Complete a review of an assessment in your specialization area using the Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY). Read the review for your chosen assessment tool in the MMY and other scholarly articles that establish the appropriate use of the assessment and what it purports to measure.

Complete the following for your assignment:

• -Identify the history of assessment in counseling. Describe the importance of assessment in counseling and the role of assessment in your specialization.
• -Complete a review of the selected assessment. What is the reliability and validity of the assessment?
• -Analyze the theoretical basis for the selected assessment tool in your area of professional practice. (All assessments are rooted in theory. For example, the Beck Depression Inventory is rooted in Beck’s Cognitive Theory.)
• -Apply ethical considerations associated with administering the selected assessment. Provide an example to demonstrate that you understand how ethical considerations apply to the use of your selected assessment. Some considerations include counselor or therapist competency, client rights, counselor or therapist responsibilities, and legal issues.
• -Evaluate the appropriateness of the assessment tool for use with the diverse groups that you may encounter in your specialization using the reviewer’s evaluation of the assessment and your own conclusions. How does this comparison inform making an ethical judgment of administering the selected tool with diverse groups of clients? Be certain to integrate these codes into your discussion and cite the relevant sections of the code of ethics for your profession (ACA, AAMFT, or ASCA, linked in Resources).
• -Discuss how an analysis of this review convinced you to use or not use this assessment in your specialization.
• -Incorporate a minimum of five scholarly research studies applying the selected assessment tool in professional practice.
• Assignment Requirements
• Written communication: Written communication must be free of errors such that the overall message is clear.
• APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA style.
• Number of resources: Minimum of five scholarly resources (distinguished submissions will likely exceed that minimum).
• Length of paper: Four to six double-spaced, typed pages, excluding title and reference pages.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.

  Ethical Standards for School Counselors

  (Adopted 1984; revised 1992, 1998, 2004 and 2010)

  Preamble

  The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) is a profes­ sional organization whose members are school counselors certi­ fied/licensed in school counseling with unique qualifications and skills to address all students’ academic, personal/social and career development needs. Members are also school counseling program directors/supervisors and counselor educators. These ethical stan­ dards are the ethical responsibility of school counselors. School counseling program directors/supervisors should know them and provide support for practitioners to uphold them. School counselor educators should know them, teach them to their students and pro­ vide support for school counseling candidates to uphold them.

  Professional school counselors are advocates, leaders, collaborators and consultants who create opportunities for equity in access and success in educational opportunities by connecting their programs to the mission of schools and subscribing to the following tenets of professional responsibility:

  • Each person has the right to be respected, be treated with dignity and have access to a comprehensive school counseling program that advocates for and affirms all students from diverse popula­ tions including: ethnic/racial identity, age, economic status, abili­ ties/disabilities, language, immigration status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression, family type, religious/spiritual identity and appearance.

  • Each person has the right to receive the information and support needed to move toward self­direction and self­development and affirmation within one’s group identities, with special care being given to students who have historically not received adequate educational services, e.g., students of color, students living at a low socio­economic status, students with disabilities and students from non­dominant language backgrounds.

  • Each person has the right to understand the full magnitude and meaning of his/her educational choices and how those choices will affect future opportunities.

  • Each person has the right to privacy and thereby the right to expect the school­counselor/student relationship to comply with all laws, policies and ethical standards pertaining to confidentiali­ ty in the school setting.

  • Each person has the right to feel safe in school environments that school counselors help create, free from abuse, bullying, neglect, harassment or other forms of violence.

  In this document, ASCA specifies the principles of ethical behavior necessary to maintain the high standards of integrity, leadership and professionalism among its members. The Ethical Standards for School Counselors were developed to clarify the nature of ethical responsibilities held in common by school counselors, supervi­ sors/directors of school counseling programs and school counselor educators. The purposes of this document are to:

  • Serve as a guide for the ethical practices of all professional school counselors, supervisors/directors of school counseling programs and school counselor educators regardless of level, area, popula­ tion served or membership in this professional association;

  • Provide self­appraisal and peer evaluations regarding school counselors’ responsibilities to students, parents/guardians, col­ leagues and professional associates, schools, communities and the counseling profession; and

  • Inform all stakeholders, including students, parents and guardians, teachers, administrators, community members and courts of justice, of best ethical practices, values and expected behaviors of the school counseling professional.

  A.1. Responsibilities to Students

  Professional school counselors: a. Have a primary obligation to the students, who are to be treated with dignity and respect as unique individuals.

  b. Are concerned with the educational, academic, career, personal and social needs and encourage the maximum development of every student.

  c. Respect students’ values, beliefs and cultural background and do not impose the school counselor’s personal values on students or their families.

  d. Are knowledgeable of laws, regulations and policies relating to students and strive to protect and inform students regarding their rights.

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

  f. Consider the involvement of support networks valued by the indi­ vidual students.

  g. Understand that professional distance with students is appropri­ ate, and any sexual or romantic relationship with students whether illegal in the state of practice is considered a grievous breach of ethics and is prohibited regardless of a student’s age.

  h. Consider the potential for harm before entering into a relation­ ship with former students or one of their family members.

  A.2. Confidentiality

  Professional school counselors: 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 developmental­ ly appropriate manner. Informed consent requires competence on the part of students to understand the limits of confidentiality and

   

   

  therefore, can be difficult to obtain from students of a certain devel­ opmental level. Professionals are aware that even though every attempt is made to obtain informed consent it is not always possi­ ble and when needed will make counseling decisions on students’ behalf.

  b. Explain the limits of confidentiality in appropriate ways such as classroom guidance lessons, the student handbook, school counsel­ ing brochures, school Web site, verbal notice or other methods of student, school and community communication in addition to oral notification to individual students.

  c. Recognize the complicated nature of confidentiality in schools and consider each case in context. Keep information confidential unless legal requirements demand that confidential information be revealed or a breach is required to prevent serious and foreseeable harm to the student. Serious and foreseeable harm is different for each minor in schools and is defined by students’ developmental and chronological age, the setting, parental rights and the nature of the harm. School counselors consult with appropriate professionals when in doubt as to the validity of an exception.

  d. Recognize their primary obligation for confidentiality is to the students but balance that obligation with an understanding of par­ ents’/guardians’ legal and inherent rights to be the guiding voice in their children’s lives, especially in value­laden issues. Understand the need to balance students’ ethical rights to make choices, their capacity to give consent or assent and parental or familial legal rights and responsibilities to protect these students and make deci­ sions on their behalf.

  e. Promote the autonomy and independence of students to the extent possible and use the most appropriate and least intrusive method of breach. The developmental age and the circumstances requiring the breach are considered and as appropriate students are engaged in a discussion about the method and timing of the breach.

  f. In absence of state legislation expressly forbidding disclosure, consider the ethical responsibility to provide information to an identified third party who, by his/her relationship with the student, is at a high risk of contracting a disease that is commonly known to be communicable and fatal. Disclosure requires satisfaction of all of the following conditions: • Student identifies partner or the partner is highly identifiable • School counselor recommends the student notify partner and refrain from further high­risk behavior

  • Student refuses • School counselor informs the student of the intent to notify the partner

  • School counselor seeks legal consultation from the school dis­ trict’s legal representative in writing as to the legalities of informing the partner

  g. Request of the court that disclosure not be required when the release of confidential information may potentially harm a student or the counseling relationship.

  h. Protect the confidentiality of students’ records and release per­ sonal data in accordance with prescribed federal and state laws and school policies including the laws within the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Student information stored and transmitted electronically is treated with the same care as tradition­ al student records. Recognize the vulnerability of confidentiality in electronic communications and only transmit sensitive information electronically in a way that is untraceable to students’ identity. Critical information such as a student who has a history of suicidal ideation must be conveyed to the receiving school in a personal contact such as a phone call.

  A.3. Academic, Career/College/Post­Secondary Access and Personal/Social Counseling Plans

  Professional school counselors: a. Provide students with a comprehensive school counseling pro­ gram that parallels the ASCA National Model with emphasis on working jointly with all students to develop personal/social, aca­ demic and career goals.

  b. Ensure equitable academic, career, post­secondary access and personal/social opportunities for all students through the use of data to help close achievement gaps and opportunity gaps.

  c. Provide and advocate for individual students’ career awareness, exploration and post­secondary plans supporting the students’ right to choose from the wide array of options when they leave second­ ary education.

  A.4. Dual Relationships

  Professional school counselors: a. Avoid dual relationships that might impair their objectivity and increase the risk of harm to students (e.g., counseling one’s family members or the children of close friends or associates). If a dual relationship is unavoidable, the school counselor is responsible for taking action to eliminate or reduce the potential for harm to the student through use of safeguards, which might include informed consent, consultation, supervision and documentation.

  b. Maintain appropriate professional distance with students at all times.

  c. Avoid dual relationships with students through communication mediums such as social networking sites.

  d. Avoid dual relationships with school personnel that might infringe on the integrity of the school counselor/student relation­ ship.

  A.5. Appropriate Referrals

  Professional school counselors: 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 discon­ tinue the counseling relationship at any time.

  b. Help educate about and prevent personal and social concerns for all students within the school counselor’s scope of education and competence and make necessary referrals when the counseling needs are beyond the individual school counselor’s education and training. Every attempt is made to find appropriate specialized resources for clinical therapeutic topics that are difficult or inappro­ priate to address in a school setting such as eating disorders, sexual trauma, chemical dependency and other addictions needing sus­ tained clinical duration or assistance.

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

  d. Develop a reasonable method of termination of counseling when it becomes apparent that counseling assistance is no longer needed or a referral is necessary to better meet the student’s needs.

   

   

  A.6. Group Work

  Professional school counselors: a. Screen prospective group members and maintain an awareness of participants’ needs, appropriate fit and personal goals in relation to the group’s intention and focus. The school counselor takes reason­ able precautions to protect members from physical and psychologi­ cal harm resulting from interaction within the group.

  b. Recognize that best practice is to notify the parents/guardians of children participating in small groups.

  c. Establish clear expectations in the group setting, and clearly state that confidentiality in group counseling cannot be guaranteed. Given the developmental and chronological ages of minors in schools, recognize the tenuous nature of confidentiality for minors renders some topics inappropriate for group work in a school set­ ting.

  d. Provide necessary follow up with group members, and document proceedings as appropriate.

  e. Develop professional competencies, and maintain appropriate education, training and supervision in group facilitation and any topics specific to the group.

  f. Facilitate group work that is brief and solution­focused, working with a variety of academic, career, college and personal/social issues.

  A.7. Danger to Self or Others

  Professional school counselors: 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 profes­ sionals.

  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.

  c. Understand the legal and ethical liability for releasing a student who is in danger to self or others without proper and necessary support for that student.

  A.8. Student Records

Discussion: Applying Differential Diagnosis to Neurodevelopmental Disorders

 Social work clinicians keep a wide focus on several potential syndromes, analyzing patterns of symptoms, risks, and environmental factors. Narrowing down from that wider focus happens naturally as they match the individual symptoms, behaviors, and risk factors against criteria A–E and other baseline information in the DSM-5.  Over time, as you continue your social work education, this process will become more automatic and integrated. In this Discussion, you practice differential diagnosis by examining a case that falls on the neurodevelopmental spectrum.

To prepare:  Read “The Case of Bogdan” and identify relevant symptoms and factors. You may want to make a simple list of the symptoms and facts of the case to help you focus on patterns. Read the Morrison (2014) selection. Focus on Figure 1.1, “The Roadmap for Diagnosis,” to guide your decision making. Identify four clinical diagnoses relevant to Bogdan that you will consider as part of narrowing down your choices. Be prepared to explain in a concise statement why you ruled three of them out. Confirm whether any codes have changed by checking this website: American Psychiatric Association. (2017, October 1). Changes to ICD-10-CM codes for DSM-5 diagnoses. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm/updates-to-dsm-5/coding-updatesBy

Day 3 Post a 300- to 500-word response in which you address the following:  Provide a full DSM-5 diagnosis of Bogdan.

Remember, a full diagnosis should include the name of the disorder, ICD-10-CM code, specifiers, severity, and the Z codes (other conditions that may be a focus of clinical attention). Keep in mind a diagnosis covers the most recent 12 months. Explain the diagnosis by matching the symptoms identified in the case to the specific criteria for the diagnosis. Identify which four diagnoses you initially considered in the case of Bogdan, using the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria to explain why you selected these four items. In one or two sentences each, explain why three of these diagnoses were excluded. Explain any obvious eliminations that could be made from within the neurodevelopmental spectrum. Describe in detail how Bogdan’s symptoms match up with the specific diagnostic criteria for the primary disorder that you finally selected for him. Note two other relevant DSM-5 criteria for that illness from the sections on “diagnostic features” and “development and course” that fit his case.

By Day 6 Respond to at least two colleagues in the following ways:  Compare the diagnosis you provided and the process in which you reached the diagnosis with those of your colleague. Explain how the Z codes (other conditions that may be a focus of clinical attention) that your colleague identified may influence Bogdan’s upcoming treatment.