Case of the New Agency Counselor
You have just begun your employment at a local community mental health agency. The only services offered by this agency are counseling services. This is your first position since earning your Master’s degree in counseling. There are four other counselors at the agency, two of them first year hires. You are supervised by the director of the agency, who has little time to spend with the counselors and whose training is in administration not clinical work.
On your third day on the job, you have a 17 year old client of Italian descent who is pregnant and has been thrown out of the house by her parents. She is having trouble keeping up in school and her grades are slipping. She is living with a friend right now, but knows that she cannot stay there long. Her boyfriend has broken up with her and she is feeling very sad and almost desperate. She has a part time job after school but only receives minimum wages. She has one more year to go in high school and would like to finish. She doesn’t know what she is going to do. She is already four months pregnant. She is confused about the baby; she is frightened because she feels alone and helpless.
While you believe that you can help this client with her emotional and psychological issues, you are at a loss for what to do about her other problems. At the next meeting of the agency counselors you discuss this with your colleagues, who also seem to be at somewhat of a loss. You realize that you are probably going to have to come up with some referrals for this client, but the question is what type of referrals and where to refer her too.
An important aspect of being a counselor is knowing what you can handle and what you cannot. Sometimes referrals must be made, but a client’s resources are often limited. Decisions have to be made in regards to services and the counselor’s and the agency’s ability to help.
Based on your knowledge of ethics laws and policies, please respond to the following
1. How would you decided what services you need to refer the client out for and what services you can handle?
2. What specific services would you refer this client out for?
3. What issues would you tackle with her in the agency setting?
4. What laws, codes and policies apply to this case?
Make sure that you elaborate on your answers. Be specific, especially when talking about laws and codes. Must be in APA format 7th edition. Punctuation, caps rules, and DOI for any citation