ABSTRACT
Practitioners need to know that their work requires emotional robustness and a level of physical wellbeing. There is also a need to be proactive in maintaining professional fitness, and reactive to situations that might compromise this. Over the course of a long career it would be remarkable if life did not produce situations that challenged fitness to practise from time to time. Such challenges are not shameful but normal, and the simple guideline in facing them all is to make the first question, ‘What is in the best interests of the client?’ The ethical way forward will follow from that. This chapter will consider first the major ethical codes relating to the subject of fitness to practise. It will then discuss the responsibilities of those involved, particularly the practitioner and their supervisor and workplace, if not in independent practice. Finally, it will consider what form appropriate action could take, and how decisions about it may be made.
