Discussion board response to your classmates: Role play: pick one other student to respond to and take on the role of the client for their approach. How would you as the client react? Consider the legal issue presented and the ethical issue presented. What questions might you have for the counselor?

The student paper is below to respond to:

I have been assigned a high risk case, a 25 year old veteran who is becoming more aggressive and hostile. The reason for this is because his now ex fiancé left him for his best friend. It is a most unfortunate situation for the veteran and his pain has created these feelings of hostility and aggression. He is like a wounded animal.

I have scheduled a meeting with the client to discuss what to expect from our sessions. One important aspect that I must get across to the client is confidentiality I will discuss confidentiality and have him sign papers saying he understands how it works. Confidentiality protects information about the client’s case such as medical records, and what is discussed in our personal therapy sessions. He might be under the impression that he maybe able to say anything in confidentiality. (Muse CTU Online) Seeing how he has been aggressive when he first reached out to us, and he certainly hasn’t moved on from what his ex fiancé has done to him it’s not unreasonable to believe that he is feeling some aggressive thoughts towards both his ex fiancé and ex best friend. The betrayal he may feel may make him want revenge on both of them. With that being said I intend to present this information in a professional and non threating manner. I will offer sympathy and inform him that I will do everything to help him. It is also imperative to inform him that if he states something that indicates that he may cause harm to his ex fiancé and ex best friend. As a counselor it is my duty to protect the client from causing harm to themselves and to others. If I they verbally make a threat even if it seems empty. I must make reasonable measures to protect which might include notifying the person that the threat was made against and the authorities. This is in part to the Tarasoff Law which was a 1976 case Tarasoff vs. University of California(National Psychologist Tarasoff Law) in which a young man was seeing a therapist for counseling, the client stated he wanted to murder his ex girlfriend, the therapist then proceeded to notify campus police who then question the client. The client was then released from their custody after he stated that he didn’t have any intentions of murdering the victim. After he was released he went through with the crime and murdered his ex girlfriend.

If the client fails to control his anger and aggression, I have already discussed this case with my supervisor and we are in agreement that it would be in everyone best interest myself, the client, and the ex fiancé and friend. To have the client placed in a hospital. This will ensure the safety of all of us. In this hypothetical scenario the hospital will sedate the patient and put him on medications.

The ethical issue in this case is the duty to protect. According to the ACA Code of Ethics, (ACA Code Of Ethics 2014) confidentiality is broken when there is “Serious and Foreseeable harm” In this case there are red flags in which “serious and foreseeable harm are a possibility.