When disaster strikes your own community, being a part of a crisis response team can mean encountering friends, family, coworkers, and other community members familiar to you. In such an event, counselors must consider the ethics of the situation to conduct effective crisis work.
Imagine that you are a crisis counselor responding to an area that has been devastated by flooding. You and your team have set up a mobile crisis response center and are working with walk-in clients from the community. The first client who comes to see you for the walk-in is your barber or hair stylist, who explains that they have lost everything in the flood and are unable to locate their family pet. They express feelings of despair, hopelessness, and helplessness.
What are some ethical implications for working with this client?
How would you handle assessing this client’s risk?