Standard 11: Professionalism, Ethics, and Legal Mandates

Ethical standards must be applied in professional practice as a school counselor.

Throughout this program and during my practicum and internship, I have adhered to the
ASCA Code of Ethics as a guideline for my own practice.

Below is an example of a case I experienced in my internship where I used ASCA Ethical
Standards to guide my decision making with a student.

Case: The situation happened a couple months into the school year, and I was on session
number 3 with the client. In our previous 2 sessions, the client disclosed how she was
diagnosed with depression during the summer, and was having a difficult time recently.
The client felt as though she lost touch with many of her friends over the summer, and
spent the first few weeks of school eating lunch in the bathroom. During this session, the
client discussed how when she feels depressed, she feels heavy, and like there is no
hope. The client disclosed that she was feeling very heavy for the past couple of
weeks, and that she didnt feel like she wanted to go on anymore. The clients language
immediately raised a red flag for me, and I asked the client directly if she has had
thoughts about killing herself. The client answered yes. After exploring the clients
feelings and experience a little more, I conducted an informal suicide assessment and
determined the clients suicidal thoughts and plan was severe enough to involve my
supervisor. I reminded the client of the limits of confidentiality, and that this was a
situation where I would have to get my supervisor involved, and also contact her parent
to make sure that she stayed safe while she was having such a difficult time. The client
and I moved to my supervisors office where we conducted a formal suicide assessment.
After the suicide assessment was complete, we created safety contract with the client.
After the contract was complete, myself, my supervisor, and the client contacted her mom
and let her know what was going on and to make a plan to keep the client safe.
I allowed the client to stay in my office until she was ready to go back to class,
and she commented on how she felt much better, and she wasnt afraid of herself
anymore because we were involved. I asked the client if she would be interested in
meeting with YES (Youth Eastside Services) counselor, who came to the school once a
week, in addition to continue meeting with me. The client agreed to this, and I made the
appropriate referral. I also gave the client a teen link booklet and highlighted the crisis
and 24 hours numbers if she felt she needed someone else to talk to that night.
Currently, the client has reduced her sessions with the YES counselor to twice a
month, and feels like she is on the right dosage of her antidepressants. The client reports
that she hasnt felt like hurting herself or has not had suicidal thoughts since December of
2013.

The following ethical standards were used in the scenario:

A.1. Responsibilities to Students
e. Promote the welfare of individual students and collaborate with them to develop an
action plan for success.

A.2. Confidentiality
a. Inform individual students of the purposes, goals, techniques and rules of procedure
under which they may receive counseling. Disclosure includes the limits of
confidentiality in a developmentally appropriate manner. Informed consent requires
competence on the part of the students to understand the limits of confidentiality and
therefore, can be difficult to obtain from students of a certain developmental level.
Professionals are aware that even though every attempt is made to obtain informed
consent it is not always possible and when needed will make counseling decisions on
students behalf.

A.5. Appropriate Referrals
a. Make referrals when necessary or appropriate to outside resources for student and/or
family support. Appropriate referrals may necessitate informing both parents/guardians
and students of applicable resources and making proper plans for transitions with
minimal interruption of services. Students retain the right to discontinue the counseling
relationship at any time.

c. Request a release of information signed by the student and/or parents/guardians when
attempting to develop a collaborative relationship with other service providers assigned
to the student.

A.7. Danger to Self or Others
a. Inform parents/guardians and/or appropriate authorities when a student poses a danger
to self or others. This is to be done after careful deliberation and consultation with other
counseling professionals.

b. Report risk assessments to parents when they underscore the need to act on behalf of a
child at risk; never negate a risk of harm as students sometimes deceive in order to avoid
further scrutiny and/or parental notification.