Secrets and Ties - Private Thoughts of Helping Professionals in Small Communities

Author(s): Marta Fisch

Psychology & Counselling

Secrets and Ties guides helping professionals to support their communities without sacrificing their own lives. I interviewed eleven helping professionals working and living in small communities and from a variety of professions: medical, nursing, social work, clergy and mental health. The interviews demonstrate that there is a shared ethical complexity which is tempered by the professional's length of work experience and personality. For instance, some are quite happy to engage with clients/patients in the supermarket, while others will look for the nearest aisle to disappear down. Some have chosen to be participate in community life and others have isolated themselves.In these pages you will read truthful accounts of helping professionals who aim to understand the ethics of working in a small community. Because they are all anonymous, each one has risked being honest and often vulnerable about their experiences. Each speaks about their struggles with secrets and ties. Hopefully readers will find their own ethical struggles are normal and shared by others. I hope you will come away from this book with a greater empathy for yourself, your colleagues and those you serve. I hope you will find answers to some of your thornier ethical questions.Secrets and Ties: Empowering Helping Professionals in Small Communities addresses the whole person of the helper in a small community, namely her or his needs for autonomy and belonging. Secrets and Ties concerns the ethical dilemmas of helping professionals who live in a small community, such as:- Multiple roles- Confidentiality - Conflict of interest- Public Scrutiny/Visibility- Authenticity -----PRAISE FOR SECRETS & TIES:"I think this book would find resonance with anyone in a helping profession but for me it would be particularly useful for peer discussions and supervision with counsellors; opening conversations about how we navigate the personal and professional aspects of our lives."-- Glen Silvester is a member of NZAC and the Regional Ethics Team."This important book should be required reading for all those who intend to set up professional practice in rural and provincial areas, not necessarily to provide answers but to allow them to explore the questions which will make such practice a more rewarding experience for them. It will also provide an important agenda for discussion for those already practising in those communities, encouraging them to come together for mutual support and co-supervision."-- Campbell Murdoch MD PhD FRCGP FRNZCGP(Dist)Emeritus Professor of Rural and Remote Medicine. The University of Western Australia, Adjunct Professor, University of Notre Dame, Australia, Hon Fellow, Department of General Practice and Rural Health. Dunedin School of Medicine


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9780473425821
  • : Marta Fisch
  • : January 2017
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Marta Fisch
  • : Paperback
  • : 174
  • : 141