Education systems bear the responsibility of providing all learners, especially students with special needs, with relevant skills and coping mechanisms that will enable them to coexist efficiently in society. Learning programs must be designed to equip students with skills that guide learners in making best choices in life. Counseling services are an important catalyst to providing minors with special needs with the required guidance. To attain maximum effect, guidance and counseling services must be planned and coordinated to suit every special need. One of the main determining factors in tailoring these counseling services is the nature of students. In pursuit of short- and long-term goals, every student must develop their individuality. Developing individuality requires counseling services that make students aware of their needs and enable them to improve on their weaknesses while building on their strengths. Legislations have created concerns among counselors on the ethical and legal implications of counseling services. Students with special needs are now integrated and taught together with other peers in public and private schools. The counseling of students with emotional and behavioral problems has legal and ethical concerns among counselors.
Behavioral and emotional problems among learners are shown through poor academic performance, poor attention and concentration spans, hyperactivity, poor memory, and poor language abilities (Vaughn & Bos, 2016). They give unexpected poor results in elementary learning such as spelling, reading, writing, and working with numbers. Students with emotional challenges have difficulty concentrating on a task for an extended period and show problems in focusing on instructions from the teacher. According to Vaughn and Bos (2016), such students have problems remembering what was taught and show irregular patterns in learning. They can remember a concept today, then forget after a day and remember again after a week. Poor language abilities are shown through the inability to decipher different phonologies and such can be corrected through speech therapy. Such challenges can persist throughout school life and permeate into adulthood. Counselors to identify these problems at a tender age and develop programs to remedy these learning, behavioral and emotional difficulties.
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Counselors are presented with various unique challenges in determining cognitive abilities, identifying special behavioral and emotional problems, and ranking them, and designing effective intervention mechanisms to guide students with special needs (Jenkins, 1985). Henkelman and Everall (2001) posit that when counseling students with special needs, issues of confidentiality, privacy, and legal privileges can be challenging. Competing interests from caregivers, parents, and other stakeholders further complicate the counseling practice. Counselors must be aware of the legal and ethical complications and respond effectively with the interest of minors with special needs at heart (Sori & Hecker, 2015).
Children’s rights organizations in conjunction with child advocates are engaged in investigating damaging systems and developing solutions that are enforceable by law. They develop public policies at both national and local levels that guide child welfare systems. Counselors need to adhere to these legal frameworks in dispensing education-related guidance (Beth et al., 2011). Little literature exists in guiding ethical and legal issues with counseling minors. According to Sori and Hecker (2015), some of the key issues relating to minors include rights to privacy and confidentiality, multicultural problems, informed consent, use of touch and family issues (450).
Legally, parents have the responsibility of making privacy-related decisions on behalf of minors including giving information and signing consents. In counseling, issues relating to children’s privacy must be handled from a legal and ethical view. Confidentiality is a key ethical issue. Information between the counselor and the minor must not be shared with third parties except when permitted to do so (Gola et al., 2016). Counselors are not allowed to share client’s private information except with an express written authority (Lloyd & Foster 2017). In cases of minors with special needs, it requires the authority of the guardian or parent. One of the ethical dilemmas for counselors in working with children with special needs is how much information to share with parents and guardians. On the other hand, parents and caregivers have a legal right to knowing all the happenings in the process of counseling their children. In some instances, counselors are forced to breach confidentiality especially when it is established that the child is a victim of abuse and assault. Counselors are required to disclose this information to third parties such as doctors and therapists. Where there is a likelihood of immediate harm where the child is a threat to self or to others the counselor is permitted to disclosure to avert harm (Koocher, 2008). Disclosure of information guided professional code of ethics by in some instances a counselors decision depending on the situation t hand is considered.
Henkelman & Everall (2001) highlights four ways of managing confidentiality by counselors regarding sharing information with caregivers. First, promise the minors with emotional and behavioral problems complete confidentiality. Secondly is limited confidentiality where you discuss with the minor what will be shared with parents and teachers. Thirdly is informed forced choice where the child has no control over what is shared but is informed in advance. Counselors inform parents from the onset that they will report any pertinent issues without seeking the permission of the minors. Finally, is no guarantee of confidentiality that happens where withholding information impedes the progress of the family and the minor. In this case, early disclosure of all information to parent is important especially in a case where therapy or medical attention is required.
Psychotherapy with children of divorce presents numerous ethical issues. The parents are usually in bitter legal battles regarding custody of the child, child support, and visitation issues. Besides, divorce situations have a heavy emotional burden that passes to the children hence affecting their learning process (Henkelman, & Everall 2001). Lawyers working on these cases work as adversaries whereas counselors engage in collaborative but very hostile situations. The different systems can result in misunderstandings. Counselors lack the support required from parents in counseling their affected children and operate in isolation from the caregivers.
Mental health professional codes of ethics require counselors to work within their areas of profession. This law prohibits counselors from handling some cases in children with emotional and behavioral problems because the problem falls outside their competence. Knowledge of handling adult issues cannot be applied in handling children's matters. Special training is therefore required to handle specific cases affecting different age groups. Owing to the diversity of problems faced by minors with special needs, ethical standards require distinct and supervised training before starting a private practice.
Touch therapy is highly used by counselors on children with special needs because it develops calmness and a sense of trust. Touch can enhance self-esteem but on the contrary, it can be interpreted otherwise. For a child with a history of abuse, a touch can be a cause for alarm. Moreover, different cultural and religious backgrounds have different perceptions and attitudes towards touch (Sori & Hecker, 2015). From the onset, counselors need to discuss touch with these special needs children and their parents and whenever necessary, counselors must seek permission to touch.
Given the ethical and legal issues surrounding professional counseling of children, I would offer help in the training of professional counselors. This is the first step in avoiding legal conflicts with the law on children’s rights. I would also recommend that all counselors attend refresher training from the many professional organizations that offer virtual and online training. The dynamism in society presents new challenges every day and children with special needs fall victim to systems that do not recognize their immediate need for psychological support. Therefore, I will extend the need for training to guardians and caregivers of affected children on effective ways of handling the special needs identified.
Counselors need to avoid potential ethical and legal problems while counseling minors with special needs. It is important to consider the rights of children as bestowed unto them by legal statutes. They must be aware of the vulnerability of these children and operate objectively with the laws protecting children and their rights and seek advice and conduct wide consultations. Further, counselors need to keep reviewing the professional code of ethics, and continuous training to keep fresh with current practices and a deep understanding of problems faced with children with special needs.
References
Jenkins, D. (1985). Ethical and legal dilemmas of working with students with special needs. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 19 (3), 202-209. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/42868673
Sori, C. F., & Hecker, L. L. (2015). Ethical and legal considerations when counseling children and families. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy , 36 (4), 450-464.
Lloyd‐Hazlett, J., & Foster, V. A. (2017). Student counselors' moral, intellectual, and professional ethical identity development. Counseling and Values , 62 (1), 90-105.
Vaughn, S., & Bos, C. S. (2016). Strategioes for Teaching Students with Learning and Behaviour Problems (9th ed.). United States of America: Pearson Education Inc.
Koocher, G. P. (2008). Ethical challenges in mental health services to children and families. Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session, 64(5), 601-612. doi: 10.1002/jclp.20476.
Gola, J. A., Beidas, R. S., Antinoro-Burke, D., Kratz, H. E., & Fingerhut, R. (2016). Ethical considerations in exposure therapy with children. Cognitive and behavioral practice , 23 (2), 184-193.
Beth Brooks, Fiedler, K., Waddington, J., & Zink, K. (2011). Minors’ Rights to Confidentiality, When Parents Want to Know: An Ethical Scenario.
Henkelman, J. J., & Everall, R. D. (2001). Informed Consent with Children: Ethical and Practical Implications. Canadian Journal of Counselling , 109-121.
