One of the major reasons for the existence of PCAs is to ensure professionalism is enhanced and maintained. Hence, the researcher wished to know the opinion of members on the impact the PCAs had on the enhancement of professional counseling practice. The results are as shown in Table 4.21.
Table 4.21: PCAs Impact on Respondent’s Professional Practice
__________________________________________________________________________
Impact on Respondent’s Practice Frequency Percent
___________________________________________________________________________ Very high 14 17.3 High 41 50.6 Average 22 27.2 Low 1 1.2 Very low 3 3.7 ___________________________________________________________________________ Total 81 100.0
Majority of the respondents (67.9%) rated the impact the PCA had in enhancement of their professional counselling practice as high while 27.2% of them felt it was average. Another
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4.9% of them felt it was low. This was unexpected finding. With poor attendance of associations’ functions and poor masterly of what constitutes professional malpractice, the researcher would have expected a record of low impact.
General views of the respondents on their PCAs were sought using a 5-item Likert scale. The respondents were expected to respond from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Their different responses were as the Table 4.22 indicates:
Table 4.22: Analysis of Respondents’ Varied Views on their PCAs Strongly
Agree
Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly Disagree
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
My PCA is a major contributor towards exercising professionalism in my practice 30 37.0 39 48.1 5 6.2 5 6.2 2 2.5 I would take professionalism in my practice more seriously if I am likely to be censored by PCA 28 34.6 35 43.2 10 12.3 6 7.4 2 2.5 I am completely aware of what consists of professional malpractice 33 40.7 28 34.5 5 6.2 8 9.8 7 8.6
My PCA has greatly influenced counselling practice professionalism in Kenya
22 27.2 36 44.4 15 18.5 6 7.4 2 2.5
My PCA has adequate structure to
professionalize counselling in Kenya
26 32.1 33 40.7 16 19.8 6 7.4 0 0
N= 81
From table above, the highest rated factor was that, professional association was a major contributor towards “exercising professionalism” in respondents’ practice. This could be attributed to the various services and avenues created by PCAs for their members. It had
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48.1% agreeing and 37.1% strongly agreeing. This may indicate that the respondents felt more competent and made a deliberate effort to adhere to the code of ethics under their PCAs. PCAs are essential in helping their members achieve this. This boosts in the advancement of professionalism. The second rated factor was that the PCA contributed to the respondents being serious in their practice. This could mean that the respondents are careful to comply with the regulations stipulated by their PCAs for accountability reasons. The third rated factor was that respondents were made completely aware of what consisted of professional malpractice by their PCAs. The fourth rated factor was that PCAs had greatly influenced counselling practice professionalism in Kenya. While PCA was adequately structured to professionalize counselling in Kenya was the fifth.
Respondents’ responses on their opinion in their PCAs influence on the professionalism had varied views. The results indicate that 71.6% of the respondents agreed that their PCAs influenced professionalism of counselling practice in Kenya. This agrees with the earlier view about the impact of PCAs on individual practice that posted 67.9% of the respondents rating the associations’ impact “as high” (Table 4:21). With PCAs in Kenya lacking regulation as indicated by Mailu (2004) and a legal framework as elaborated by Koinange (2004) the expectation would be that the impact of such PCAs to practicing members would be low. The earlier findings have shown that there was lack of supervision and legally binding ways of enforcing professionalism. With such a situation, it would have been expected that the PCAs had little impact. It can however be noted that there seems to be rivalry and competition among PCAs in Kenya. This could for example be seen by the response of the one of the in depth interview respondents indicating that:
KCA is the only association recognized by the government. Hence all the counselors serving in the public service are required to be members of KCA.
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All the associations that were sampled namely KCA, KPsyA, KGCPA and KUPCA are duly registered by the registrar of societies which is a section of the national government. The registrar of societies’ office is housed under the Attorney General’s office. It then means all of them are recognized by the government and therefore the need for partnerships in focusing to accomplish their mandate and roles to their members. Such a comment could only serve to aggravate the earlier cited competition between various PCAs in Kenya. Such a situations points at misplaced energies used in outdoing one another instead of focusing on influencing professional counseling practice in Kenya positively.
As to whether there are enough structures within the associations to enhance counseling professionalism in Kenya, the respondents (72.8%) agreed that their PCAs had adequate structures. Another 19.8% indicated that they were not sure whether indeed such structures existed. This could be seen as an affirmation that the PCAs had adequate potential to enhance professionalism in Kenya. The structures include the existence of stipulated offices within each of the PCAs. All participating PCAs had constitutions and also the currently required compliance in Kenya by registering with the registrar of societies. The scheduled meetings and are also clearly stipulated by the PCAs. The major inadequacy was seen as lack of mechanism to ensure compliance.
Further, the findings show that the PCAs were rated by their members as major contributors towards the exercising professionalism in members’ practice. The respondents didn’t have the option of indicating why they felt so. However it could be expected that the well appraised services that members received from their PCAs (Table 4:11) improved their professionalism. It had 85.1% respondents agreeing that PCAs are major contributors towards members exercising of professionalism in their practice. Shetsky (2011) acknowledged that
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professionals in mental health counseling organizations receive an array of services that help members enhance their professionalism in practice. Harvey and Mason (1995) also in agreement note that members of the counseling profession achieve conformity to the norm and abide by the established procedures and the agreed code of conduct. This is the main reason why PCAs are formed. This is what enables the associations to protect the public by maintaining and enforcing standards of training and ethics in their counseling profession. This positive impact on members practice was further strengthened by the response of members to the tune of 77.8% agreeing with the fact that existence of censorship within the PCAs enabled them to take their professional practice more seriously. It is therefore reinforcing the role PCAs in safe guarding public interest as elaborated by Harvey and Mason (1995).