Ethical Issues In Child Abuse Hotline

Andrew is a ten-year-old boy currently in the process of being adopted by his grandparents along with his five other siblings. While conducting a monthly check in appointment with the family, the grandmother disclosed that the young boy did not go to school because he was afraid. During the last couple months, the school principal was mistreating Andrew and this particular incident instilled so much fear that he had missed school the last three days. During the lunch hour Andrew was confronted by a classmate and was being called names and then pushed Andrew. He then pushed his classmate back and was caught by the school principal. Andrew stated that the principal grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the middle of the cafeteria and tried to push him to sit on the ground and eat his lunch. Andrew did not budge and would not sit on the ground and was then taken to her office and was suspended.
The ethical issues that arise in this case include informed consent, confidentiality, boundaries, and scope of practice. This case requires informed consent because as an intern the clients need to know that I will be speaking to my supervisors about any issues that may arise during my meetings with
my clients. I always let my clients know before every meeting that I would be going back to my supervisor and discussing any questions they or I may have. My scope of practice also comes into play here because at the time I was only a BSW intern and had very little experience as to what to do. Which is the reason why I went immediately to my supervisor to notify her about what was disclosed to me during our meeting. Making sure that my client knew what her confidentiality rights were to myself, my agency, but any others was crucial during this case. I also had to check in with myself and see where my boundaries were; the reason for this is because when I heard this I was truly upset. I could not make any decisions here for the family or myself immediately. It is important to maintain your integrity and responsibility when hearing this directly from a child. Staying calm and understanding in front of the client was required during this case because Andrew was nervous telling me. If I had not maintained my boundaries and remained professional while hearing this he probably would not have disclosed to me as much as he had. As the case manager in this case I made sure to notify the clients that I would be speaking with my supervisor in regards to this situation and I did that.
After speaking with my supervisor we decided that it would be best to report it to the Child Abuse Hotline as we had reasonable suspicion of abuse. We decided to this because the child was fearful of attending school and although we understood that this was not abuse that occurred in the home we felt it best to report. Although when abuse occurs outside of the home must be reported to the police we felt that it would be best to be report to the hotline so that if another similar situation arises there are past reports. We made the report to the Child Abuse Hotline and immediately faxed over a written report within an
hour.