The Principles of Professional Ethics of the Finnish Association of Speech Therapists

General

The purpose of these principles of professional ethics is to assist a speech therapist in situations requiring ethical solutions. The directives follow the principles of professional ethics of CPLOL (Comité Permanent de Liaison Orthophonistes – Logopedes – Speech and Language Therapists de l’Union Européenne), but they have been revised especially to suit the Finnish circumstances.

The speech therapist may in his/her work have a deep influence on other people. Therefore, special attention has to be paid to the following of the principles of professional ethics. However, it is not possible to include all questions about professional ethics concerning professional relations and duties that the speech therapist may confront in his/her work in the written directions. The ethical awareness, sense of responsibility, and professional competence of each and every speech therapist is important.

Professional areas of a speech therapist may comprise clinical work, teaching, research, consultation, administrative work, planning and information activities. The individual persons, groups and communities with which a speech therapist’s work is connected, are here referred to as clients.

A speech therapist follows the rules and regulations regulating the work of a health care professional and patient’s rights, and keeps up with alterations made to the rules. He/she respects society’s general social and moral norms and is aware that a deviation from these can affect the confidence in an individual speech therapist and the profession as a whole.

Should a member of the Finnish Association of Speech Therapists wish to have an ethical discussion about or get an opinion on his/her own professional activities, activities of his/her colleague, or other speech therapists’ professional matters, he/she may bring the matter forward to be handled by the board of professional ethics of the Finnish Association of Speech Therapists in strict confidence.

Personal professional responsibility

A speech therapist possesses appropriate qualifications as recognised by the profession, and he/she is a certified specialist in the health care line. He/she maintains and improves his/her professional knowledge, and keeps up with the development in the line throughout the professional career to be able to offer the clients the best possible treatment. The speech therapist has an adequate level of competence in the spoken and written form of the language in which he/she is practising.

The speech therapist strives to know his/her professional and personal strong and weak points so as to be able to realistically assess the cases he/she can or cannot accept. The speech therapist sees to maintaining the professional competence, and tries to recognise the possible impairment of his/her professional skills. When applying for duties of a speech therapist or when giving information about the professional activities, he/she gives a true picture about the competence and skills.

In rehabilitation, the speech therapist co-operates with other specialists and respects their skills. Should the case so require, the speech therapist consults another speech therapist or other experts, or acquires the necessary guidance or further education. If the speech therapist’s own skills or experience are not adequate for the case at hand, he/she strives to make certain that the client gets the necessary treatment, and refers the client to another professional.

In his/her work, the speech therapist uses the tried methods which he/she has a good command of, and which are in accordance with the client’s needs. He/she continuously evaluates the effectiveness and effects of the chosen method in treating the client. In his/her own work, the speech therapist sees to it that only a person with appropriate education uses the speech therapeutical research and therapeutical methods. If the speech therapist him-/herself is involved in the development of practices related with the activities or the production of material, he/she both presents and uses them in his/her work both in a professional and objective manner.

In his/her activities, the speech therapist is not influenced by ungrounded professional advancement or financial interests. He/she treats the patient in accordance with the patient’s need of help, and defines his/her fees on the basis of work carried out. Nor are personal or financial interests of the speech therapist the motive for referring clients to other service providers.

Responsibility towards clients

The speech therapist respects the right of self determination of the client and is aware of how the patient’s rights are defined in the legislation. In his/her work, the speech therapist sees to it that he/she gets all the information necessary for the client’s treatment but, at the same time, is very precise about not wrongly interpreting an expression of a client with communication disorder. In accordance with the professional responsibility, the speech therapist tries to see to it that others do not interpret the client’s expression in a wrong way.

The client’s race, gender, social standing, religion, political opinion, or other similar matters do not affect the way a speech therapist treats his/her clients.

With the exceptions provided in law, the speech therapist is obligated to remain silent of the matters he/she learns when practising as speech therapist. The obligation to observe secrecy also concerns the existence of the client relationship and continues after the termination of the relationship.

The speech therapist knows the document regulations concerning health care specialists, makes the appropriate notes about the progress of rehabilitation and draws up the necessary statements and other documents. He/she sees to it that documents and notes are kept in due form and that, after the client relationship has terminated, these documents and notes are filed in accordance with regulations, or destroyed.

Rehabilitation is based on an agreement drawn up with the client, clearly defining the objectives, contents and planned duration of the therapeutical relationship, and costs to be induced for the client. The speech therapist evaluates the progress of rehabilitation during the treatment and terminates the therapeutical relationship when it no longer is of benefit for the client. In the case of concurrent therapy, the speech therapist tries to be in contact with the other therapists, unless the client wishes otherwise.

The speech therapist sees to it that the client gets enough information presented in clear form about the methods of treatment, rehabilitation, and actions used, and about the scientific or empirical results. The speech therapist recognises his/her professional role, and does not confuse it with his/her other roles. If he/she has had education in some closely related profession or special skills, he/she always makes it clear to the client, in which professional role he/she works. The information given to the client is not comparable with advertising.

Collegiality

The speech therapist respects the skills and methods of operation of his/her colleagues. However, he/she does not protect the colleague from consequences caused by poor skills, erroneous actions, or malpractice.

Discussions about the professional skills of a speech therapist and his/her colleague are relevant and based on facts.

Should the speech therapist find the professional capacity of his/her colleague to have deteriorated, he/she will tackle the question first by having a discussion with the person in question. Should this lead to no results, and the benefit of clients is at stake because of the colleague’s inability to work, the speech therapist will inform the colleague’s superiors or the authority supervising the actions of health care specialists.

Should a client transfer to another speech therapist, or, if speech therapists have a common client, it is recommended they consult each other, unless this is not wished for by the client. Should speech therapists have different professional views about a common client, these will be discussed in the spirit of collegiality, and they will be solved, as far as possible, so that no inconvenience is caused for the client.

The speech therapist aims at keeping up collegial conversation, with the object of distributing and increasing reciprocal information and solving problems arising at work.

Teaching, scientific work and research

The speech therapist supports students of the field in reaching their professional competence and in developing their professional identity. He/she sees to it that students receive the adequate amount of information and support, and do not advance in their studies with inadequate knowledge and skills.

As a teacher, the speech therapist should acknowledge his/her duties both towards the client and the student. The teacher assumes full responsibility for client matters of the student.

A permission is always requested from a client for his/her involvement in teaching, irrespective of whether the teaching is conducted in direct customer situation or by using tapes recorded of it. It should be made clear both to the client and the student, if some operations are done principally for reasons of teaching.

The speech therapist follows the general ethical principles of research and sees to it that the research does not cause damage to the person participating in it. A written consent by the client or his/her relative should always be obtained for the research, and the person involved in the research has the right to withdraw from it at any time. Should documents be used in the research, prior consent should be requested both from the authority in charge of the files, and the client.

Public announcing

The speech therapist strives to increase general knowledge about communication and related disorders. He/she sees to it that all information is real and relevant, and that no inconvenience is caused for the profession or the clientele.