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

Preparation of crisis teams. Most schools have crisis teams composed of faculty, staff, and parents connected with a particular building. These teams often exist in conjunction with a program for the prevention and intervention efforts necessary to cope with the drug problem among young people in today's schools. With education beyond that which is provided during faculty/staff in-service programs discussed previously as well as additional supervision and evaluation of clinical skills, a crisis team can be taught how to facilitate prevention efforts in a school as well as how to respond to a student already experiencing a suicidal crisis or in need of postvention efforts.

Individual and group counseling options. Prior to providing students with any information about suicide and suicide prevention efforts in a school, arrangements must be made for the individual and group counseling services that will be needed by those who seek assistance for themselves or their friends. School counselors rarely have the opportunity to provide the counseling needed by students identified as potentially suicidal because of other responsibilities as well as very high student-to-counselor ratios. Unless such counseling options are available, any effort at prevention, crisis management, or postvention will be doomed to failure.

If the school district cannot make a commitment to providing counseling, then arrangements for referral to community agencies and private practitioners must be made. It is important to provide adolescents and their families with a variety of referral possibilities along with information on fee schedules. There may be some question about whether the school district will be liable for the cost of such counseling if the referral is made by the school. (This issue should be explored by whatever legal counsel is retained by the district.) The dilemma, of course, is that unless counseling takes place when a suicidal adolescent has been identified, the probability is high that an attempt or a completion will take place. If the school is aware of a teenager's suicidal preoccupation and does not act in the best interests of such a teenager, families may later bring suit against the district.

Parent education. Parents of students in a school in which a suicide prevention program is to be initiated should be involved in the school's efforts to educate, identify, and assist young people in this respect. Parents have a right to understand why the school is taking such steps and what the components of a school-wide effort will be. Evening or late afternoon parent education efforts can be constructive and engender additional support for a school or school district. Parents have the same information needs as faculty and staff with respect to the topic of adolescent suicide.

Classroom presentations. Debate continues surrounding the safety of adolescent suicide prevention programs that contain an educational component presented to adolescents. This debate is similar to the one that emerged years ago when schools initiated staff development and classroom presentations on the topic of physical and sexual abuse. In conjunction with this debate, a number of advocates of education and discussion efforts are focused on students in a school-wide suicide prevention effort (Capuzzi, 1988, 1994; Capuzzi & Golden, 1988; Curran, 1987; Ross, 1980; Sudak, Ford, & Rushforth, 1984; Zenere & Lazarus, 1997). These advocates recommend providing an appropriate forum in which adolescents can receive accurate information, ask questions, and learn about how to obtain help for themselves and their friends. They believe that doing so does not precipitate suicidal preoccupation or attempts (Capuzzi; Capuzzi & Gross, 2000).