Counseling with Minors

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(1) Briefly define four ethical and/or legal issues related to counseling minors. Analyze the ethical and legal conflicts that arise with each issue. Be sure to cite the relevant ethical codes.

Four ethical and/or legal issues that pertain to minors include: (1) confidentiality, (2) informed consent, (3) Parental consent, and (4) privileged communication:

(I) Confidentiality is extended to minors in both the American Psychological Association (APA, 2002) and the American Counseling Association (ACA, 1995) ethics codes.
*Analyze legal and ethical conflicts:
Under Standard 4.05, "Discussing the limits of confidentiality", psychologists are to discuss limits of confidentiality, and disclose confidential information only with consent even from those who are unable to give informed consent-unless mandated by law. Relative to the ACA, Section B.1a warns against illegal and unwarranted disclosure of confidential information. B.l.c states "When counseling with clients who are minors or individuals who are unable to give informed consent, parents and guardian may be included in the counseling process.

(ii) Privileged communication
Privileged communication is defined as the legal right that protects clients from disclosing information during legal proceedings without informed consent ((Hendrix, 1991 as cited in Ledyard, l998).
*Analyze legal and ethical conflicts:
According to Hendrix (1991) the law supersedes ethics in three mental health situations for minors: (a) reports of abuse (b) harm to self, and (c) reports of a plan to harm others. However, as Ledyard notes, there are exceptions to confidentiality and privileged communication. For instance, ...