Abbey's Dilemma At Inez

The case depicts Inez, an African American women, and Juan, a Mexican American dealing with their daughter's behavior. Although the case depicts the dilemma as to whether, Abbey, the counselor acted in the appropriate manner as a mandated reporter, she could have looked into environmental risk factors. Inez is a mother that is struggling with ongoing racism as a nurse at work, while Juan the father has had recent changes at work. Abbey as a mandated reporter actions to reporting the abuse in the case files was valid, however, the social worker and police are in charge of finding evidence for any physical abuse. The counselor will need to determine issues of confidentiality, cultural competence/biases, and duty to warn. The counselor will need

The counselor instills her beliefs that the child should go live with the grandparents due to anxiety issues that the mother is experiencing and the lack of control the father had in the situation. However, the counselor felt she had a duty to report to a third party, but the client is still responsible for their own actions. Furthermore, the client still has the right to make their own choices without the counselor imposing their views on the client. However, non-maleficence was not fully addressed by the counselor. Abbey may have unintentionally caused harm to the client due to imposing her beliefs. Furthermore, Abbey may have unintentionally caused harm to the client through the incompetence of working with a diverse population. Taillieu, Afifi, Mota, Keyes, and Saree (2014) indicate that both physical abuse and punishment are decreasing and are experienced equally across racial groups. Although the counselor instilled her beliefs, she probably felt it was her duty to report what Sonya stated to the school counselor about how her mother slapped her. However, without knowing how many times the child has been slapped and to whether there were markings it may be creating more harm to the family. According to Jent et al. (2011), CPT professions depict that physical abuse is perceived when any inflicted injury result in marks. The counselor may

The case demonstrates the need for the counselor to have cultural diversity competence and the need to challenge cultural bias competence. Flaherty (2008) indicate that minority children are more likely to be reported and evaluated for suspected child abuse than were white children. Although the counseling research may indicate that African American and Latino parents abuse their children more than other parents, it does not mean all African American and Latino parents abuse their children. Basically, what is considered abuse/neglect in one culture may not be the same for another culture. Yet, the counselor felt she had the best interest of the child, it is not up to her to state that the child will be taken away. In this case, the counselor had to collaborate more with the social worker to make that decision for the family. Furthermore, the counselor may have felt it was her duty to warn and protect. Lachman and Bernard (2006) illustrate that practitioners need supervision and training to determine factors such as class, gender, culture, and race that present a challenge in responding to child abuse. Also, the counselor did not have to provide proof of abuse only if she has reasonable cause to suspect that the child has been abused. Although the counselor was