17 hours ago Alcohol and drug counselors, along with other mental health professionals, face a number of challenges and special issues when working with people who have suffered abuse or neglect as children. Like most people, counselors become upset or angry when they hear about children … >> Go To The Portal
Alcohol and drug counselors, along with other mental health professionals, face a number of challenges and special issues when working with people who have suffered abuse or neglect as children. Like most people, counselors become upset or angry when they hear about children getting hurt or being abused.
Counselors counsel and empower individuals with substance abuse problems versus treat the substance abuse problem. 3. Counselors must be able to establish the same open, collaborative, therapeutic relationship in counseling individuals with substance abuse problems as they do with other client populations.
Counselors of clients with substance abuse problems often find this process difficult because of the chronic nature of interrelated destructive attitudes and coexisting disorders these clients often bring to counseling.
Cinéas said a therapist may have to step in and report a situation when vulnerable people are threatened, which could include children, elderly individuals and those living with a disability. “A clear case of abuse of any of the above should be reported to protective services,” she said.
The substance abuse counselor is a unique professional. Taking a front row seat to the impact of drug and alcohol abuse and dependency, they work closely with people in recovery. It’s a bumpy road fraught with emotions and sometimes the stuff of movies. Ethics and values weigh heavily on every move a counselor makes, and on a daily basis, the challenges they face can create or destroy.
Let’s start with the don’ts: Don’t get involved with a member of a client’s immediate family. Don’t nurture dual relationships that could impair your judgment or increase the risk of exploitation. Don’t become sexually active or come into sexual contact with a client.
Client relationships often prove to be the most brutal of challenges. It’s the cornerstone of what you do. Every day, you work one-on-one and with groups of people who battle substance abuse and/or addiction. You see the ugliness of drug and alcohol abuse, and you take a front row seat to your clients’ lives. It’s natural to feel a range of emotions and to build relationships, but keeping it professional can be tough.
About Keisha Mclean-Green. Keisha is co-founder and Clinical Director of Absolute Advocacy. Over the course of her career, Keisha has helped thousands of people struggling with substance abuse and disabilities obtain the tools they need to lead productive, happy lives. Reader Interactions.
Confidentiality is an ethical principle that holds some types of information as privileged when it is shared between a client and a professional. This type of communication often involves things that the client will not want to become public knowledge. If such information were to be leaked it could cause embarrassment, or possibly even make life difficult, for the individual. Such private data can only be divulged to third parties if they are authorized to have it. Confidentiality is not purely an ethical concern. There can also be legal and professional penalties for those who abuse privileged information.
The relationship between a therapist and a client is a special one. It involves sharing information that the client would probably not normally divulge to anyone else. Such personal revelations put the client in a vulnerable position. They need to be confident that that the therapist will keep such information private.
A big fear for people who are entering rehab is what other people will think. By seeking help for their problem they may worry that this is going to damage their public or business reputation. It is understandable that the individual does not want their personal difficulties becoming the subject of gossip. This is why a quality rehab will always pay strict attention to keeping client information confidential. Those people who do not wish to for their attendance at rehab to become public knowledge will be able to keep such information private. It is even possible for them to use a pseudonym during their stay to further ensure privacy.
While the therapist will be professionally and legally obliged to protect any information the same will not be true for other members of the group. There are plenty of personal stories shared during these sessions and some of this could be potentially harmful to the individual if it were to become public knowledge.
The therapist will frequently remind the group of their obligations in this regard. Most will be happy to respect this as they have also likely divulged information that they would prefer to be kept private. It is surprisingly rare that such information ever leaves the group.
This means that they are not allowed to even share this information with the loved ones of the client without permission. The situation does become more complicated where the client is underage though. Legal guardians may have a right to know what has gone on in the therapy sessions. This is changing. In many states in the US a child is treated similarly to adults in regards to client confidentially. If an employer is paying for therapy sessions it does not mean that they will have the right to information about what goes on.
If you know you have a substance use problem, it’s time to talk to your doctor, even if the drug (s) you’re using are illegal. The point of talking to your doctor is to seek and obtain the kind of treatment that will help you stop abusing drugs and end your addiction. Your doctor can help you find the right treatment.
The biggest fear people face when just thinking about admitting substance use to their doctor is consequences. Discomfort grows when a person is using an illegal substance. The biggest fear is being reported to the authorities. Thanks to doctor-patient confidentiality, this fear is often only as big as you make it.
Those records can then be submitted to your insurance agency, and they can then use those records to increase premiums, deny payment, or deny coverage for certain conditions and/or procedures. It is possible that admitting to drug use could affect future coverage when most needed.
Harm Must be Reported: By law and ethics, a doctor must report severe bodily injury. For example, if a doctor were to fail to report a bullet or gunshot wound, a powder burn, or other injury resulting from the discharge of a gun or firearm, they risk a Class A misdemeanor.
A doctor cannot discuss the information you share in confidence, and if they do, you can take legal recourse, even when admitting something like heroin or cocaine use. If you choose to talk to your doctor about illegal substance use, you can, in most cases, rest assured that your conversation will remain confidential.
“If a therapist fails to take reasonable steps to protect the intended victim from harm, he or she may be liable to the intended victim or his family if the patient acts on the threat ,” Reischer said.
“Clients should not withhold anything from their therapist, because the therapist is only obligated to report situations in which they feel that another individual, whether it be the client or someone else, is at risk,” said Sophia Reed, a nationally certified counselor and transformation coach.
A therapist may be forced to report information disclosed by the patient if a patient reveals their intent to harm someone else. However, this is not as simple as a patient saying simply they “would like to kill someone,” according to Jessica Nicolosi, a clinical psychologist in Rockland County, New York. There has to be intent plus a specific identifiable party who may be threatened.
For instance, Reed noted that even if a wife is cheating on her husband and they are going through a divorce, the therapist has no legal obligation whatsoever to disclose that information in court. The last thing a therapist wants to do is defy their patient’s trust.
“If a client experienced child abuse but is now 18 years of age then the therapist is not required to make a child abuse report, unless the abuser is currently abusing other minors,” Mayo said.
1. All counselors, no matter what work setting or clientele, will counsel individuals with presenting or related problems of substance abuse. 2.
ERIC Digest. Substance abuse is a critical problem in the United States across allsegments of the population and impacts in some way all members ofour society. It is the most prevalent mind disorder, the number onecontinuing health problem, and the number one prison problem in theUnited States (Inaba, ...
The counselor emphasis is on the person not the substance abuse problem. Additional knowledge and skill on the part of the counselor relates to being able to assess the extent and impact of a client's substance abuse problem and the client's need to change.
Substance abuse is defined as the categories classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV (DSM-IV) (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) as Substance-Related Disorders and Substance-Induced Disorders. These disorders include the active use and/or dependency on any mood-altering substance.
These include short-term, inpatient care lasting three to seven days for withdrawal from substance abuse, or intensive, outpatient programs lasting eight to twelve weeks wherein clients maintain vocational and family responsibilities while participating in treatment.
1. Counseling is a process beneficial to most clients of skilled counselors. However, it is not always so. A significant number of clients get worse. 2. Counseling models (e.g., cognitive, experiential, behavioral, dynamic) are effective and, when compared, seem equivalent in their effect on counseling outcome. 3.
Approximately 70 percent of new hepatitis C infections occur among people who inject drugs and nine percent of new HIV infections in the United States are related to injection drug use. Addressing the syndemic of drug misuse and infectious diseases requires a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach. The National Alliance for HIV Education and ...
Today’s highly effective curative treatment is the most powerful tool we have to achieve the goal of hepatitis C elimination. But to fully realize its potential, we need to increase hepatitis C efforts with people who use drugs who are most likely to transmit the virus to others.