Recent Question/Assignment
Program: Professional Year Program
Course:
Assignment: 1 Professional Environments
Topic: Ethics, Professionalism and Governance
Available: Week 3 open
Due: Week 4 close (Saturday midnight AEST)
Read the 3 Case Studies below and select ONE as the basis of your analysis and discussion. Please indicate clearly which Case Study you have chosen
Case Study 2
Maureen works in a large government state department dealing with drug and alcohol abuse. The agency administers programs for individuals with drug and alcohol problems, and maintains a huge database of information on the clients who use these services. Some of the data files contain the names and current addresses of clients.
Maureen has been asked to take a look at the track records of the treatment programs. She is to put together a report that contains the number of clients seen in each program each month for the past five years: length of each client’s treatment, number of clients who return after completion of a program, criminal histories of clients, and so on. In order to put together this report, Maureen has been given access to all files in the agency’s main server. After assembling the data into a file that includes the clients’ names, she downloads the file to her office computer.
Under pressure to get the report finished by the deadline, Maureen decides she will have to work at home over the weekend in order to finish on time. She copies the file to a USB and takes it home. After finishing the report, she leaves the USB at home and forgets about it.
Briefly discuss the dilemma for Maureen. Show your utilisation of either Thomas White or Chris MacDonald's methodology to demonstrate how Maureen might analyse and resolve the dilemma. Provide a recommendation of what actions Maureen should initiate and to whom she needs to communicate throughout the process.
Include in your answer those clauses from the ACS code of Ethics and ACS code of Professional Conduct that are relevant and briefly explain why. Refer also to any relevant legislation with an explanation of how it relates.