Peer Mediation in Schools essay
St. Joseph Indian School: background information
St. Joseph Indian School is an educational institution that provides school education for Native American boys and girls. St. Joseph’s Indian School’s mission is “to provide for the basic welfare of children (food, clothing and medical care) with special emphasis on the spiritual, emotional and educational development of each child, while respecting their culture and heritage” (St. Joseph Indian School, Official Site, 2012). In addition, it is known that the school supports Native American children from low-income families. The career of a school counselor in St. Joseph’s Indian School involves a number of requirements. Utilizing leadership skills, advocacy and collaboration, a school counselor in St. Joseph’s Indian School will promote students’ success through the appropriate preventive services and will respond to the student’ needs.
The value and advantages of an intake interview for the organization
Intake interviews play a significant role in this educational institution. School counselors’ duty is to help students to develop and successfully use social skills which will help them to succeed in school. Counseling intake interview is “a preliminary meeting” that counselors hold with students, usually in private, according to Cohen (2005, p. 130). One of the advantages of intake interviews is confidentiality. The students are offered an opportunity to share their problems with specialists and find the ways to solve these problems in a proper way.
Description of the situation in which an intake interview could be used, and how it would be a good choice for the organization and the situation
One of the situations, in which an intake interview could be used in St. Joseph Indian School, is peer mediation practices. The major benefits of peer mediation programs in schools are to “reduce interpersonal violence and improve school climate” (Cohen, 2005, p. 45). Peer mediation can help students to successfully solve real-life conflicts. In this case, an intake interview will last about 30 minutes. The major goal of a school counselor who will act as a peer mediation coordinator is to introduce the mediation process and built the trust of all students who will participate in this mediation program (Cohen, 2005, p. 130). Intake interviews will help students to become more open for communication and to share their problems with specialists. In addition, intake interview provides detailed information about the students. The students may be asked to fill in the intake questionnaires that contain the following information: biographical data, psychological problems, including assessment of suicidal and other self- and other- harming plans, students’ career plans, etc. This information will help school counselors to provide effective behavioral assessment of students.
The major ethical issues that may arise in this specific situation
and how they could be addressed
Some ethical issues may rise in this specific situation. For example, the students who will participate in the school mediation program may learn about psychological problems of each other. This information may lead to conflict situations, including bullying. It is known that bullying victims may have serious health problems. That is why informed consent and other ethical issues should be discussed with students before the intake interview, in the form of informed consent. Informed consent can be defined as an ethical imperative that includes not only the discussion of confidentiality and limits to confidentiality, but also the types of services that will be offered by the school counselor, benefits and risks of treatment program.
