School Counselor Ethics in Crisis Management
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Author(s): C. Hatton, Ph.D.; L. Stockdell; A. Greiner, Ph.D.
September 1, 2023
Self-Care Ethics
I’ve heard our nation is experiencing a youth mental health crisis and see this within my school. Within the last month, I’ve had many students express suicidal ideation and be admitted to the hospital for evaluation. Several other students who require mental health services are on long waiting lists. These situations make me sad, and I often feel defeated because there are so many to manage. How can I ensure I am doing my best to serve my students when I feel like I’m pouring from an empty cup?
School counselors often wear many hats, so it’s not unusual or uncommon to feel like you’re spread too thin throughout the school day, especially when it comes to crisis management. School counselors assist with individual students’ crises (e.g., homelessness, suicidal ideation, etc.) as well as schoolwide crises (e.g., death of a student or faculty member, natural disasters, acts of school violence, etc.). Since these crisis situations are often unexpected and traumatic, they require you to think fast and spring into action to support students, families and school personnel. Once crises are managed appropriately, school counselors are often thrust into the next situation. Although school counselors often lead efforts to aid others in debriefing and decompressing after crises, they rarely have the opportunity to engage in these self-care measures themselves.
School counselors are humans too, and as a result, you will experience real feelings and reactions due to the crises that occur around you. It’s normal to feel sadness or despair when encountering crisis situations. However, you have an ethical obligation to recognize when your feelings or reactions to a crisis are affecting your ability to effectively perform your duties at school. It’s important to be self-aware and mindful of your thoughts, feelings, reactions and possible triggers when managing crises. This helps to ensure you’re acting in students’ best interest and not according to your own personal feelings.
The ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors require school counselors to practice self-care by monitoring their mental health and seeking assistance when necessary. Such practices help school counselors identify and manage issues such as compassion fatigue, impairment, secondary trauma, vicarious trauma and burnout. It’s imperative that school counselors develop and implement a regular self-care routine that caters to their mental, emotional and physical health (e.g., personal counseling, journaling, meditation, exercise, etc.).
If you’re experiencing issues affecting your ability to effectively assist students and schools in crisis, consult with a trusted colleague or supervisor to process your feelings and create an action plan. By doing so, you can receive the necessary support while protecting your students’ best interests. When school counselors monitor their mental health, seek consultation and use regular self-care routines, they are better able to deliver optimal services to students and schools in crisis.
Safety & Confidentiality
When I assist students in crisis, it can be challenging to navigate confidentiality with teachers. When teachers suspect something is going on with a student, they often come to my office asking questions or wanting to know why a particular student is missing class. I realize teachers care about their students and are concerned about their well-being, but how do I respect students’ confidentiality and maintain good working relationships with teachers who are concerned about their students?
Confidentiality is an important ethical obligation for school counselors because it sets the foundation for a trusting relationship. For students to trust the school counselor, they must have the expectation that they are safe to share unless there is a concern about their safety or the safety of others.
It is an ethical practice to inform school staff of your obligation to adhere to confidentiality. Sharing this information with faculty and staff members during faculty meetings is an ideal way to advocate for your role as it relates to students’ needs. When school personnel understand your ethical obligation to honor students’ privacy, it establishes a mutual understanding and respect for student confidentiality.
Confidentiality must be taken seriously, and any necessary breaches should be handled carefully. In some cases, you may deem it necessary to breach confidentiality to act in a student’s best interest. When this happens, best practice involves first discussing the situation with the student and a parent/guardian, if applicable. If the decision is made to move forward with a disclosure, you should take steps to breach confidentiality in the least-intrusive manner.
When disclosing sensitive student information, you must decide which details to share, how to share them and with whom to share them. The ASCA Ethical Standards instruct school counselors to adhere to federal, state, local and school district policies and procedures when conveying sensitive information. To meet this ethical standard, you must become familiar with laws, policies and procedures governing the dissemination of sensitive student information. The ASCA Ethical Standards also caution school counselors to ensure confidential information isn’t disclosed accidentally to those who don’t have a reason to know. Furthermore, the information should only be shared with a very limited and specific set of educators who need to know. It’s best practice to share this information in person rather than via email to protect student privacy to the best extent possible.
In this scenario, it would be a best practice to meet with the student’s teachers in person in a private setting to share only details that would help them better support the student. Remind the student’s teachers that the information shared during this meeting should remain confidential and not be discussed outside of the meeting.
It’s important to note that sharing confidential information with a specific and limited number of educators can be beneficial for the student. If a student’s teachers are provided with general information about the crisis, they can better support the student by exercising sensitivity and providing other modifications or accommodations within the classroom setting. This may include a teacher adjusting certain course content that may trigger a student, extending due dates for assignments or monitoring the student closely for signs of distress.
Deciding to breach confidentiality is not an easy decision, and school counselors have an ethical obligation to use an ethical decision-making model. See Section F of the ASCA Ethical Standards to evaluate the potential risks and benefits to the student should a disclosure be warranted.
Best Practices
I’m a new school counselor, and I know I’m responsible for helping students when they experience crises. However, if I’m honest, I must admit that the thought of crisis management makes me nervous and overwhelmed. I understand each crisis is different, but are there some best practices I can implement to ensure I am acting in an ethical manner?
Crisis management can be challenging even for veteran school counselors. Following best practices can ensure school counselors act within ethical guidelines while effectively supporting students, faculty and staff. Here are a few best practices to manage crises in an ethical manner.
Follow federal, state and local laws: It‘s imperative to follow all relevant laws pertaining to crisis management in the school. This includes understanding federal laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and state-specific regulations.
Collaborate with others: When a crisis occurs, it is all hands on deck. Crisis management is a team effort. School counselors must collaborate and communicate with teachers, administrators, school psychologists, school social workers and other relevant staff members. By working together, school counselors and other members of the school’s crisis management team can combine expertise and resources to support the school community. The team’s expertise gives school leadership guidance on specific protocols to follow during crises and aids them in providing a coordinated response. School counselors can also work with others on the crisis team to ensure the crisis response protocol is reviewed each year and that team members are aware of their roles and responsibilities.
Follow protocol: It’s essential to be familiar with your district’s crisis management policies and procedures. These guidelines will outline the appropriate steps to take in various crises and help navigate potential legal and ethical considerations. Specific communication protocols also ensure everyone knows their roles and responsibilities. This may include the development of a telephone tree and training on its proper use. School counselors must communicate effectively and responsibly. Communication during crisis management should be clear, empathetic and nonjudgmental. School counselors may hold regular meetings or consultations to discuss the crisis and its impact on students and develop appropriate strategies to address the emotional and psychological needs of those affected by the crisis.
Consult: During crisis management, consult with other experienced school counselors, mental health professionals, district-level supervisors and the school leadership team. Seeking advice from those with more expertise can be beneficial in making well-informed decisions. School counselors often consult with mental health agencies for referral services and community organizations that offer specialized crisis intervention services. These resources can support students, their families and the school community during a crisis.
Document efforts: Documentation is necessary in the crisis management process. This includes keeping track of observations, conversations, actions and interventions. This documentation is essential for tracking progress, assessing the effectiveness of the school counselor’s interventions and ensuring accountability.
Debrief with the crisis team: Ensure the crisis team convenes after the crisis to reflect on the protocol, including strengths and areas for improvement. This process helps the team continually improve. This also gives team members the opportunity to process their thoughts and feelings about the crisis and ensure individual members are connected with community resources if needed.
Follow up after the crisis: Touch base with students and parents after the crisis to determine if additional support and resources are needed. Use your district-provided resource list of community mental health agencies, private counselors/therapists, free/reduced-fee medical/dental resources, local food banks, etc.
Integrate preventive measures: Get to know your students, and build rapport so they’re comfortable coming to you if they’re struggling with anything. Being proactive also involves training. Crisis management teams should be trained at the beginning of each school year. During training, new members learn about communication protocols, key team leaders and any other specific state and district guidelines that should be implemented.
More importantly, the school counselor is instrumental in developing prevention programs for students to target relevant issues affecting students, such as bullying, substance abuse, stress management and conflict resolution. These programs can help identify potential crises early on and address underlying problems before they escalate.
Seek professional development and advocacy: Stay committed to lifelong learning. Seek out professional development opportunities on crisis management and response to ensure you stay up to date on best practices in the field. Furthermore, if district protocol doesn’t align with best practices, advocate for best practices by educating your school/district on the knowledge you’ve gained from the professional development opportunities and resources (e.g., applicable ASCA position statements, ethical standards, etc.).
Crystal Hatton, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Liberty University and an ASCA U Legal and Ethical Specialist. Laura Stockdell is a school counselor educator at Southeastern Oklahoma State University and a certified grief counselor and certified clinical trauma professional. Angelica Greiner, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Liberty University, serves on ASCA’s Ethics Committee and is an ASCA U Legal and Ethical Specialist. Send your ethics questions to ethics@schoolcounselor.org.
I’ve heard our nation is experiencing a youth mental health crisis and see this within my school. Within the last month, I’ve had many students express suicidal ideation and be admitted to the hospital for evaluation. Several other students who require mental health services are on long waiting lists. These situations make me sad, and I often feel defeated because there are so many to manage. How can I ensure I am doing my best to serve my students when I feel like I’m pouring from an empty cup?
School counselors often wear many hats, so it’s not unusual or uncommon to feel like you’re spread too thin throughout the school day, especially when it comes to crisis management. School counselors assist with individual students’ crises (e.g., homelessness, suicidal ideation, etc.) as well as schoolwide crises (e.g., death of a student or faculty member, natural disasters, acts of school violence, etc.). Since these crisis situations are often unexpected and traumatic, they require you to think fast and spring into action to support students, families and school personnel. Once crises are managed appropriately, school counselors are often thrust into the next situation. Although school counselors often lead efforts to aid others in debriefing and decompressing after crises, they rarely have the opportunity to engage in these self-care measures themselves.
School counselors are humans too, and as a result, you will experience real feelings and reactions due to the crises that occur around you. It’s normal to feel sadness or despair when encountering crisis situations. However, you have an ethical obligation to recognize when your feelings or reactions to a crisis are affecting your ability to effectively perform your duties at school. It’s important to be self-aware and mindful of your thoughts, feelings, reactions and possible triggers when managing crises. This helps to ensure you’re acting in students’ best interest and not according to your own personal feelings.
The ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors require school counselors to practice self-care by monitoring their mental health and seeking assistance when necessary. Such practices help school counselors identify and manage issues such as compassion fatigue, impairment, secondary trauma, vicarious trauma and burnout. It’s imperative that school counselors develop and implement a regular self-care routine that caters to their mental, emotional and physical health (e.g., personal counseling, journaling, meditation, exercise, etc.).
If you’re experiencing issues affecting your ability to effectively assist students and schools in crisis, consult with a trusted colleague or supervisor to process your feelings and create an action plan. By doing so, you can receive the necessary support while protecting your students’ best interests. When school counselors monitor their mental health, seek consultation and use regular self-care routines, they are better able to deliver optimal services to students and schools in crisis.
Safety & Confidentiality
When I assist students in crisis, it can be challenging to navigate confidentiality with teachers. When teachers suspect something is going on with a student, they often come to my office asking questions or wanting to know why a particular student is missing class. I realize teachers care about their students and are concerned about their well-being, but how do I respect students’ confidentiality and maintain good working relationships with teachers who are concerned about their students?
Confidentiality is an important ethical obligation for school counselors because it sets the foundation for a trusting relationship. For students to trust the school counselor, they must have the expectation that they are safe to share unless there is a concern about their safety or the safety of others.
It is an ethical practice to inform school staff of your obligation to adhere to confidentiality. Sharing this information with faculty and staff members during faculty meetings is an ideal way to advocate for your role as it relates to students’ needs. When school personnel understand your ethical obligation to honor students’ privacy, it establishes a mutual understanding and respect for student confidentiality.
Confidentiality must be taken seriously, and any necessary breaches should be handled carefully. In some cases, you may deem it necessary to breach confidentiality to act in a student’s best interest. When this happens, best practice involves first discussing the situation with the student and a parent/guardian, if applicable. If the decision is made to move forward with a disclosure, you should take steps to breach confidentiality in the least-intrusive manner.
When disclosing sensitive student information, you must decide which details to share, how to share them and with whom to share them. The ASCA Ethical Standards instruct school counselors to adhere to federal, state, local and school district policies and procedures when conveying sensitive information. To meet this ethical standard, you must become familiar with laws, policies and procedures governing the dissemination of sensitive student information. The ASCA Ethical Standards also caution school counselors to ensure confidential information isn’t disclosed accidentally to those who don’t have a reason to know. Furthermore, the information should only be shared with a very limited and specific set of educators who need to know. It’s best practice to share this information in person rather than via email to protect student privacy to the best extent possible.
In this scenario, it would be a best practice to meet with the student’s teachers in person in a private setting to share only details that would help them better support the student. Remind the student’s teachers that the information shared during this meeting should remain confidential and not be discussed outside of the meeting.
It’s important to note that sharing confidential information with a specific and limited number of educators can be beneficial for the student. If a student’s teachers are provided with general information about the crisis, they can better support the student by exercising sensitivity and providing other modifications or accommodations within the classroom setting. This may include a teacher adjusting certain course content that may trigger a student, extending due dates for assignments or monitoring the student closely for signs of distress.
Deciding to breach confidentiality is not an easy decision, and school counselors have an ethical obligation to use an ethical decision-making model. See Section F of the ASCA Ethical Standards to evaluate the potential risks and benefits to the student should a disclosure be warranted.
Best Practices
I’m a new school counselor, and I know I’m responsible for helping students when they experience crises. However, if I’m honest, I must admit that the thought of crisis management makes me nervous and overwhelmed. I understand each crisis is different, but are there some best practices I can implement to ensure I am acting in an ethical manner?
Crisis management can be challenging even for veteran school counselors. Following best practices can ensure school counselors act within ethical guidelines while effectively supporting students, faculty and staff. Here are a few best practices to manage crises in an ethical manner.
Follow federal, state and local laws: It‘s imperative to follow all relevant laws pertaining to crisis management in the school. This includes understanding federal laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and state-specific regulations.
Collaborate with others: When a crisis occurs, it is all hands on deck. Crisis management is a team effort. School counselors must collaborate and communicate with teachers, administrators, school psychologists, school social workers and other relevant staff members. By working together, school counselors and other members of the school’s crisis management team can combine expertise and resources to support the school community. The team’s expertise gives school leadership guidance on specific protocols to follow during crises and aids them in providing a coordinated response. School counselors can also work with others on the crisis team to ensure the crisis response protocol is reviewed each year and that team members are aware of their roles and responsibilities.
Follow protocol: It’s essential to be familiar with your district’s crisis management policies and procedures. These guidelines will outline the appropriate steps to take in various crises and help navigate potential legal and ethical considerations. Specific communication protocols also ensure everyone knows their roles and responsibilities. This may include the development of a telephone tree and training on its proper use. School counselors must communicate effectively and responsibly. Communication during crisis management should be clear, empathetic and nonjudgmental. School counselors may hold regular meetings or consultations to discuss the crisis and its impact on students and develop appropriate strategies to address the emotional and psychological needs of those affected by the crisis.
Consult: During crisis management, consult with other experienced school counselors, mental health professionals, district-level supervisors and the school leadership team. Seeking advice from those with more expertise can be beneficial in making well-informed decisions. School counselors often consult with mental health agencies for referral services and community organizations that offer specialized crisis intervention services. These resources can support students, their families and the school community during a crisis.
Document efforts: Documentation is necessary in the crisis management process. This includes keeping track of observations, conversations, actions and interventions. This documentation is essential for tracking progress, assessing the effectiveness of the school counselor’s interventions and ensuring accountability.
Debrief with the crisis team: Ensure the crisis team convenes after the crisis to reflect on the protocol, including strengths and areas for improvement. This process helps the team continually improve. This also gives team members the opportunity to process their thoughts and feelings about the crisis and ensure individual members are connected with community resources if needed.
Follow up after the crisis: Touch base with students and parents after the crisis to determine if additional support and resources are needed. Use your district-provided resource list of community mental health agencies, private counselors/therapists, free/reduced-fee medical/dental resources, local food banks, etc.
Integrate preventive measures: Get to know your students, and build rapport so they’re comfortable coming to you if they’re struggling with anything. Being proactive also involves training. Crisis management teams should be trained at the beginning of each school year. During training, new members learn about communication protocols, key team leaders and any other specific state and district guidelines that should be implemented.
More importantly, the school counselor is instrumental in developing prevention programs for students to target relevant issues affecting students, such as bullying, substance abuse, stress management and conflict resolution. These programs can help identify potential crises early on and address underlying problems before they escalate.
Seek professional development and advocacy: Stay committed to lifelong learning. Seek out professional development opportunities on crisis management and response to ensure you stay up to date on best practices in the field. Furthermore, if district protocol doesn’t align with best practices, advocate for best practices by educating your school/district on the knowledge you’ve gained from the professional development opportunities and resources (e.g., applicable ASCA position statements, ethical standards, etc.).
Crystal Hatton, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Liberty University and an ASCA U Legal and Ethical Specialist. Laura Stockdell is a school counselor educator at Southeastern Oklahoma State University and a certified grief counselor and certified clinical trauma professional. Angelica Greiner, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Liberty University, serves on ASCA’s Ethics Committee and is an ASCA U Legal and Ethical Specialist. Send your ethics questions to ethics@schoolcounselor.org.