A+Pregnant+Teenager

A Pregnant Teenager Case Andrea Hartman, Emily Presley, Natalie Reeder media type="youtube" key="apJspnw1laA?version=3" height="360" width="640" align="center"

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 A Pregnant Teenager: A School Counselor’s Quandary Danielle Shareef  Michael works as a school counselor for alternative programs in a rural high school with a student population of 1,300. He is assigned to work with “at-risk” students whose home environments may be affected by poverty, absentee parents, drug exposure or use, or domestic violence. Michael conducts weekly group and individual counseling sessions with these students. As a married father of two adolescent girls, Michael often finds himself counseling students with issues he hopes his daughters will never encounter.  One morning, Jenny, a 17-year-old sophomore, walks into Michael’s office distraught. She explains that she requested to be excused from class to see a counselor because she was involved in a verbal altercation with another student and didn’t want to get into a fight. Jenny says she gets into a lot of arguments lately at school. As Michael talks further with Jenny, he learns that she has been dealing with stress at home as a result of mistrust and disobedience issues between her and her mother. Jenny also reveals that she is approximately 6 weeks pregnant and that her aunt had taken her to the doctor for confirmation without her mother’s knowledge.  Michael surmises that dealing with the pressure of concealing her pregnancy from her mother probably is contributing to the fact that Jenny is getting into arguments at school. After further discussion, Jenny says that she refuses to tell her mother because she is uncertain that she wants to have the baby. If she chooses not to have it, then her mother will never know she was pregnant. If she tells her mother about her condition, Jenny believes her mother will not allow her to have an abortion. Jenny asks to end the session, stating that she has to go take and English test. Michael, aware that he is experiencing some strong emotional reactions as he talks with Jenny, agrees to her request and asks her to come back and talk with him some more at the end of the school day. Jenny agrees to do to.  After the session, Michael processes his feeling, values, and personal beliefs about teen pregnancy and abortion. He is not a staunch supporter of abortion, but believes every adult woman has the right to choose whether or not she wants to give birth. However, he doesn’t think this position applies to minors. He is totally against teen pregnancy and does not believe that young girls should be having and raising babies. He wants to strike a balance in his work with Jenny, providing her with support in her decision making without implying that Jenny should have an abortion. He is also concerned about whether he has a legal obligation to notify her parents. media type="file" key="Pregnancy Case.mp3" width="240" height="20"

Ethical Codes and Considerations
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Relevant Laws and Legal Considerations
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Literature Review
Click the link to read current recommended discourse from other professionals in the field. media type="file" key="TeenLitReview" width="240" height="20"

Professional Interview
Click on the link to see which route a current counseling professional would take.

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ACA Ethical Decision-Making Model
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Click the link for more information about the Ethical Decision Making Model and to see how we broke it down.