Effective Counselling Services (Essay Sample)

COUNSELLING ADOLESCENTS WITH DRUG ABUSE ISSUES
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Institution:
Counselling adolescents with drug abuse issues
Counselling programmes implemented in schools or agencies meets with one of the most difficult questions of whether to break secrecy to inform parents/ guardian of adolescents with serious drug abuse problems. The decision of break the confidentiality or not lies with the importance that it encourages trust and open communication during counsellingCITATION Sul05 \p 396-401 \l 1033 (Sullivan, 2005, pp. 396-401). According to CITATION Wei05 \p 432 \l 1033 (Weiner, 2005, p. 432), confidentiality continues to change from ‘Doctor knows all’ towards ‘patient knows all’. This implies that trust is the centre point in the counsellor-client relationship. Legal and ethical considerations to break the confidentiality of the adolescent is a dilemma on the counsellors boundaries like not doing something in safeguarding the youth may make them hurt themselves or allow the adolescent to suffer.
Adolescents and minors have a greater reliance on trust and value the confidentiality and loyalty of the counsellor’s agreement to preserve privacy as this is the main reason the adolescent report issues like substance abuse. According to (ACA, 2005) however gives opposing views on both ethical and legal issue. ACA Section B.1 states ‘Counsellors act in the best interest of the client and safeguard their privacy and confidentiality’. Section B. 2 of the ACA allows exceptions of to disclose information in case of grave and foreseeable harm and legal requirements demanding revealing confidential information. As an adolescent seeks advice and counselling for substance abuse, CITATION Gus87 \l 1033 (Gustafson, 1987) suggests that most jurisdictions allow legal consent, consideration and treatment of the minor be without parental consent.
An adolescent may be permitted consent and privacy of treatment under some circumstances. Some of them are the youth of 15 years or older; the minor is living independently and separate from the parents or guardians and is managing own financial affairs regardless of the source.
As a counsellor, incorporating code of ethics in dealing with adolescents seeking help with substance abuse problems will assist in benefiting the client. Moreover, protecting the adolescentâ€&trad...