How Much Should A Student’s Parents Know?
For many parents, the issue is what their children might call a no-brainer: If their offspring has stalked a peer or stayed in a mental-health clinic or been watched for suicidal inclinations at college, they want to know. Immediately.
Yet parents may be among the last people to be told of any concerns. Because of strict confidentiality laws, such problems cannot be reported to parents — or roommates or others close to a young adult in trouble.
The laws, say counselors and mental-health experts, are there for good reason. Without them, few students would seek help, and a trusting relationship could be impossible.
But such legal constraints — particularly in the wake of the killing of 33 students and staff at Virginia Tech — are deeply distressing to many parents who harbor a sense of love as well as responsibility for children they may see as not yet fully adult. Add to that their role in providing financial support, and parents can find it tough to be barred from learning about a child’s mental health — or that of a child’s roommate — without the appropriate consent.
Source: www.cbsnews.com
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