Client Abandonment Analysis

The best way to explain client abandonment is through a fictional story. Our story begins with a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) named Lucy. Lucy graduated from graduate school about two years ago, and is still learning how to be the best SLP she can be. Lucy’s husband, Jake, is a solider in the United States Army. Because of his occupation, Jake and Lucy have to relocate to different cities across the country from time to time. For this reason it makes it hard for Lucy to stay at one job for too long. Lately, life at home has been a little stressful since their seven-year-old son, Ryan, has been having a tough time changing schools so often.

Jake and Lucy thought it would be a good idea to get Ryan involved in some after school activities

This causes some problems with Lucy’s clients because they will call her supervisor to complain about how they feel that they were left in the dark about her relocating and unimportant.

Now after reading Lucy’s story, one can make some critical judgments on what Lucy did wrong in this scenario. The first red flag is when Lucy violated the Code of Ethics Principle I. Principle I rule E states that individuals, “…who hold the Certificate of Clinical Competence may delegate tasks related to the provision of clinical services to aides, assistants, technicians, support personnel, or any other persons only if those persons are adequately prepared and are appropriately supervised. The responsibility for the welfare of those being served remains with the certified individual”.

It is true that Lucy is able to delegate tasks to people who don’t have their Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC), but because she delegated these tasks as she was leaving to go to her new job. Lucy violated this rule because she didn’t supervise the SLP-As or receptionists while they made arrangements for clients with another SLPs. She didn’t make sure that they had the necessary skills and information to make those

Rule F states that individuals, “… who hold the Certificate of Clinical Competence shall not delegate tasks that require the unique skills, knowledge, judgment, or credentials that are within the scope of their profession to aides, assistants, technicians, support personnel, or any nonprofessionals over whom they have supervisory responsibility”. This rule is stating that Lucy should not delegate tasks, such as referrals, to her SLP-A and receptionist because they wouldn’t have the skills, or their CCC, to make sure that the clients were referred to the right SLP who would attend to their specific needs. It would have been better if Lucy took the time to do the referrals herself because she would have the appropriate amount of knowledge and certification to know what SLP would be best for each of her