Significance of the Study
People in the society have the right to be safeguarded from personal and psychological harm, loss of property and misuse of power. The general safeguards of society is best optimized through successful corrections community and organizational management, rehabilitation and training programs, in conformity with legal and ethical permissions, offender and staff accountability, and fulfilling the basic requirements of the offenders.
The counselors have a special task to shield from harm those who are reluctantly under its care and control; therefore, modern standards for health care, offender classification, due process, fire and building safety, nutrition, personal welfare, and clothing and shelter must be identified.
The offenders also must be shielded from harming each other. Prevention of escape, assault, and property loss is a vital objective of counselors who requires unique and expert skills in their fields.
Moreover, the counselors play a critical role in the juvenile criminal offenses. They offer mental health treatment and advice to those people who are affected by various kinds of violence which is legal or ethical implications in the society. Moreover, the counselors also utilize their skills to generate a safer environment for the affected people. They try to reduce the chances of physical violence against. Besides these responsibilities, the counselors generally provide recommendations, and carry psychological assessments of the affected people. A number of issues are involved regarding the ethical and legal responsibilities that this job entails. Whilst the affected persons in normal environment have the advantage of counseling, which concentrates firstly on their own safety, the counselors operating within the correctional environment must first consider the safety of the counseling centers. Any mistreatment or violent acts must be reported- and therefore the fundamental posits of remedial intervention. Moreover, the counselors may be infrequently asked to carry out tasks that are more similar to their job descriptions.
The future counselors should meet all the standards for a profession and so for doing a remarkable job for a long time. The counselor should emphasize growth in addition to rehabilitation over the course of a life span in different fields of life. They within their profession specialize in assisting the individuals, couples, groups, families, and social systems that are facing situational, developmental, and long- or short-term social problems. The counselors should focus on growth, prevention, wellness, and treatment makes it attractive to those looking for healthy life-stage changeovers and dynamic lives.
It is therefore vital to study the history of counseling as a counselor who is knowledgeable about the growth and change of the profession is expected to have powerful professional characteristics and consequently make major contributions to the society. By recognizing and appreciating counseling’s past, the people may better realize present and future development of the profession.
Legal and Ethical issues in Counseling: An Overview
As a result of improved responsiveness of youth violent behavior, primary care counselors may be required to foresee violence potential or to suggest curative measures to decrease future violence risks. This article offers the counselors with the strategies to evaluate youth violence, understand its causes, and manage at-risk youth. Since perpetrating a violence risk evaluation can be overwhelming and involve irregularities and prejudices, this article also tries to show a rather methodical approach for the healthcare professionals.
Causes of Violence
Violence is generally a consequence of numerous features functioning in unison. Several biological, ethical, and social issues lay the foundation, making the people most vulnerable to the impact of highly precipitating stressor that precedes violent acts. Risk is conditional change and is conditional on the continuously developing active for the individuals.
Biological risks for violence consist of hereditary features, constant abuse. A number of researches of twins have proved that the hereditary role to youth violence is considerable. The conduct disorder is also a rather influential predictor of violent behavior. Substance abuse also increases the risk, however, along with the baseline critical mental syndrome, the risk rises further. Physical violence amongst the children is a powerful risk factor and increases violence, threat into adulthood using various means.
Psychologically, a need of empathy and disruptive personality syndrome are found to be more prevalent in delinquents than in the general population. Other mental risk factors comprise of cognitive severity, lack of management skills, and an inclination to attribute violent intention by others. Moreover, the past history of violence is a significant interpreter of future violence, as it shows that the past risk factors did build up enough to cause violent acts and that there are prospects of repetition of such acts. In the National factors, and often the collusion of multiple situational triggers may need to occur before a violent outcome proceeds.
Although many dynamic and static dangers favor violent behavior, other safety factors may stop the recurrence of such events. These might comprise of having dedicated and dynamic caregivers, a community support activist or counselor, or a religious figure that forbids violent activities.
Violence forecast is intrinsically imprecise since there are remarkable numbers of static and forceful reasons behind the activities of violence. In spite of that limitation, the counselors can still predict violence with a high level of accuracy and are confident that their evaluation skills are useful to patients and communities. The doctors should be also a good assessor of risks. A recommendation for a more detailed violence evaluation may be available through a leading counselor or a medical doctor having forensic training.
Interventions
Following the assessment the violent offenders’ risk factors, the prospective harms can be predicted. Consequently, the steps should be taken to keep the youths in a safe and environment till the additional evaluation could be taken. This environment should be the least restraining in which safety could be constantly maintained. If the patients will not concur voluntarily to maintain safety aims, the health counselors can consider utilization temporary holds in local mental health laws to cause a more detailed assessment. As well, if there are likely risks to others and the youths would remain unconfined and capable to act out that plan, the health counselors are duty-bound to protect according to legal rulings. In this environment, privacy can be legally infringed to inform those threatened and who are in a position to draw safety plans ready.
A danger for prospective harms will not be noted in the mainstream evaluations, though counselors may still feel worried regarding the patients' prospective for future violent activities. Since violence may be committed as a result of various risk factors operating together, a systematic intervention can be designed that focuses the flexible risk factors. The counselors can consider what factors of the patients can be improved upon through better training, by improving the surrounds, as well by treatment. For instance, the children with untreated psychiatric disorders, social, cognitive deficiencies, poor parental assessments, regular intoxication, and the accessibility to arms could have a major reduction in violence behaviors if each of these factors is dealt effectively for treatment.
Training and education can start by the counselors discussing the utilization of peaceful methods to deal successfully with conflicts and options for managing anger. The counselors can establish prosocial values throughout the evaluation and through discussing about restraining exposure to vicious media and about collaborative work. Promoting and motivating people for social skills training can facilitate how to learn to navigate social circumstances with reduced conflicts and enhanced self-control, and the lowering of the tendency to depend on violence. Involvement in prosocial settings with ample monitoring, may improve social competencies, reduced unsupervised period of time, enhance positive peer relationships, and help notice of suitable social relationships.
Ethical & Legal issues in Counseling Clients in Violent Relationships: An Introduction
The American Mental Health Counselors Association suggests that the health counselors are duty-bound to improve the wellbeing of the clients (AMHCA, 2000; Welfel, 2002). It is significant to note that the counselors comprehensively recognize both their roles and responsibilities in improving the safety and security of the clients as well as how to evaluate and help them. The counselors are motivated to support the autonomy and capability of the clients so that is able to make their own independent choices. The concept of client sovereignty-the idea suggests that the clients have intrinsic free will and self-esteem-and the clients are finally free to make their own individual welfare-related decisions (Welfel, 2002). A core factor in the process, nevertheless, is that the customers are aware of the misuse, the risk factors related to its continuance and growth, their choices, and the effects of staying in the particular circumstances or quitting them. This would mean the health counselors are ethically required to handle and observe their responses to their clients and to prevent those activities that try to fulfill their own individual requirements to the detriment of the clients. Non-malfeasance is a well-known fundamental ethical principle that is greatly related to counseling clients who are engaged in violent activities.
In view of the fact that women are at greater risk of mistreatment and killing at the time they quit an association (Campbell et al., 2003; Glass et al., 2004), a health counselor may unintentionally increase the risk of supporting a client to quit a relationship before she has an unambiguous safety plan and support prepared. Appreciating the clients’ freedom and preferences is required in all situations except for when it is in contradict equal or bigger tasks, like guaranteeing the clients’ safety.
Whilst these may be quite difficult ethical options, the counselors supporting the clients in violent cases should not imply that the clients quit the relationship. The counselors' main interest when helping the clients in the violent relationships should be on supporting their safety. It is vital for the counselors to see that at the time a client quit the violent relationship, the risk of being harassed or killed rises (Jewkes, 2002). Indeed, about 30% of women who are killed are killed by an ex-partner after the relationship has finished (Rennison, 2003). Therefore, some clients are safer in intimate relationship till they are fully ready to quit and have a good plan as to how they would go ahead (Walker, 1994).
Generally, the affected women quit and return to violent relationships 5 to 7 times prior to quitting permanently (Ferraro, 1997). Hence, even if with counselors’ recommendations to quit the intimate relationship are fulfilled with preliminary acquiescence there are strong chances that the affected clients will return to the previous relationships. The return may then detach the clients from the counselors; the clients may hold responsible the counselors for having left the relationship, hence creating therapeutic tension.
Lastly, the professional counselors and their ethics codes are established on a strength-based developmental model that gives stress to human flexibility and empowerment (Kress, 2006). Consequently, it is significant to value those clients in close relationships are advancing through a developmental procedure and are continuously evaluating how they want to proceed in dealing with these relationships. In addition, compatibility with a counselor's professional identity, the clients should be authorized to make their personal decisions concerning the progress in such relationships; to advise the clients how to handle such relationships may disempower them.
Knowledgeable consent, privacy, and issues concerning to the clients' children are supplementary ethical matters should be taken to hand in the framework of clients’ safety and their relationships. Counselors should realize such consent from their clients regarding the limitations to privacy. One limitation is the counselor's task is to avoid clear and impending risks to the clients or others. In fact, it is vital that the counselors also be recognition of the legal aspects of their duties to safeguard since there are disparities in the states.
The partners who are aggressive towards each others are in greater danger of being aggressive towards their children (Tjaden &Thoennes, 2000). Thus, women should be made responsive to their own responsibilities to safeguard their children and the counselor's tasks and responsibilities to protect them as well if the children seem to be vulnerable (Remley & Hurlihy, 2001). The counselors should be unambiguous regarding the limitations of privacy if the clients notify that children are engaged when the violent behaviors happened. There is a major risk that in these circumstances they may need to infringe the privacy to safeguard the children.
Yet, other legal and ethical counseling issue when counseling victims in the violent relationships concerns to interpretations and records. Walker (2004) stated that the clients have an empowerment to know that the evaluation process may produce data that can be made accessible to other people. The violent partner might get knowledge of the victim's involvement in mental health counseling if the data are offered to a particular third party, like the insurance companies, and this could increase violence. The clients and counselors should also recognize the extent to which data may be subpoenaed by the courts in case the legal system becomes engaged. Therefore, the health counselors should be careful in how they submit data in the clients’ records.
Careful reflection of the ethical and legal issues is significant in improving the clients’ safety. Since the ethical and legal issues concerning to counseling women clients in violent relationships can be complex, it is suggested that the health counselors discuss with others who are in constant contact work with such situations that would ensure that their practices are ethical and legal.
Clients’ safety Plans
When violent behavior has been established, and ethics-related matters have been discussed, one of the most significant steps a health counselor can take is to reduce risks and improve the clients’ safety and help in planning safety plans for them (Walker, 1994).
The clients’ in violent relationships should not quit the counselor's offices without having detailed safety plans. The preliminary counseling sessions might be the only one in which the health counselors can facilitate protecting the clients’ from future dangers and risks; the clients might not be able or may decide not to return to counseling. Hence, it is vitally significant to give stress to safety and develop a safety plan in the first meeting.
A safety plan should be comprehensive plan that gives stress to the woman's role in making the safest decisions possible considering the violent relationships. The safety plans help the sufferers to get ready beforehand for dealing with such circumstances. It should be stressed to the clients that though the sufferers do not have control over their partner's violent behaviors, they do have the options in how to react and how best to get themselves and their children to safety. The safety plans should be modified to the individual's distinct requirements.
As regards the safety plan, the topics of discussion might be the examination of issues concerning police safeguards, legal and ethical steps, domestic violence protection, and the support of the community as of society. The counselors should become acquainted with both the state laws that concern to violent behaviors and local resources that might be useful to the clients.
Moreover, it is also significant to discuss the clients’ trusting their feeling and outlooks. A number of clients who are killed by their partners had earlier reported to the others that they thought the partner would finally harm or kill (Campbell et al., 2003). Furthermore, many clients who were facing violence had a good understanding of their partners' abuse patterns and sense when more critical harms were a possibility. The support to clients to trust their natural feeling and to do what they could to de-escalate the circumstances might be useful in supporting clients’ safety and should be discussed for the safety plan.
Recommendations
The following recommendations, if implemented, would ensure the counselors could be successful to implement:
- Create a working association with the abuser
- Help service planning and dangerous evaluation
- Evaluate his capacity to change and to understand the responsibility
- Evaluate the capability to recognize physical and other forms of misuse
- Evaluate the perception of the impact of his violent behavior on the family
- Observe and evaluate his capacity for suitable parenting
- Documenting his growth in making change.
Conclusion
This article has presented information about promoting the safety measures of clients in the violent relationships in the society. It stressed the counselor's responsibility to assess and address the relationships and emphasized the counselor's role in educating the clients regarding societal violence and the prospects for persisting dangers of violence and its rise.
The counselors should be fully aware of the ethical and legal issues related to promoting safety and times when reporting may be consented, as when children are susceptible. The counselors should also check their counter transference responses and not to force the clients to quit societal interactions; whilst it can be personally disturbing when a client opts to remain in a violent relationship, the counselor must endorse the decision to stay or quit the association. The major worry for the counselors working with the clients in the societal environment should be promotion of their safety.
The counselors can be useful in authorizing the clients to deliberately plan how they want to proceed in managing such relationships. The clients can establish how they will choose to deal with the risks of violence. One of the most useful methods the counselors can apply in supporting client safety is a detailed safety plan-a concrete plan that can assist in preparing clients to deal successfully with the family violence.
References
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