Professional Boundaries in Disability Care

This paper attempts to determine what has been done to raise awareness of professional boundaries in disability care, and the success and failure of these efforts. In order to do this, it employs a broad review of the current base of literature. It finds that although some efforts have been made by professional organisations to raise awareness in this area, they deal predominantly with guidance about the more obvious aspects of boundary overstepping and do not focus enough on subtle ways in which boundaries can be overstepped. Some of the current frameworks that seek to raise awareness are also not implemented across a large geographical area. The academic literature about this topic is occasionally contradictory, and there is evidence that it is not widely available. Some research about professional boundaries is also out of date, raising awareness about outdated theories regarding the overstepping of these boundaries. This is particularly relevant given the fast rate at which the field of disability care is currently changing. It is clear that more could be done to spread accurate, up-to-date information about professional boundaries. Keywords: disability care, professional boundaries, professional ethics, professional versus personal relationships, boundary overstepping