Quote:
Originally Posted by brillskep
That's interesting about the gifts. I've seen posts from you saying that before, about a certain amount of $. We have no such thing where I live. We're only told not to accept gifts that are too expensive - jewelry, car, house  But the other, smaller stuff, that's left open to interpretation as to how much is too much, I think. It's interesting that you mentioned therapists in the US being held to the same standards as teachers. Teachers here seem to accept gifts quite freely and there are still the corrupt ones who will ask for expensive things in order to let students pass etc. It never happened to me when I was in school, but I've read articles about it and that there were parents who recorded such discussions with the teachers. I think this is also a cultural thing. Interestingly, psychotherapy is very young in my country, but I've never heard of this level of corruption among psychotherapists. I've heard and known cases of therapists who are unethical in other ways, but no receiving very expensive gifts from clients. |
I don't know if it's by state for for all of the US, but where I live there is a legal limit on the amount spent on a gift for teachers because they are government employees and like you say, expensive gifts can be used as bribes (the limit is also on postal service workers and other government paid people). In elementary schools we have "room mothers" and one of the things we do is arrange for holiday and the end of year gifts to be given from the entire class. Individual is an option but not usual. So parents give about $5 -$10 and a gift is bought to give from the entire class. So individually gifts cannot exceed $50, but group gifts can. Class gifts are so commonplace now that it would be odd for a parent to give a teacher their own expensive gift, and their kid would be mortified.
For therapists, I agree it is a little strange to be in the same category as teachers and gov't employees. I can see how a psychiatrist could be bribed, but I don't see the same potential with T's. Still, in the corporate world the money limit for gifts is accepted practice and therapy is a business relationship. I think it's in the code of ethics to keep that boundary in place since it's easy to forget that it is a professional relationship. A gift that is very expensive would take on a different meaning and be awkward to accept for most people.