Ethics refer to a standard that guides a professional’s behavior and practice in the performance of their duties or delivery of services. The standard is expected by all members of an organization or profession that is entrusted to serve. In addition, ethical standards are a minimum threshold that associations envision members must meet to ensure both credibility and safety to the public. It is equally important to understand what ethics is not. Although ethics informs laws and legal systems, ethics differ from laws, even though both are created by a society and are codified. This chapter addresses basic ethical principles that most professional fields espouse while integrating and connecting ethics, the active fiber connecting these disciplines, and acknowledging the intersectionality of both ethical behavior and several human services professional disciplines.

Addressing diversity issues in rehabilitation service provision is an ethical imperative. What needs to be considered are the ways in which diversity can be achieved without stigmatizing the same clients who are supposed to benefit from services. This chapter enhances conceptual clarity in the use of terms descriptive of minority status in clients seeking rehabilitation services. It characterizes multicultural counseling as an essential approach to address diversity issues that impact the quality of rehabilitation services. The chapter then proposes the ways in which rehabilitation professionals may enhance cultural sensitivity in their education and practice, and addresses ethical issues in rehabilitation counseling practice for which the use of multicultural counseling approaches would be a solution. Client outcomes in rehabilitation are a product of an interaction between rehabilitation service capacity and client participation, and counseling outcomes improve as client participation increases.

This chapter serves as the foundation for exploration of the definition, history, framework, nature, and significance of interdisciplinary practice in counseling and human services to improve outcomes for clients. It discusses the concept of “interdisciplinary” and “disciplinary foundations” to construct interdisciplinary linkages. The chapter explores common core characteristics of human services practice across the disciplines of counseling, rehabilitation counseling, social work, psychology, and allied health. It presents the information (a) roles and functions, (b) values and ideas, (c) cultural competence, and (d) knowledge, skills, and competence in the shared areas of human growth and development, clinical assessment and evaluation, goals development and implementation, application of interventions and evidence-based practices, and ethics. It also identifies the strategies for establishing interdisciplinary collaboration across various human services, health, and behavioral disciplines. Finally, the chapter examines the challenges and benefits of interdisciplinary practice within human services practice.