Ethical Considerations for Military Clinical Psychologists: A Review of Selected Literature

Abstract

Clinical psychology has had a long and distinguished association with the practice of mental health care in the military. Although clinical psychologists are trained both to adopt and implement ethical values and principles, the military environment holds many contextual and tangible differences from other clinical settings. This literature review investigates the ethical considerations arising from the practice of clinical psychology within the military. Several ethical issues were identified and confidentiality and boundary violations emerged as the two main areas of ethical concern. The findings may have implications for the overall practice of mental health care in the military, the contributions that clinical psychologists make to such services, the role of clinical psychology in times of international conflict, the training of clinical psychologists for military service, and avenues for future research on the practices of military mental health professionals. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect those of the Sterling Medical Corporation, the United States Air Force, the Department of Defense, the Royal Air Force, the Ministry of Defence, or Coventry University.