Confidentiality for a Police Psychologist Essay

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Question Three

The most important thing that a police psychologist should do when evaluating an officer for a position on the SWAT team is to inform that individual that the information that the officer reveals to the psychologist (and any conclusions that the psychologist comes to) will be shared with the officer's superiors for the purpose of determining if the officer can join the SWAT team. The psychologist is bound to reveal only the information that is directly relevant to the specific evaluation. Any other information must be kept confidential.

In a related vein, the psychologist should keep the assessment as focused as possible to the question at hand and not use the session to "go fishing." Issues that are directly relevant to such an assessment would be how stable the person is emotionally and psychologically, how prone the person is to explosive again, how well the person can work in a team (which includes how reliable and trustworthy the individual is). Also key to the assessment would be how well the person deals with stress.

Someone who would be a good member of the SWAT team would be someone who has very good communication skills. This is important both in terms of how well that individual can communicate with other members of his or her team and in terms of how well that individual can communicate with suspects. (This latter is important because SWAT members might have to serve as hostage negotiators before a formal negotiator could be summoned.)

Finally, the assessor would want to determine how well the individual could balance the ability to be a leader with the ability to take orders.

Question Four

An Latina officer who tells her psychologist that she is a lesbian brings up a number of clinical issues for the psychologist.

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Such an officer occupies at least a dual minority position in that she is a woman as well as gay. Depending on where this officer is working, she will probably also be a racial minority. (For example, in some departments in the Southwest she would be not be a racial minority.)

As a minority in a profession that often values conformity and traditional gender roles, this officer is likely to face a far-less-than-supportive working environment than if she were a straight man. (The fact that she is young is likely to exacerbate her position in an organization that values seniority. In addition to the formal authority granted to senior officers, there is the issue that a younger person generally has less confidence in herself -- or himself -- and so would be at greater psychological risk.) Thus many of the treatment issues that a psychologist would want to work with this officer would be ways in which to support her sense of self and to help her create a strong core of identity that would not be damaged by an unsupportive (or even hostile) work environment. (A psychologist is not permitted to give legal advice on sexual harassment but would be quite correct in referring the officer -- at her discretion -- to discuss her legal rights with the human resources department or a lawyer.)

Beyond addressing how her gender would affect her relationships with other officers, a psychologist would also want to help the officer come to a fuller understanding of her sense as a lesbian in a larger community (both Latina and general American) that will also often find her identity to be problematic. Helping this client understand the value of her authentic identity will be the psychologist's primary concern......

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