Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 18, September 16, 2024
(a)
As used in this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings
unless the context indicates otherwise:
1.
"Client" means any person who is the recipient of a professional social work
service rendered by a social worker. "Client," for purposes of this section,
also means a person who is the recipient of professional social work services
even if those services are unrelated to ongoing social work services.
2. "Client-social worker relationship" means
an association between a social worker and a client wherein the social worker
owes a continuing duty to the client to be available to render professional
social work services consistent with his or her training and
experience.
3. "Harassment" means
deliberate or repeated comments, contacts, or gestures which intimidate or
offend an individual on the basis of that individual's race, religion, color,
national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental
disability or any other preference or personal characteristic, condition or
status.
4. "Sexual contact" means
the knowing touching of a person's body directly or through clothing, where the
circumstances surrounding the touching would be construed by a reasonable
person to be motivated by the social worker's own prurient interest or for
sexual arousal or gratification. "Sexual contact" includes, but is not limited
to, the imposition of a part of the licensee's body upon a part of the client's
body, sexual penetration, or the insertion or imposition of any object or any
part of a licensee or client's body into or near the genital, anal or other
opening of the other person's body.
5. "Sexual harassment" means solicitation of
any sexual act, physical advances, or verbal or non-verbal conduct that is
sexual in nature, and which occurs in connection with a social worker's
activities or role as a provider of social work services, and that is
unwelcome, offensive to a reasonable person, or creates a hostile workplace
environment, and the licensee knows, should know, or is told this or is
sufficiently severe or intense to be abusive to a reasonable person in that
context. "Sexual harassment" may include conduct of a non-sexual nature if it
is based upon the gender of an individual. "Sexual harassment" may consist of a
single extreme or severe act or of multiple acts and may include, but is not
limited to conduct of a licensee with a client, co-worker, employee, student,
or supervisee whether or not such individual is in a subordinate position to
the licensee.
(b) A
social worker shall not accept as a client an individual who was the social
worker's sexual partner.
(c) A
social worker shall not engage in sexual contact with a client with whom the
social worker has a client-social worker relationship, a former client to whom
any social work services were rendered within the immediately preceding 24
months, a current student, a supervisee or supervisor or a research
participant.
1. The 24 month limitation shall
not apply, and the prohibition shall extend indefinitely, in circumstances
where the former client is or should be recognized by the social worker as
clearly vulnerable by reason of emotional or cognitive disorder to exploitive
influence by the social worker.
(d) A social worker shall not condone or
engage in sexual harassment or harassment.
(e) A social worker shall not condone or
engage in any form of discrimination on the basis of an individual's race, age,
religion, color, national origin, marital status, gender, sexual orientation,
gender identity, physical or mental disability, or any other preference or
personal characteristic, condition or status.
(f) A social worker shall not seek or solicit
sexual contact with a client, and shall not seek or solicit sexual contact with
any person in exchange for professional services.
(g) A social worker shall not engage in any
discussion of an intimate sexual nature with a client, unless that discussion
is related to legitimate client needs. Such discussion shall not include
disclosure by the social worker of his or her own intimate sexual
relationships.
(h) A social worker
shall not promote, permit or condone sexual contact between group members in
therapy groups.
(i) A social worker
shall not engage in any other activity which would lead a reasonable person to
believe that the activity serves the social worker's personal prurient
interests, is for the sexual arousal or the sexual gratification of the social
worker or the client, or constitutes the sexual abuse of the social worker or
the client.
(j) It shall not be a
defense to any action under this section that:
1. The client solicited or consented to
sexual contact with the social worker; or
2. The social worker was in love with or had
affection for the client.
(k) Violation of any of the prohibitions or
directives set forth herein shall be deemed to constitute gross or repeated
malpractice pursuant to
45:1-21(c) or (d)
or professional misconduct pursuant to
45:1-21(e).
