Obtaining informed consent for services from clients is required of human services providers; however, it is not always an easy task. Clients typically grant consent by signing documents presented by the agency or the provider that, at minimum, explain the services that will be provided, the client rights, and information on the steps to rescind the consent.

In situations where minors or individuals under some form of guardianship are the clients, it is necessary to obtain consent from the legal guardian or authority. However, there are times when obtaining informed consent is not as simple as asking for a signature from the client or guardian. These situations require more thought by the human services providers with emphasis on balancing the client’s right to consent with other factors that might influence treatment outcomes or decisions.

In this assignment, you will review a case that illustrates the various facets of informed consent.

The Case:

Smith is a thirty-eight-year-old African American male referred for counseling by his mother to address recent incidents of aggression. Smith resides with his mother because he is not able to live on his own. Smith is unable to hold on to a job and has difficulty establishing and maintaining relationships with others. He is open to counseling but thinks his mother is overreacting to his anger outbursts because she is old and does not understand him. Recently, there have been notable conflicts between them due to Smith’s aggressive behaviors that were directed toward his mother.

Tasks:

Analyze the case and in a 2- to 3-page paper, address the following:

• What steps would you, as the counselor, take for obtaining informed consent from Smith?
• Would you, as the counselor, include his mother in the counseling sessions, if you believe it would help with Smith’s aggression problem? Why or why not?

In your answers, consider the following:

• Smith is not able to live independently.
• Smith’s aggression might put his mother at risk if he does not get counseling.
• Smith has to comprehend what is being asked of him when he provides his consent to receive counseling services.
• There might be cultural differences between you and Smith.

For this assignment, you will be creating a teen pregnancy prevention (or teen parenting) plan.  The teen pregnancy prevention plan can focus on how to reduce unplanned teen pregnancy, or can focus on how to improve teen parenting efforts.  How you go about this is up to you, but it is important to use the research when formulating your plan. Any variables you select should be backed up by research. In this paper you will:

1. Describe several facets of your plan: what variables (e.g., parental monitoring) will you choose to focus on and why (e.g., higher parental monitoring has been shown by the research to lower teens’ risk of adolescent pregnancy).
2. You will also discuss how you would attempt to effect those variables (e.g., educating parents on how to effectively monitor without being overprotective, since that seems to increase teens’ risk).
3.  Finally, you will discuss how you would implement such a program logistically (e.g., who specifically would you target for your program and why?  Where would this program be based?).

You must use scholarly sources, such as class notes, outside journal articles and/or text to formulate your response. Use a minimum of four scholarly resources, two of these being peer-reviewed journal articles.

Your plan should be written in paragraph form (not in bullet points). Your plan should have a minimum of 1,000 words, but you will not be penalized for going over the word limit.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the GCU Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a grading rubric. Instructors will be using the rubric to grade the assignment; therefore, students should review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment.