Florida Board 491 Statutes related to provision of services to minors

Discussion Board Prompts are meant to be exploratory. Meaning, you have been provided direct access to specific links about Florida Board 491 Statutes related to provision of services to minors and being an effective Mental Health Counselor. Use this discussion board post to explore the resource and share your findings with the class.
List below are some prompts to help guide your initial post- however this is NOT an exact prescription and students are encourages to use their critical thinking skills in all of the discussion board prompts.

Moral/ethical dilemmas

Students should explore one or more of the moral and ethical concerns related to the resource topic provided for each discussion. 
This type of prompt aims to get students thinking about the topic from multiple sides, giving them a broader understanding of the subject. This will help prepare them for discussion, as they now have the tools to form their own opinions and ideas based on those that they have researched.

Compare and Contrast

Students should make connections and identify differences between ideas that can be found in required readings to scholarly articles, images, videos and more.
When students understand the similarities and differences between different ideas they are able to develop a better argument because they understand both sides. This type of question will lead to better constructed responses from students and in turn deeper, more well-rounded discussions.

Interpretive → Evaluative

Interpret the intentions or goals of the resources. Then students should evaluate the veracity of these intentions, and finally the effectiveness of the methods used.

Conceptual Changes

Introduce students to a new concept or idea, then ask them to search online to find a common misconception about this topic and explain it in their response.
Both 3. and 4. get students forming their own ideas about a topic based on the content they’ve read. Once they’ve formed their own ideas they must then question their own methods and challenge their original thoughts.

Personal Exploration

Students should explore a new idea on their own terms. Exploring what it means to them as mental health professional. This creative freedom should allow you to find your authentic voice.
Questions like this encourage students to be curious and build a personal connection with the topic. This makes the topic more interesting to the student which helps foster further engagement during discussions.

EXAMPLE- 

Example 1: 
The Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy, and Mental Health Counseling, covers many statutes, constitutions, and laws in the state of Florida. Minors are a delicate population to deal with because of the fact that they have their own set of laws due to them not being of age to make their own decisions in some areas of their lives. After doing some research in the Florida Board website, I found a couple of statutes related to provision of services to minors. 
First, I will talk about one statue that, I believe, presents an ethical and moral concern to minors. In Chapter 397 “Substance Abuse Services”, section 397.6798, it indicates that minors may be admitted into emergency custody by involuntary assessment into an addiction treatment facility. I agree with that part and believe that a minor might not know the amount of help they need, so admitting them involuntarily will help them. What I disagree with and believe presents ethical dilemmas is the 72 hours that the minor has to be assessed by a physician in order to determine if they really have a problem or they can leave the facility. I believe that 3 days is too much time and can scar the minor for life if they do not really need to be admitted in the facility. A physician can assess the child for 24 to 48 hours and determine the help they need.
While reading and informing myself about the Florida Statutes, I found that pregnant unwed minors may consent to medical or surgical care or services related to her pregnancy and by law, the service has to be granted to her (Chapter 743, 743.065). Relating to that topic, I got curious about abortion and its laws in Florida so I found out in Chapter 797.03, that it is unlawful for any person to perform or assist an abortion on a person. I was curious and wanted to compare and contrast it to a laws from other states. While doing my research, I found out that “Utah became one of 34 states currently enforcing laws that require a minor to notify and/or obtain the consent of a parent or guardian before an abortion (Plane, 2007). Compared to Florida, in which abortion in general is unlawful, I believe that Utah is more flexible, and even though the minor has to have consent from a legal guardian or parent, they can decide whether to proceed with their pregnancy or not.
As mental health counselors, we have to be informed about the statutes, laws and constitutions going on in our states in order to deliver a responsible work to our clients. There might be instances in which we don’t agree completely with the laws set in place, but as professionals, we have to learn to accept those things and still work under all those laws. Learned from the book called “Legal Issues in Social Work, Counseling, and Mental Health” by Robert G. Madden, we have to learn how to understand and deal with the legal side of the business of counseling in order to become the successful professionals we want to be.
References: 
Plane, M. D. (2007). Utah’s Parental Involvement Law: Minors’ Access to Abortion. Utah Bar Journal, 20(3), 24–29.
Madden, R. G. (1998). Legal issues in social work, counseling, and mental health : guidelines for clinical practice in psychotherapy. Sage Publications.

WEBSITES-
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0000-0099/0039/0039ContentsIndex.html&StatuteYear=2018&Title=-%3E2018-%3EChapter%2039

https://floridasmentalhealthprofessions.gov