Reference no: EM132967355

Carefully explore the case study then answer the questions.

Balancing principles: Privacy, beneficence, non-maleficence. honesty. and fidelity

You are a licensed clinical social worker and have been doing family counseling sessions with the Joneses Bill and Susie and their fifteen-year-old daughter, Jennifer for about six months. You have an explicit understanding that confidentiality extends only externally; conversations within the family will be shared with all family members.

It is not unusual for you to meet separately with each of the family members as you have found that you often get a more nuanced and deeper insight into problems when you can talk to them individually. Today you have Jennifer alone and, befOre you can get to some issues raised in last week's family session, she says, "I have to talk with you about something important: I am two months pregnant. I got drunk at a party and had sex with two guys. I've already scheduled the appointment for an abortion, but wanted to talk with you first - you seem to know so much about so many issues."                                                                                                                                                You are pretty flabbergasted. Jennifer has always come across as a pretty innocent and naive girl and that is certainly the impression her parents have of her - to their great joy and satisfaction. Both are quite conservative, with evangelical Christian beliefs. Bill has, on multiple occasions, made disparaging and bigoted comments about "those slutty girls just trying to milk the welfare system by having a kid."

Before you can delve deeper into Jennifer's issues, including your desire to find out more about the two boys (given that they may in fact have committed assault), she says: "You of course can't tell anyone. If my dad found out, he'd kill me!" While you think this may be an exaggeration, you also recognize that Bill has a serious temper. They are, in fact, in court-ordered family therapy because Bill slapped Susie in front of Jennifer. And Susie is no shrinking violet: she has thrown dishes at Bill on more than one occasion.

You are in a real bind. You have a family session scheduled for three days from now, and during those sessions, the first topic of conversation has always been whatever came up in the individual meetings. While you have made real progress of late, you realize that this revelation could take you back to square one even do real harm to the family relationships, making things worse than when they first came to you.

Which duty should prevail here? Your beneficent commitment to help Jennifer resolve this tough issue and to protect her from potential harm from her family? Your duty of confidentiality to each member of the family? Your duty of honesty and fidelity to maintain the promise of full truth? Your beneficent duty to protect other potential victims of the boys and your associated duty of justice to see that they are properly punished (should that be appropriate)? Or something else?

• In this situation, what would you do? Tell the parents, or not?
• Provide a justification for your choice. How have you balanced beneficence with privacy and confidentiality?
• Please explicitly use concepts and theories from your reading.