Question # 1
Counselors have an ethical responsibility to uphold privacy and confidentiality, but there are situations where a counselor is allowed to disclose information. Doug came to the counseling group voluntarily; therefore, I will inform Doug that his probation officer wants a progress report before I can submit my report. According to Levin et al. (2001) counselors are required by the law to disclose information to protect a client, when the client is planning to harm another person or when the courts or officers of the courts request information about the client. Doug’s probation officer requested Doug's report to petition for early release, and I will share the report to help Doug secure an early release.
The Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Rehabilitation Act of 1972 and other laws were created to guide counselors when dealing with private information. According to the legislation, a counselor working with a federally assisted substance abuse program should not release patient information unless when authorized by the patient or permitted by the law. Anyone who has access to client information, in this case, the probation officer must seek the consent of the client before disclosing the information. If Doug were in the program involuntarily, I would still inform him before submitting the report to avoid legal problems with my client.
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Question # 2
Judith is working with high school students, and she has to follow the ethical and legal provisions of recruiting minors. The first step is to obtain permission from parents or guardians of the minors before they can join the group (Corey et al., 2015). Judith will have to talk to parents about her reasons for creating the psychoeducational group for students whose parents are divorcing.
The primary screening criterion is that the participants should come from divorced families. Judith should attempt to get consent from both parents to avoid ethical and legal issues that might arise from parents arguing that they had no idea that their children were in the group. Since the participants are minors, the parents might want to know what goes on in the sessions; thus Judith will have to find a way of involving parents without breaking the confidentiality of the participants. The minors will not be open with Judith if they know that she will share their confidential information with their parents; thus Judith has to inform the minors that she will share some information but personal information will remain confidential.
References
Corey, G. (2015). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy . Nelson Education.
Levin, J. D., Culkin, J., & Perrotto, R. S. (2001). Introduction to chemical dependency counseling . Jason Aronson.
