5.1 Historical Perspectives

In Chapter 1, we discussed vital reforms and improvements made when developing ethics around client rights and counselor’s responsibilities. Historically, client’s rights were not as established as individuals diagnosed with mental health issues were put in asylums and forced to comply with strict rules, often showing disrespect towards the clients. Laws around confidentiality also saw a significant shift, considering the discrimination faced at a time when clients were outed for their identity.

A classic example from history was the period of the Holocaust, which saw the murder of millions of innocent Jewish people. The physicians and health care providers in Nazi Germany would breach the confidentiality of a Jewish person to help the Nazi government arrest them, often leading to death. They also engaged in illegal experimentation on marginalized individuals without consent, leading to many from the marginalized community not seeking medical services when needed (Reis et al., 2019).

Many other classic historical examples of exploiting minorities made the healthcare system reflect and reform clients’ rights and healthcare provider responsibilities. The experiences taught us about the abuse of power. They emphasized healthcare providers’ responsibility to develop “professional competencies of conscience, empathy, compassion, reflection, and resilience (emotional and moral) in the individual health professional in conjunction with additional technical competencies” (Reis et al., 2019, p.4).