Ethical Dilemmas

Practice Area and Ethical Dilemma

I chose youth addictions and mental health as my practice area because it’s an area that in my mind has got quite a few grey areas in regards to the rights of minors which has always really interested me. For example, the privacy and consent rights of minors legally belong to their parents or guardians (Hansen, 2009). Therefore, as a counsellor working with minors, you have to consider the fact that both the minor and the parents or guardians have rights in this situation. Without taking into consideration the parent or guardian rights to know the content of the counselling session, the minor could be easily pulled from counselling. Rendering them unable to get help due to the CAP Standards of Practice (2013)

On one side of the debate, Ted Remley (1993) stated that “parents or guardians probably have the legal right to know the content of counseling sessions with minors.” Which, as mentioned earlier, is true. The law dictates that a client has the right to his or her file information and as the rights of minors are limited, this gives parents or guardians the right to the minor’s file information. An argument can also be made that in the eyes of the law, the parents or guardians of a minor must consent to their child’s treatment. Consequently, they should generally have the right to any confidential information talked about during the counselling sessions (Behnke & Warner, 2002 ). However, this brings up an issue involving the counsellor’s ability to gain the minor’s trust. If the counsellor were to share any and all information discussed during the counselling session with the minor’s parents, the minor would likely be less inclined to disclose his or her deep emotions and problems. This assumption can be backed up by a study done by Nerida Collins and Ann Knowles (1995) who surveyed high school students between the ages of 13 to 18 to see what their opinions were on the importance of confidentiality. 53% of the students reported that confidentiality was an essential part of building a trusting relationship with a

In the case of Ted Remley (1993), by allowing the parents or guardians access to all confidential information regarding their child, the counsellor is ignoring the needs and emotions of his or her client. This can lead to feelings of being unheard, unimportant and bring about the inability to trust the counsellor. The minor will only ever disclose information that they are okay with their parents knowing, meaning that authenticity and progress in the counselling session will not likely be reached. Without being sensitive to where the counsellor’s duty lies, with the minor or the parents, he or she can end up getting caught in the role of informant to the parents or guardians rather than actually helping the minor with the issues he or she may be facing. However, in the opposing perspective presented by John Myers (1982), without working with the parents or guardians, the minor could be pulled from being counselled or switched over to another counsellor who will only cater to the parents’ desires. In either situation, harm would come to the client because he or she is not getting proper counselling. Finally, reaching a compromise between the minor and the parents or guardians is the perspective that seems to do the least amount of harm . The issues with this situation arises when the discussion does not happen at the