Assignment

• For this assignment, you will apply the knowledge and skills you have developed throughout your program to develop a presentation that addresses the ways counselors provide consultation and leadership in their communities for education, prevention, crisis intervention, and treatment of emerging counseling issues.

You might think about these types of activities using the following metaphor: imagine there is a dangerous stretch of river in town where people risk falling in and being swept away in the rapids towards a plunging waterfall. A plan to address this risk might include several components:

o Education: Hold town meetings that warn people about this particular stretch of the river; post signs along the river that describe the dangers.

o Prevention: Build a fence along the sides of the river to limit access; stretch a safety net across the river before someone plunges into the waterfall.

o Crisis intervention: Train a response team who will attend to persons who have tumbled over the waterfall and need immediate help.

o Treatment: Develop approaches to help people who repeatedly ignore warnings and fall into the river.

Using your current fieldwork site as a framework for this assignment, imagine that your site supervisor has met with you to discuss an emerging issue that needs immediate response at your agency or school. The issue is an increasing number of cases in which a person has engaged in self-injury, such as cutting or burning themselves or repeatedly scratching themselves until bleeding occurs. The behavior is not part of a suicidal gesture and is not immediately life-threatening. However, the severity of the behavior or the frequency with which a person is engaging in the behavior is of significant concern.

Your supervisor believes it is important for the school or agency to provide a well-considered plan in response to the rise in these behaviors that have been seen over the past weeks. This plan would not only address development of effective treatment plans for the counselors working with these cases, but it would also include ways the school or agency can provide education and information to the larger community, prevention efforts, crisis response protocols, and other activities or resources that can effectively address this emerging situation.

As a first step, your supervisor has asked you to develop a PowerPoint presentation for your agency or school leadership and staff that outlines key areas that a response plan would address. Your PowerPoint presentation should include a title slide with a minimum of 10 additional slides that address the following areas:

5. The Issue- Briefly define the types of self-injurious behavior that might be seen in your fieldwork setting.

- Include a description of the clients or students who are likely to engage in these behaviors as well as a brief summary of our current understanding in the counseling field as to why these types of behaviors may arise.

- Use a minimum of two slides and a minimum of one reference to the current literature.

- Note: Your presentation should not include any direct quotations; restate all information in your own words and include proper citations to show the sources from which the information has been drawn.

6. Education and Prevention- Present two methods your agency or school might use to provide education about this emerging issue to its clients or students, its staff, and the larger community, including parents, teachers, and family members of clients or students.

- Also present one method that might be used in support of prevention efforts at your agency or school.

- Support your ideas with specific examples of how these education and prevention efforts would be implemented at your site and how they might be effective in reducing the prevalence of this issue.

- Use a minimum of three slides and a minimum of two references to the current literature.

7. Treatment and Crisis Intervention- Present two counseling approaches that, according to the current professional counseling literature, are deemed effective for working with clients or students who exhibit self-harming behaviors. Include a brief description of each approach and its appropriateness for use with the students or clients at your fieldwork site. Be sure to address its use with students or clients from a wide range of social-cultural backgrounds.

- Present a list of steps counselors should address during an urgent or crisis situation with a student or client who has presented with cuts or burns that appear to be serious.

- Address the legal and ethical issues that might emerge for counselors who are working with these students or clients. Include circumstances under which consultation with supervisors and other professionals would be warranted. Make reference to the specific laws, regulations, or ethical codes.

- Use a minimum of four slides and a minimum of four references to the current literature.

8. Recommendations and Next Steps- What are your recommendations to school or agency leadership and staff about steps your fieldwork site might take over the next three months in order to address this emerging issue?

- Referring to the areas of education and prevention, treatment, and crisis intervention, make at least one specific recommendation for each of the three areas. Describe how your agency or school staff would collaborate to put each recommendation in place. Include a description of how specific school or agency resources, including staff, time, and funding, might be allocated for each of these recommendations.

- Use a minimum of one slide.

9. References- List all references using proper APA format as the final slides in your presentation.

Submission Guidelines

o Each slide in your presentation should include clear and concisely presented materials.

o The recommended font is Times or Calibri, with a font size between 14 and 18.

o Use headings at the top of each slide to organize your presentation clearly.

o It is strongly recommended that you paste your presentation into a Word Document so you can submit it to Turnitin for review. As a reminder, you should not use any materials copied directly from another source in your presentation; all content must be presented in your own words with appropriate citations. Use the link located in the Resources to review information on using Turnitin.

o Refer to the scoring guide for this assignment as you develop your PowerPoint presentation to ensure you include all required elements.