Child Abuse Counselling: Symptoms, Interviewing Techniques, and Ethics

This article discusses the symptoms of child abuse, techniques for interviewing respondents, and ethical considerations for counselors. It also provides references for further reading.

Running head: CHILD ABUSE COUNCELLING
CHILD ABUSE COUNCELLING
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Assignment 1(500w)
Part C
a) Aggression can be a symptom some underlying reasons. It is polymorphic and is
common in many children suffering from psychiatric or medical problems or due to
life circumstances (Katz et al., 2012). The case study reveals that Jimmy shows
abnormal and aggressive behavior, which is may be because they have challenges
while dealing with anxiety or frustration and cannot easily verbalize or express their
feelings. This can be because of bullying at school, negligence and lack of affection
from the parents, just as in case of Jimmy. Jimmy had always been the victim of
verbal abuse from his father for being an accidental or unwanted child.
In order to obtain information regarding Jimmy's conduct or behavior, school can be an
academically sound resource for gathering information as the educator and Jimmy’s peers can
throw light upon certain facts which cannot be obtained from their parents. Any information
regarding the conduct of Mr. Mcleod and his family situations can be got from the neighbors.
The counselor have to be realistic to understand or speculate the reasons behind the
problem arising, hence an initial meeting will be arranged with the family (Katz et al., 2012).
There are certain things that have to be taken in to consideration.
Preparatory activity for interviewing the respondents other than the McCleod’s family
It is necessary to review the history or the family background of the McCLeod's family
and make a questionnaire accordingly. Certain factors should be considered while planning a

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first meeting. Such as the time and the place should be as per the convenience of the respondents,
as it cannot be possible for a client to compromise their day's work for meeting a social worker,
during his working hours, in that case telephone survey can be used (Trier-Bieniek, 2012)
Probable questions:-
 How do you know Mcleod? Do you know Jim? Can you give us an account of Jimmy? How does he get along with his parents? Tell me something about Mr. McLeod? How does he get along with his kids? Is the family well behaved? How do they treat Jimmy? How does Jimmy treat his brothers? Have you ever seen Jimmy behaving violently? How would you scale it? Does he always
behave like this? Have you ever seen Mr. McLeod abusing Jimmy, physically?
Engagement
The interview shall be done in a hostile environment for building the rapport. Both open
ended and closed ended questions can be done depending upon the psychological status of the
respondent (Katz et al., 2012). The counselor should also asses the respondent’s perception
regarding child abuse as that would influence the responses. All the questions should be unbiased
(Geldard et al., 2013).
Documentation

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All the information should be documented electronically for preventing misplacement
and theft.
b) Informed consent is necessary before the conduction of any such interviews ("Privacy law|
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner - OAIC", 2018). The respondents should be
well aware of the reasons for the interview and all the laws and the norms related to child abuse
and how they are applicable to Jimmy. Disclosure of the interviewee is prohibited as per the
legislation unless demanded by special cases or court trials (Graycar, 2012). The privacy and the
confidentiality of the respondent’s information are protected by legislation by Common wealth
privacy act 1988. Any questions that may give psychological stress to the interviewee should be
altered. The counselor should be aware of the guidelines established by the Child Care and
protection Act, 2009 ("Child Welfare Act 2009 )".
Since information should be collected from the sources like schools, neighbors and
friends, without informing The McLeod's family, there might be breaching of some ethics, but
the interest and the safety of the child should be given the first priority.

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References
Child Welfare Act 2009 (NI). Retrieved from
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017Q0001
Geldard, K., Geldard, D., & Foo, R. Y. (2017). Counselling children: A practical introduction.
Sage.
Graycar, R. (2012). Family law reform in Australia, or frozen chooks revisited
again?. Theoretical Inquiries in Law, 13(1), 241-269
Katz, C., Hershkowitz, I., Malloy, L. C., Lamb, M. E., Atabaki, A., & Spindler, S. (2012). Non-
verbal behavior of children who disclose or do not disclose child abuse in investigative
interviews. Child Abuse & Neglect, 36(1), 12-20.
Privacy law| Office of the Australian Information Commissioner - OAIC. (2018). Oaic.gov.au.
Retrieved 11 February 2018, from https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy-law/
Trier-Bieniek, A. (2012). Framing the telephone interview as a participant-centred tool for
qualitative research: a methodological discussion. Qualitative Research, 12(6), 630-644.