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Oklahoma Administrative Code (Last Updated: March 11, 2021) |
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TITLE 86. State Board of Behavioral Health Licensure |
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Chapter 16. Licensed Marital and Family Therapists |
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Subchapter 5. Rules of Professional Conduct |
SECTION 86:16-5-5. Responsibility to research participants
Latest version.
- (a) LMFTs shall respect the dignity and protect the welfare of persons who participate in research and are cognizant of federal and state laws and regulations and professional standards governing the conduct of research with human participants.(b) In planning a study, the LMFT has the responsibility to make a careful examination of its ethical acceptability. To the extent that services to research participants may be compromised by participation in research, the LMFT incurs a correspondingly serious obligation to seek the ethical advice of others not directly involved in the investigation and to observe safeguards to protect the rights of research participants. Examples of compromising conditions include, but are not limited to, random assignment to control groups, waiting lists, and inflexible treatment protocols.(c) In requesting involvement in research, LMFTs are obligated to fully inform potential participants of all aspects of the research that might reasonably be expected to influence willingness to participate and to explain all other aspects of the research about which participants inquire. LMFTs are especially sensitive to the possibility of diminished consent when participants are also receiving clinical services or when participants are children or have impairments which limit understanding and/or communication.(d) The LMFT respects the individual's freedom to decline to participate in or to withdraw from the research at any time. This obligation requires special thought and consideration when the LMFT or other members of the research team are in positions of authority or influence over the participant.(e) Information obtained about a research participant during the course of an investigation is confidential unless otherwise agreed upon in advance. When the possibility exists that others, including family member, may obtain access to such information, this possibility, together with the plan for protecting confidentiality, is explained as part of the procedure for obtaining informed consent.