in a group home and after we fired a staff person for leaving the clients alone after all supervisors left for the day, I found a stack of business cards this dude had made calling himself a psychotherapist.

I think if he actually had his GED, that was a lot.

This is why I always, always, always say to EVERYONE seeking help to always make sure you are aware of a person's actual background that you are going to see and it's legit.

I have also worked in places where you are supposed to have a certain degree and number of years of specific working experience in order to be employed in the position, and the agency does not follow this rule.

It's SO scary because many of the people affected by people like this are already so vulnerable and wouldn't know any better.

Re: Am i overreacting?

Re: Am i overreacting?

OMG, I am dealing with similar issues at work right now with the "right to choose" philosophy.

I have some providers who totally manipulate this to THEIR advantage and my hands are tied.


I have to bite my tongue a million times around certain providers who work with some of my clients because I can't stand them so much and know exactly what they are up to.

Re: Am i overreacting?

Posted by mzsocialworker1

OMG, I am dealing with similar issues at work right now with the "right to choose" philosophy.

I have some providers who totally manipulate this to THEIR advantage and my hands are tied.


I have to bite my tongue a million times around certain providers who work with some of my clients because I can't stand them so much and know exactly what they are up to.