Ofer Zur Page
Dr. Ofer Zur
Introduction by Dr. John Riolo
I am please to introduce The Dr. Ofer Zur Page to The Insider"s Guide to Law and Ethics In Mental Health.
Dr Zur is a licensed psychologist, consultant writer, forensic consultant and lecturer who has written extensively on ethical issues in mental health practice in addition to subjects such as HIPAA etc. See his website.
I have always found his writings and our discussions informative and thought provoking even when we did not always agree. In fact I probably learned the most from those discussions where we did not seem to initially agree. Interestingly, I find fewer points of disagreement these days. That may be due to my being persuaded by his compelling arguments or vice versa. Or perhaps we both may have inched a bit toward common ground and mutual understanding and respect for each other's views.
In any event it is my pleasure to have Dr. Zur offer links to some of his articles from his website on ours. They offer in many cases a counter balance and different perspective to some of the other articles, my own included.
Out of the Office Contact with clients:
Dr. Zur provides detailed discussions and guidelines regarding ˜Out of Office' contacts with clients. For many practitioners a total prohibition to any contact with clients outside the office is not possible or practical. And it may not even be beneficial in all cases. See
http://www.drzur.com/outofofficeexperiences.html See also http://www.drzur.com/outofoffice.html
Business Relationships:
What about having some kind of Business Relationships with a patient? Suppose as happened to me you hire a contractor to do home repairs and to your surprise one of the subcontractors turns out to be one of your patients. What do you do? What can you do?
For a balanced picture and perhaps an alternate point of view to many of the ethics books. See http://www.drzur.com/dualrelationships.html See similarities or differences between Zur and the discussion between myself and Garry Cooper at http://www.insiderlawethics.com/uncommon_sense.html and http://www.insiderlawethics.com/reach_out.html
Self disclosure:
What can or should we share with clients about ourselves?
Zur presents an alternative approach to self-disclosure See http://www.drzur.com/online/selfdisclosureintherapy.html
Read for a little contrast with both similarities and differences an article on internet self disclosure by Heather Miller, http://www.insiderlawethics.com/self_disclosure.html
You may contact Dr. Zur by sending an email to me at johnr@psychjourney.com or leave a voice message at (214) 615-6044 ex. 8460. Long distance rates may apply.
