2. Counselors who work with at-risk youth
work with young people whose lives are in
constant flux.
Adolescence is a time of physical,
intellectual, emotional, and social
development, during which young people
confront the question, "Who am I?“
Many children are considered to be "at-
risk" due to a variety of social and
economical factors.
Adults, unlike children and adolescents, for
the most part have developed
sophisticated coping and adaptation skills
to deal with internal and external stresses
and problems of life.
3. There are challenges that counselors face
when working with this demographic.
Challenge 1: Competency and
Training
Understand the specific issues faced by at-risk youth.
Be trained and skilled in facilitating dialogue,
providing opportunities for growth and identity
development, and fostering a positive social climate
within schools
Know your theories and strategies and which are
more effective
Multicultural competence
4. Challenge 2: Recognize and
Understand Counseling Barriers
The counselor’s task is to minimize perceived barriers, if they
exists. By being informed/informative, honest, youth friendly
and interested in developing a helping relationship with the
young person. This empowers young clients, helping them to
have a major part in finding solutions for themselves and
supports self-efficacy.
Possible Barriers:
Counselor bias
Counselor rescuing
Client resistance
Client mistrust
Client ignorance of counseling
process
Client bias
5. Challenge 3: Parental Involvement
Parents and professionals must work together
to find solutions.
Parents may be mistrusting or unwilling to
work with counselor
Challenging situations and unfortunate
circumstances where their guardians may be
single parents, other family members, or may
be entirely absent.
6. Challenge 4: Collaboration (Other
Professionals, Agencies, or
Community)
Counseling at-risks youths may require collaboration with
school officials and teachers
Youth-centered counselors must know the local resources
available for youth in the community in order to make
appropriate referrals to other counselors or youth-friendly
organizations.
Youth-centered counselors know how to develop strong
relationships with other resource persons in the community
so as to facilitate a smooth transition of services
Referrals
Lack of adequate support services
7. Challenge 5: Emotionally Draining
Job intrinsically involves counselor with other
people's lives and problems and can, therefore,
be emotionally draining.
Can lead to burnout.
Burnout is a syndrome of physical and emotional
exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced sense of
personal accomplishment. It is a gradual process of loss
that can lead to cynicism and ineffectiveness. Recently,
burnout has been recognized as a problem not of the
individual worker but of the social environment in which
people work.
8. Challenge 6: Unrealistic
Expectations and Additional
Factors
Heavy caseload
Deadlines that aren’t effective
Unclear job expectations
Lack of support
Increasing complexity of the job
demands
9. Challenge 7: Legal Issues
* Determining whether to report suspected
child abuse
* Counselor / youth confidentiality
* Determining whether a youth poses a
danger to others
* Determining whether a youth is suicidal
* Responding to a subpoena
10. Tips:
Make sure you are-
Not telling young people what to do
Not preaching or lecturing
Not behaving like an expert
Not being in control of the person’s life
choices, alternatives, options
Not imposing one’s values, one’s truth on
others
Not labeling and diagnosing
Not focusing on pathologies and weaknesses
11. Guidance
Academic skills support
Organizational, study and test-taking skills
Post-secondary planning and application process
Career planning
Education in understanding self and others
Coping strategies
Peer relationships and effective social skills
Communication, problem-solving, decision-making,
conflict resolution and study skills
Career awareness and the world of work
Substance abuse education
Multicultural/diversity awareness
12. Individual Youth Planning
Goal setting
Academic plans
Career plans
Problem solving
Education in understanding of self,
including strengths and weaknesses
Transition plans
Though these theories entail many aspects helpful to developing strong counseling relationships, they may not always be appropriate for at-risk Afro-American clients. For example, person-centered therapy advocates a nondirective approach, which may be ineffective for Afro-American clients who may be more comfortable, especially in the critical beginning point of counseling, with structure and evidence of solutions to problems (Ziter, 1987). Youth who are facing very realistic problems that require immediate action may perceive a nondirective approach that places the direction of the counseling solely on the client as disrespectful or unhelpful. In addition, the psychoanalytic concept of resistance may hinder counselors working with Afro American youth as they mistake the child's appropriate preliminary mistrust as a refusal on the client's part to truly work in therapy or as indicative of psychic conflict (Corey). Finally, cognitive therapies that place the locus of change or control on the child's thought processes may not pay enough attention to the influence of systemic qualities, such as racism and the socioeconomic residual effects of slavery, on the client's world view and life circumstances.Counselors providing multiculturally competent counseling services to at-risk Afro-American youth must be aware of the origins of this population's initial "healthy cultural paranoia," or understandable wariness, toward counseling and should work to prevent unintentionally furthering these discriminatory practices (Ridley, 1984). Additionally, multiculturally competent counselors recognize the impact of racism on psychological health and understand that the subjugated history of Afro-Americans in the United States affects the current perceptions and barriers surrounding Afro-American identity and achievement. Accurate conceptualizations of Afro-American clients cannot occur without acknowledging the insidious nature of racism, which can force Afro-Americans to negotiate a bicultural identity to function in both the majority status and marginalized cultures (Wilson & Stith, 1997; Ziter, 1987). For example, Afro-American students experiencing academic, behavioral, and emotional difficulties in school may be struggling with institutional racism and stereotyping that have been undetected or ignored by administrators and teachers, or they may be employing coping tactics such as "stereotype threat" as survival mechanisms in a perceived hostile environment
counselors must have a thorough understanding of culture and the ways it impacts child and adolescent mental health, psychopathology, service utilization, assessment, and treatment and also have skills in providing culturally responsive services. School counselors also need to be aware of their own cultural biases and assumptions so that they can be effective in improving the learning climate of their students
youthThey are therefore challenged to build formal and informal alliances and support systems with professionals and community activists who believe in and support healthy youth initiatives. Youth-centered counselors know how to develop strong relationships with other resource persons in the community so as to facilitate a smooth transition of services for youth. Youth-centered counselors apply specific networking skills involving communication, rapport building, trust-building skills and team work when working with organizations and other professionals. However, youth-centered counselors are often confronted with the lack of existing physical and social infrastructure supporting youth in Latin American and Caribbean countries. They are therefore challenged to build formal and informal alliances and support systems with professionals and community activists who believe in and support healthy youth initiatives.
According to these results, having to determine whether a client was suicidal and having to determine whether to report suspected child abuse were the most prevalent issues faced by school counselors. Another prevalent issue for school counselors was having to determine whether a client posed a danger to others. The legal issues encountered least often were being asked to turn over records that the school counselor considered to be confidential and being subpoenaed to appear as a witness in a legal proceeding.