Play Therapy International (PTI) and Play Therapy UK (PTUK) have, in the past five years led the way in setting standards to ensure high quality of care when play therapy, therapeutic play skills and creative arts therapies are used with children to improve emotional literacy and alleviate behaviour and mental health problems.. The three main areas of standards, which have been adopted by PTIrl are:
| An Ethical System | To protect the children, their carers and the practitioners. |
| Profession Structure Model | To provide a coherent structure for developing the profession. |
| Clinical Governance | To manage the quality of therapeutic work and continuing professional development. The Play Therapy Dimensions Model , introduced in 2005 is a recommended therapy decision taking method. |
These standards, which are continually reviewed, are based upon the needs of clients – the children, those who are responsible for them – parents and carers, referrers – teachers, nurses, social workers, doctors etc and those that commission therapeutic services. The standards are produced through a collaborative process involving consultation with members of the profession in Ireland, the UK and internationally. All standards are kept under constant review by PTI’s Executive and Advisory Boards.
All clients are entitled to good standards of practice and care from their practitioners in play, creative arts, filial therapies, child psychotherapy and counselling. Good standards of practice and care require professional competence (see the Profession Structure Model); good relationships with clients and colleagues; clinical supervision; commitment to and observance of professional ethics and the use of clinical governance procedures.
All PTIrl Practitioner Members are required to work within the PTIrl’s Ethical Framework. This is more than following a ‘rule book’ code of ethics approach. It includes an ethical framework which places responsibility upon the practitioner to make ethical decisions.
