Professional impairment and incompetence have three main differences. They differ in the cause of the professionals' inability to discharge their mandate, their physical and mental state, and their qualification. Professional impairment is the deterioration of a professional ability to discharge their services due to a compromised physical or psychological state. Incompetence, on the other hand, is the inability to handle professional work due to the lack of the required skills and knowledge. The first difference between professional impairment and incompetence is the possession of knowledge and skills. Whereas professional impaired individuals have the skills and knowledge, they are unable to perform their professional mandate successfully. However, incompetent professionals lack the skills and knowledge to do the task ( Corey et al., 2019 p303). Another difference is that the professional impaired must be in a compromised mental or physical state. Some of the common compromises include drug abuse, injury, fatigue, and illness. However, the incompetent professional cannot perform the task even when they are in their rightful physical and mental state (Gizara & Forrest, 2004) . Finally, for a professional to be impaired they must attain professional training and possess the skills and knowledge. However, incompetent personnel lacks the skills and knowledge as a result of a complete lack of training in a given field or possession of obsolete knowledge and skills.
Both the professional impaired and incompetent professionals are unable to discharge their professional mandate. The professional incompetent can harm the customer as a result of the compromised professional state. The incompetent, on the other hand, can also harm the customer through misdiagnosis, wrong record keeping, and wrong prescription (Gizara & Forrest, 2004) . As such, the patient expecting the services of a psychological counselor at the hands of both professionals is likely to have unresolved problems and suffer harm. Though, full recovery is the main goal of psychological illnesses (Corey et al., 2019).
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In conclusion, Professional impairment and incompetence have three main differences. They differ in the cause of their inability to discharge a professional mandate, their physical and mental state, and their professional qualification. They are however similar because they are likely to harm the customer. As such both the professional impairment and incompetence are not fit to discharge their professional behavioral health services before a correction of their compromise.
References
Corey, G., Corey, M., & Corey, C. (2019). Issues & ethics in the helping professions (10th ed., pp. 301-331). Cengage Learning.
Gizara, S., & Forrest, L. (2004). Supervisors' Experiences of Trainee Impairment and Incompetence at APA-Accredited Internship Sites. Professional Psychology: Research And Practice , 35 (2), 131-140. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.35.2.131
