Transcript Legal and Ethical Issues Counseling Children  Counselors who work with children and adolescents under the age of 18 may experience conflicts between what they consider.

Legal and Ethical
Issues
Counseling Children
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Counselors who work with children and
adolescents under the age of 18 may
experience conflicts between what they
consider to be their ethical or moral
obligations and what the law dictates that
they must do.
Child and Adolescent Clients
These conflicts often concern
confidentiality of client disclosures made
during counseling sessions.
 The legal perspective is that counselors
are obligated to parents or guardians
when counseling minor children.
 Every child, regardless of age, has an
ethical right to privacy and confidentiality
in the counseling relationship.
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Child and Adolescent Clients
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Ethically conscientious counselors work hard
to respect the rights of minor clients to
control access to information divulged during
counseling, to the extent that this is possible.
It is important to remember that
confidentiality is not absolute for clients of
any age.
One legal consideration that limits the
confidentiality and freedom of choice are
both predicated on the ability of the client to
give voluntary, informed choice.
Cont.
Clients who cannot comprehend what is
being requested in a consent for
disclosure or who are unable to make a
rational decision are not able to give valid
informed consent.
 The law stipulates that clients under the
age of 18 are not adults and, therefore,
are not competent to make fully informed,
voluntary decisions.
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Cont.
Although counselors may argue that many
minor clients are developmentally capable
of making these decisions for themselves,
it does not support this belief.
 The privacy rights of minor clients legally
belong to their parents or guardians.
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Cont.
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The law, with respect to minors, stems from
a time when children were seen as property
of their parents and the government seldom
interfered with the control and authority of
parents over their children.
Today, even though minors have more
governmental protection and are beginning
to be recognized by courts are individuals
with their own legal rights, the law still favors
biological parent’s rights over their children.
Legal status of minors
Younger children do not have an understanding of
confidentiality or a need for privacy, which is a
socially learned concept.
 Young children are often not nearly as concerned
about confidentiality as the counselor is.
 Preadolescents and adolescents may have a
heightened desire for privacy that is related to the
confusion regarding self and others that is
appropriate to their developmental stage of growth.
 Some children may not be concerned about their
privacy. It is appropriate to assume that children do
not want their parents or guardians to know
information they have told counselors.

Children and privacy
Children sometimes tell an adult about
their concerns, hoping that the adult will
act as an intermediary in telling their
parents.
 The reasoning capacity of children is
limited and they may not be able to make
decisions that are in their best interest
because of their age.
 See p. 225
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Cont.
Review Codes on Rights of parents to
privacy information.
 See p. 229
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Codes
Consult with other counselors when
difficult decisions must be made.
 If a counselor always tells parents every
time a child engages in any risky
behavior, children will not be willing to
disclose important information to that
counselor.
 If counselors determine that a child is at
risk of harm, they must inform the child’s
parents.
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Consult
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Case of Mary (read)
Questions to ask in response to scenario:
Is there a school system policy?
How serious is the danger involved in the
weekend use of marijuana?
Is it better to honor the client’s wishes in
hopes that a trusting counseling
relationship be established with the client?
Is informing the parent a wiser choice?
Example
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If the counselor decides that the parents
must be informed, it is recommended that
he let the client know that he cannot keep
this particular secret and try to negotiate
a procedure for informing the parents that
will be acceptable to the client.
Parents
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Confidentiality in institutions
Parental permission
Informed consent
Suspected child abuse
Internal reports when reporting child abuse?
Professionals should give their names when
reporting
Do not discuss the case with unknown
persons on the telephone
Other
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Example of Jeffrey
The counselor might be tempted to invite
boy into his home where the boy would be
safe until morning
????
This crossing of the professional boundary
could have serious consequences
???
Dual or multiple relationships