The ethical issues described previously may be avoided by the proactive efforts of competent practitioners, discriminating consumers, and Web site authors.

Competent Practitioners

Five strategies are available to minimize ethical problems in the delivery of information, advice, and guidance at a distance by enhancing the competence of practitioners. These strategies include practitioner awareness, attitude, training, supervision, and certification.

• Practitioner awareness – While counselors are often aware of general ethical principles as a result of their initial training, they may be less aware of the sometimes unique ethical problems associated with ICT. Documents such as this are intended to help raise awareness among practitioners about ethical issues associated with the design and use of computer applications.
• Practitioner attitude – Among practitioners there are a variety of attitudes with regard to computer applications, ranging from uninformed rejection to uncritical acceptance. Uninformed rejection potentially denies individuals access to supported use of computer applications that might be helpful. Uncritical acceptance may lead practitioners to recommend assessment and information resources that lack appropriate evidence of validity (Sampson, 1990). The recommendation of Walz (1970, p. 179) that practitioners adopt a “committed but questioning” attitude can help practitioners to better anticipate potential ethical problems.
• Practitioner training - Practitioners need training in several areas to maximize the chances of preventing ethical problems (Sampson, 1990).
• First, practitioners need to be trained in a process for service delivery, such as a three step counseling model (screening, orientation, and follow-up; Sampson, Reardon, Peterson, & Lenz, 2004) for helping individuals to make effective use of assessment and information resources.
• Second, practitioners need to be trained in the assessments and information resources that they are recommending to individuals in order to help them understand how to use the resource to meet individuals’ needs (Sampson, Kolodinsky, & Greeno, 1997).
• Third, practitioners need to be trained in the potential ethical problems that can severely limit the quality of the services they provide to individuals (Sampson, 1999). Better anticipation of potential ethical problems can lead to steps for preventing ethical problems.
• Harris-Bowlsbey (2000) noted that pre-service and in-service practitioner training needs to include both distance counseling and the use of Web sites along with traditional counseling services. Coursol and Lewis (2004) describe a college course to help prepare practitioners to make better use of ICT in the delivery of counseling.
• Practitioner supervision – Regular supervision can help practitioners to better anticipate ethical problems before they harm a counseling relationship or limit effectiveness of service delivery. Regular supervision can also help practitioners and their supervisors to develop strategies to effectively deal with ethical problems that do arise (Sampson, 1999).
• Practitioner credentialing - Credentialing as a Distance Certified Counselor (DCC) ensures the individual being served that the practitioner providing distance counseling services has meet the minimum criteria necessary for competent practice. The minimum criteria includes a Master’s degree in counseling or appropriately related field, successful completion of the DCC training, successful completion of a follow-up self-evaluation of distance counseling competencies, and status as a National Certified Counselor or attainment of state counselor licensure (http://www.cce-global.org/dcc.htm and http://www.readyminds.com/sitemap/overview.html).

Discriminating Consumers

Individuals are consumers of both Web-based resources and services delivered at a distance. One option to help prevent ethical problems is to educate individuals to be better consumers of ICT (Offer & Watts, 1997). Practitioners cannot guarantee the quality of resources that individuals may access via the Internet. As a result, it is important to develop careers education programs that inform individuals of potential problems and assist them in critical thinking about the resources and services that are available (Offer & Sampson, 1999).

Informative Web Sites

Some organizations offering distance counseling, such as ReadyMinds.com and PsychologyOnline.co.uk provide a comprehensive disclosure of information in an attempt to reduce the possibility of ethical problems. ReadyMinds has also established a Counselor Code of Ethics (Malone, Miller, & Miller, 2004) to guide ethical practice of their distance counselors that incorporates the National Board for Certified Counselors Code of Ethics (2002) and the Practice of Internet Counseling (2001). Another type of disclosure that might contribute to quality assurance for Web sites delivering assessments and information would have developers voluntarily describing how their site meets existing quality standards (Watts, 2002).