1. BOUNDARIES & TERMINATION in working with clients November 20, 2015
Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
BOUNDARIES & TERMINATION in working with clients November 20, 2015
Ron Gutierrez, LCSW
Anjuli Arora Dow, Attorney

2. Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
Ethical Practices Quiz Please indicate how you would respond (Yes, No, or Maybe) to each of the following situations.
Accept a small gift from a client ($5 value)
Accept a larger gift from a client ($20 value)
Loan or give money to a client
Accept a client invitation to a special occasion
Give a client your personal contact information
Buy food or meals for a client
Talk with a client you see in the community
Raise or donate money to assist clients
Socialize with a client outside of work
Ask participants to complete this ethical quiz on their own for a few minutes and then follow up with a report back asking for volunteers for each question.

3. Ethical Practices Quiz (continued)
Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
Ethical Practices Quiz (continued)
Eating food or meals during a home visit
Give gifts to a client
Allow your child to be friends with a client’s child
Share personal information with a client
Refer a client to a friend for services
Ask participants to complete this ethical quiz on their own for a few minutes and then follow up with a report back asking for volunteers for each question.
Source: Paul Gibson, LCSW

4. Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
Self Reflection
Ethical Practices Quiz

5. Why are boundaries important?
Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
Why are boundaries important?
For Client:
™Role modeling to the client healthy communication and professional relationships
Avoiding the “rescuer” role
Staying focused on one’s responsibilities to the client & the provision of helpful and appropriate services to the client
Source: Maintaining Professional Boundaries in Interpersonal Work, Kelly Wolf, CASA of Santa Cruz County

6. Why are boundaries important?
Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
Why are boundaries important?
For Self:
Avoiding burn-out (“compassion fatigue”) ™
If working in conjunction with other services providers: maintaining a healthy, open, communicating and functioning team ™
Maintaining one’s physical and emotional safety
Source: Maintaining Professional Boundaries in Interpersonal Work, Kelly Wolf, CASA of Santa Cruz County

7. The Zone of Helpfulness
Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
The Zone of Helpfulness

8. The Zone of Helpfulness, continued
Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
The Zone of Helpfulness, continued
A zone of helpfulness is in the center of the professional behavior continuum. This zone is where the majority of client interactions should occur for effectiveness and client safety. Over-involvement with a client is to the right side of the continuum; this includes boundary crossings, boundary violations and professional sexual misconduct. Under-involvement lies on the left side; this includes distancing, disinterest, and neglect and it can also be detrimental to the client and the nurse. There are no definite lines separating the zone of helpfulness from the ends of the continuum; instead it is a gradual transition or melding.
Source: The National Council of State Boards of Nursing

9. Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
Small Group Exercise

10. Scope of Representation
Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
Scope of Representation
ABA Rule Scope Of Representation And Allocation Of Authority Between Client And Lawyer
(b) A lawyer's representation of a client, including representation by appointment, does not constitute an endorsement of the client's political, economic, social or moral views or activities.
ABA Rule 2.1 Advisor
In representing a client, a lawyer shall exercise independent professional judgment and render candid advice. In rendering advice, a lawyer may refer not only to law but to other considerations such as moral, economic, social and political factors, that may be relevant to the client's situation.

11. Terminating Client-Lawyer Relationship/ Rules of Professional Conduct
Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
Terminating Client-Lawyer Relationship/ Rules of Professional Conduct
ABA Rule 1.16 Declining Or Terminating Representation
(d) Upon termination of representation, a lawyer shall take steps to the extent reasonably practicable to protect a client's interests, such as giving reasonable notice to the client, allowing time for employment of other counsel, surrendering papers and property to which the client is entitled and refunding any advance payment of fee or expense that has not been earned or incurred. The lawyer may retain papers relating to the client to the extent permitted by other law.
Rule (C)(5) Termination of Employment
The client knowingly and freely assents to termination of the employment
3-700 (D) Papers, Property, and Fees.
A member whose employment has terminated shall:
Subject to any protective order or non-disclosure agreement, promptly release to the client, at the request of the client, all the client papers and property. "Client papers and property" includes correspondence, pleadings, deposition transcripts, exhibits, physical evidence, expert's reports, and other items reasonably necessary to the client's representation, whether the client has paid for them or not; and
EXPLANATION:
Paragraph (D) is not intended to prohibit a member from making, at the member's own expense, and retaining copies of papers released to the client, nor to prohibit a claim for the recovery of the member's expense in any subsequent legal proceeding

12. Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
Termination
How this fits in with boundaries
When to start discussing termination
The importance of a “healthy goodbye”
Planning ahead
Use of supervision

13. Legal Services for Children
10/24/2014 NASW CA Conference
Self Care Ideas
Limit after hours accessibility by phone/
Seek out therapeutic support for coping with vicarious trauma/compassion fatigue
Take lunch breaks—and talking to coworkers about topics other than work
Say no to extra responsibilities sometimes
Take time for massage, acupuncture, yoga, exercise, meditation, etc.
Take time off!