Lines drawn

What are boundaries?

Roles

Interactions

Professional Boundaries establish appropriate limits to the professional – participant relationship.

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Mental Health AssociationOctober, 2011

Professional Boundaries

Contracted services depend on professionalism.

Why Care About Boundaries?

Increases awareness of participant rights

Complaints often center around professionalism

Professional Boundaries establish appropriate limits to the provider – participant relationship.

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They help protect against the risk of harm.

How do limits help?

Protects participants

Protects providers

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Boundaries help you recognize the difference between professional and personal relationships

Professional boundaries create appropriate distance.

How?

Protects participants from agency concerns.

Protects participants from staff worries.

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Protects staff from taking on participant challenges as their own.

Yours. Not the participant’s.

Whose Job Is it?

You follow agency policy.

You reserve your personal issues for friendships outside the workplace.

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You set the standards by the way you carry yourself and the things you say.

Boundaries

More Benefits

give each person a sense of legitimate control in a relationship.

protect the space between the professional’s power and the participant’s vulnerability.

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promote a productive, positive workplace.

• Laws

• Licensing bodies

• Specialty organizations

• Work place policy

• Individuals

Who Creates Boundaries?

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Personal Limitless Equals Doesn’t require formal

preparation No fee/money Mutual gain Mutually agreed upon levels of

intimacy Mutually agreed upon

confidentiality with no legal bounds.

Professional Have limits and boundaries Power differential Require formal training Money/fees/funding For purpose of participant

gain No physical intimacy Rules of confidentiality

Relationships

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Personal• Unlimited time frame• Anywhere, anytime• No goal oriented• Not documented• No defined roles• No codes of ethics

Professional• Scheduled interaction /

time limit• Place designated / time

limited• Well defined focus / goals• Documented• Legally defined roles,

licenses, codes of ethics

Relationships

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• Maintain proper physical distance

– Don’t touch participants in an inappropriate manner or one that can be misconstrued

• Failure to see the participant as a participant.

• Don’t assume unless they tell you

– Boundaries are unique to each person

– Proceed carefully

– When in doubt ask

Physical Boundaries

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Beware of feeling informal.

Careless whispers-pretend a personal microphone is always on.

Refrain from gossip “let’s not go there.”

Never say something you wouldn’t want heard or repeated.

Walls are thin.

Think before you hit the send button.

Take the mail to the correct address-directly and privately.

Respond in a controlled manner verses reacting.

Employ tact.

Conversational Boundaries

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• An action or behavior that deviates from an established professional boundary in the health care provider-participant relationship.

• May be intentional or unintentional.

Boundary Crossings

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Even when the action or behavior appears appropriate,

it is not acceptable when it benefits your needs rather

than the needs of the participant.

Boundary Violations

Are never appropriate

Actions or behaviors by a professional which use the relationship to meet personal needs of the professional at the expense of the participant.

Harm the participant

Are exploitative

Violate ethical standards

Can result in disciplinary action at work or by professional associations, or result in criminal charges.

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Respect the individual characteristics of the participant such as cultural and social identity, appearance, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, age, talents, and skills.

Cultural Context Matters

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