Ethical Vignette Paper 1 Liberty University

Abstract
As a Professional Counselor in the United States of America there are regulations in each state regarding being a mandated reporter. For instance, duty to warn, duty to report and learning when to breach confidentiality will be discussed in this paper. This particular paper summarizes the video, Legal and Ethical Issues for Mental Health Professionals, Vol. 1: Confidentiality, Privilege, Reporting and Duty to Warn (2008), ACA Code of Ethics (2005) and Virginia Board of Counseling state board rules/regulations that applies to confidentiality, privilege, reporting and duty to warn. As future Licensed Professional Counselor, a demonstration of how the state of Virginia Board of Counseling’s board rules/regulations will be applied to my future practices as a professional counselor.

After reviewing the video there are legalities and clinical judgment’s a Licensed Professional Counselor must be aware of when rendering services in the mental health field (www.psychotherapy.net). Psychotherapy.net (2008) video discussed different steps were discussed such as duty to report, confidentiality, and privilege to discuss a client’s information. As mandated reporters, health care providers and mental health providers must report all forms of child and elderly abuse. The video presentation provided a case in which a child was brought into the emergency room by his foster mother and he had quarter-size bruises on his arms, the foster mother indicated he received the bruising from being in an automobile accident (www.psychotherapy.net). The nurse did not report the child abuse due to her not suspecting any form of child abuse; however, the four-year old child later died from abuse which led to charges being placed upon the nurse (www.psychotherapy.net). The video indicated there are constitutions of laws that can