Grant: Dissemination Events - Priority Announcement: Ethics

The proposed initiative will organize a two day conference to address and explore multiple ethical challenges pertaining to mental health service provision to immigrant children, youth, and their families. In treating and undertaking research with this client population, children's mental professionals face several ethical challenges (i.e., competence, communication, respect, confidentiality, privacy, rapport, consent, assessment, therapeutic misconception, competing interests, etc.). As they have not yet been appropriately addressed in relevant research, the findings available are more descriptive than prescriptive, leaving the professionals with limited resources in demonstrating improved performance in solving the challenges confronted. In addition, their current ethical code regulations, practice standards, and relevant legal foundations, although critical, often disregard the above mentioned unique ethical challenges and dilemmas that significantly interfere with service quality and with meeting the mental health needs of the above client population. Therefore, in helping the above clients meet their full potential, service providers desperately need to gain new knowledge to overcome a background of scarce resources. The proposed conference will facilitate a better understanding of the challenges, and contribute to professional development, practice, and policy. It will bring reputable speakers, practitioners from different backgrounds and sectors, and service users from ethnoracial communities and their leaders. Approximately 250 people are expected to attend. They will learn and discuss their experience related to ethical issues and value clashes that are specific in treating and conducting research with the above clients. The conference outcomes will also serve as a foundation to involve researchers from different disciplines to further address the above issues and develop a decision-making method/tool to deal more effectively with the above challenges.