Professional abuse

Professional abusers:^[1]

• take advantage of their client or patient's trust
• exploit their vulnerability
• do not act in their best interests
• fail to keep professional boundaries

Abuse may be:

• discriminatory
• financial
• physical
• psychological
• sexual

Professional abuse always involves:

• betrayal
• exploitation
• violation of professional boundaries

Professionals can abuse in three ways:

• nonfeasance - ignore and take no indicated action - neglect.
• misfeasance - take inappropriate action or give intentionally incorrect advice.
• malfeasance - hostile, aggressive action taken to injure the client's interests.

Further reading

Books

• Dorpat TL Gaslighting, the Double Whammy, Interrogation and Other Methods of Covert Control in Psychotherapy and Analysis (1996)
• Penfold, PS Sexual Abuse by Health Professionals: A Personal Search for Meaning and Healing (1998)
• Peterson MR At Personal Risk: Boundary Violations in Professional-Client Relationships (1992)
• Richardson S Cunningham M Broken Boundaries - stories of betrayal in relationships of care (2008)
• Sheehan MJ Eliminating professional abuse by managers - Chapter 12 of Bullying: from backyard to boardroom (1996)

Academic papers

• Blunden, Frances; Nash, Jo (1999). "Tackling abuse of patients and clients - the work of POPAN". The Journal of Adult Protection 1: 42. doi:10.1108/14668203199900009. 
• Britton, Ann Hartwell (1988). "Sexual Abuse in the Professional Relationship". Hamline Law Review 11: 247–80. 
• Khele, Suky; Symons, Clare; Wheeler, Sue (2008). "An analysis of complaints to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, 1996–2006". Counselling and Psychotherapy Research 8 (2): 124. doi:10.1080/14733140802051408. 
• Kumar, Shailesh (2000). "Client Empowerment in Psychiatry and the Professional Abuse of Clients: Where Do We Stand?". The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine 30 (1): 61–70. doi:10.2190/AC9N-YTLE-B639-M3P4. PMID 10900561. 
• Namore, AH; Floyd, A (Oct 2005). "Teachers taking professional abuse from principals: Practice that's so bad it must violate a school's core values". Education Digest 71 (2): 44–9. 
• Polier, HJ (1975). "Professional abuse of children: Responsibility for the delivery of services". The American journal of orthopsychiatry 45 (3): 357–62. doi:10.1111/j.1939-0025.1975.tb02546.x. PMID 1146968. 

See also

References