Legal and ethical challenges in counseling suicidal students - Special issue: legal and ethical issues in school counseling

Professional School Counseling, Oct, 2002 by David Capuzzi

Best Practices

At the end of the introduction to this article, four questions were posed that relate to the legal and ethical challenges in counseling suicidal students. The first three of these questions (What are the ethical obligations of school counselors and other school personnel once a youth has been identified as potentially suicidal or attempted or completed suicide?, What are the roles of faculty, staff, and administrators, and how do their roles differ from those of the school counselor or crisis team member?, and How do schools work with parents and guardians to ensure that an appropriate constellation of services is provided for a suicidal youth?) are addressed through brief descriptions of school preparedness for prevention, crisis management, and postvention.

Prevention

Since a growing number of legal opinions have indicated that unanticipated acts of violence in schools (and suicide is an act of violence) can be predicted (Hermann & Remley, 2000), courts, in the future, probably will expect schools to have prevention programs in place. If they do not, courts may hold the schools accountable for suicides. A number of steps must be taken to facilitate a successful school-community prevention effort. Communication with administrators, faculty / staff in-service, preparation of crisis teams, providing for individual and group counseling options, parent education, and classroom presentations are necessary to fulfill ethical obligations and to delineate roles.

Communication with administrators. There is a compelling need for prevention, crisis management, and postvention programs for the adolescent suicide problem to be implemented in elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the country (Metha et al., 1998; Zenere & Lazarus, 1997). One of the biggest mistakes made by counselors, educators, and coordinators of counseling/student services is to initiate suicide prevention programs without first obtaining the commitment and support of administrators and others in supervisory positions. Building principals and superintendents must be supportive; otherwise efforts may not be effective.

In addition to the groundwork that must be done on the building level, it is also important to effect advance communication and planning on the district level. The superintendent, assistant superintendent, curriculum director, staff development director, student services coordinator, research and program evaluation specialist, must all commit their support to intervention efforts.

Faculty/staff in-service. Since teachers and other faculty and staff usually learn of a student's suicidal preoccupation prior to the situation being brought to the attention of the school counselor or another member of the crisis team (assuming such a team exists), all faculty and staff (e.g., teachers, aides, secretaries, administrators, custodians, bus drivers, food service personnel, librarians, school social workers) must be included in building or district level in-service on the topic of youth suicide. All should be taught the background information previously delineated so that they can make referrals to the school counselor. It is imperative that all adults in schools be educated about both youth suicide and building and district policies and protocols for prevention, crisis management, and postvention. They must be cautioned against attempting to provide personal counseling; their roles are to recognize risk and facilitate referrals. A growing number of publications provide excellent guidelines for elements of prevention programming focused on school faculty and staff (Davidson & Range, 1999; Metha et al., 1998; Zenere & Lazarus, 1997).