The Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association has developed a Code of Ethics for all providers that are working with clients in this capacity. PRA states that the “intent of the Code is to ensure that Practitioners act with honor and honesty in their relationships with colleagues, families, significant others, other organizations, agencies, institutions, referral sources, and other professions in order to maximize benefits for individuals receiving services.”

Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (PRA) Code of Ethics Fundamental Principles

Principal A: Ethical Behavior

1. Practitioners uphold and advance the mission, principals, and ethics of the profession.

2. All practitioners strive to practice within the scope of the principals, standards, and guidelines herein.

Principal B: Integrity

1. Practitioners act in accordance with the highest standards of professional integrity and impartiality.

2. Practitioners strive to resist the influences and pressures that interfere with their professional performance.

3. Practitioners are continually cognizant of their own needs, values, and of their potentially influential position, in relationship to person receiving services.

4. Practitioners foster the trust of the persons receiving services and do not exploit them for personal gain or benefit.

5. Practitioners act fairly and honestly in professional relationships and business practices, and do not exploit them for personal gain or benefit.

Principal C: Freedom of Choice

1. Practitioners make every effort to support self-determination on the part of the person using their services, and support the individual’s full participation in his or her recovery process.

2. When practitioners are obligated to take action on behalf of a person receiving services who has been judged legally incapacitated, they safeguard the person’s interests, rights, and their previously expressed choices.

3. When another individual has been legally authorized to act on behalf of the person receiving services, practitioners collaborate with that person, always taking into consideration the previously expressed desires of the person receiving services.

Principal D: Justice

1. The Practitioner’s primary responsibility is to the individuals receiving services.

2. Practitioners must provide individuals receiving, or about to receive, services with accurate and complete information regarding the extent and nature of the services available to them; any relevant limitations of those services; criteria for admission, transition, and discharge.

3. Practitioners provide information about their professional qualifications to deliver services to individuals being provided those services.

4. Practitioners apprise individuals receiving services, in clear and understandable language, of their rights, risks, opportunities, and obligations associated with services to them and avenues of appeal available to them, as well as the right to refuse services and the consequences of such refusal.

Principal E: Respect for Diversity and Culture

1. Practitioners exhibit and promote multicultural competence at all times and in all relationships the practice of psychiatric rehabilitation.

2. Practitioners obtain training regarding multicultural competency on an ongoing basis for relating to the cultures of others. Where difference influence the practitioner’s work, the practitioner shall seek training and/or consultation.

3. Practitioners study, understand, accept, and appreciate their own culture as a basis for relating to the cultures of others. Where differences influence the practitioner’s work, the practitioner shall seek training and/or consultation.

4. When unable to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services to an individual, a practitioner will arrange a referral to alternate or supplementary services.

5. Practitioners demonstrate respect towards the cultural identities and preferences of the individuals they serve, and respect the right of others to hold opinions, beliefs, and values different from their own.

6. Practitioners decline to practice, condone, facilitate, or collaborate with any form of discrimination on the basis of age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, race, color, ethnicity, culture, national origin, language, sex, sexual orientation or preference, religion or spiritual beliefs, marital status, political belief, mental or physical disability, socioeconomic status, or any other preference or personal characteristic, condition, or state.

7. Practitioners recognize that families can be an important factor in rehabilitation and strive, with the consent of the person using services, to enlist family understanding and involvement as a positive resource in promoting recovery.

More information can be found on the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association website.