As a human service professional for the local department of human services, you

Question

As a human service professional for the local department of human services, you have been assisting Becky, a single mother of a four-year-old daughter, for the past few years as she has attempted to remove herself from the welfare rolls, obtain employment, and secure child care. Today, Becky walks into your office and tells you that she has been living with a degenerative, debilitating disease for the past eight years and has been given six months to live.

Becky has not responded well to her recent new medication regimen. She is clearly despondent, is very concerned for the well-being of her child, and confides to you that she is considering killing herself. She notes that she has few significant people in her life, realizes that it will be a relatively short amount of time before she dies, and is concerned that in the time she has left she will not be able to adequately care for her daughter. She would like your help in finding a good home for her child and in "getting her affairs in order" before she commits suicide.

As a professional helper, as one of her few confidantes, and as someone who cares, what should you do? Do the Ethical Guidelines for Human Services Professionals (Appendix B, pp. 317-321) offer any guidance or help in making your decisions about how to proceed with Becky?

Explanation / Answer

Ethical Guidelines for Human Service Professional, Standard 3&4 states that if the behaviour or decisions of the client will harm the client or people related to client or put anyone's life in danger, then the counselor can break the confidentiality by informing the necessary people in order to prevent the actions of the harmful actions of the client.
In this case, Becky is planning to come suicide which is going to put her life in danger and the four year old daughter will become an orphan. The first thing is to tell Becky that everyone is going to die one day but we shouldn't decide that because killing oneself is a murder against oneself. Besides, she has only 6 months to live, so she could think of living her life meaningfully with her child. It's also true that miracles can happen at any moment of life that her disease may get cured or will give her more time to live. So she shouldn't commit suicide and I'll make the authorities known about her decision.

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