Dear Senator,
As a well-trained clinical mental health counselor, I am writing this letter to spearhead the needs of individuals living with disability. According to the American counseling association, a counselor in mental health has a vast number of standards that must be followed. One of the standards is to ensure equal opportunities for individuals in the community to come up with the necessary learning-related outcome, such as perseverance and understanding of learning as part of success in career building (Sue, 2016). I believe that individuals who have disabilities also have the capacity towards having equality at work and the learning institutions so that there is strong ethics in the working areas.
I am approaching the issue of equality in individuals with living disabilities as a clinical mental counselor who has a vast understanding of the situation that hits the underprivileged in society. In most cases, these individuals’ rights are undermined; hence they end up at the poverty line, one of the significant factors that the legislators must consider when enacting laws.
Counselors have the ethical responsibility to provide advocacy for the individuals living with disability in society. This is aimed at eliminating the barriers of this population. This can be spearheaded by challenging the traditional assumptions put on counseling. As a counselor, it is vital to identify that client problems can accrue due to the environment. Counselors hence are tasked to be the chief agents, offer support and act as advisory personnel who will champion the promotion of social justice at the micro and macro levels. I am tasked to be alert to the issues of oppression and discrimination toward people with living disabilities (American Counseling Association, 2014). This depicts that I am entitled to oversee the disability issues and act as an advocate in reducing the discrimination levels against people living with disabilities.
The population that needs this legislative attention are those people living with disability. They suffer from inequality issues in the workplace. The risks faced by this population entailed unhappiness and decreased life enjoyment which goes hand in hand with family conflicts. There are high chances that this population has relationship difficulties that can be tied to social isolation in the community as well as workplace discrimination (Lee, 2018). Additionally, there are risks related to taking drugs, such as tobacco, missing school, and a widened gap in financial and legal problems. This shows that this population of people living with disabilities is far living beyond poverty with a rise in homelessness.
These risks endanger or affect individuals because they cannot perform their work well. This is because they feel the community has disowned them, leaving them out of decisive moments. In the long run, there can be extreme emotions and behavioral and physical problems brought by unhappiness and conflicts.
These risks warrant legislative protection because living with disability, especially a mental disability, is an issue that requires instant help, unlike other illnesses. More so, this unaddressed living disability will negatively influence society, accompanied by homelessness, unemployment, and the rise in poverty. Society can see a reduced safety and economic plan reduction (Purtle et al., 2020). As a result, legislation is required because this can hamper local businesses’ production, impede children’s success in schools, and bring along community disruption.
Therapeutic interventions grounded in best practices promote help-seeking by individuals in several ways. First, a therapeutic intervention passed by the government can aid in ensuring that there is available medication for people living with disability; hence they might not feel disturbed in getting these therapies. For instance, in the case of mental health, the therapeutic intervention entails legislation that oversees cognitive-behavioral relaxation, which is accompanied by social skills training. This is also a way in which social support, acceptance, and commitment will enhance resilience training and programs aimed at forgiving (Sue and sue, 2016).
The interventions are relevant to the population being talked about because it restores a figure of self-worthiness in the community for this population. Such interventions help oversee those cases of disability are minimized in the community.
The specific policy action is to enact a law requiring equal opportunity for those living with disability. This entails equal opportunities in all sectors, including the workplace, school, and hospital. Also, there is a need to enact legislation that will spearhead good care for the disabled population in society (Lee, 2018).
The policy and legislation are best for this population as they will spearhead a working nation based on equality. More so, there will be a reduction in elements such as poverty, homelessness, relationship problems, and conflicts in this population. The benefits are worth time and resources as they will ensure that this population moves back to the community. Besides, it will foresee an active community that will improve the economy.
The risks of not taking the policy of action entail a high mortality rate, a high rate of conflict, and an increased rate of poverty. This shows that a rise in conflicts in the community will bring along inequality after that.
Based on argumentative collaboration between counselors and governmental institutions, counseling is a mission-based profession; hence its primary purpose is to serve clients. This depicts that counselors must follow the ethics codes and professional competencies when advocating rights for their clients. Based on the American counselor’s association, there is always an employed team of governmental affairs and public policy staff that are linked to the federal and local government who advocate for legislative fonts and support professionals so that there is the elimination of issues such as those discussed above (American Counseling Association, 2014).
References
American Counseling Association. (2014). ACA code of ethics. Retrieved from: https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/et
Lee, J. A. (2018). Affirmation, support, and advocacy: Critical race theory and academic advising. The Journal of the National Academic Advising Association, 38(1), 77-87. Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1187221.pdf
Purtle, J., Nelson, K. L., Counts, N. Z., & Yudell, M. (2020). Population-based approaches to mental health: history, strategies, and evidence. Annual review of public health, 41, 201. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8896325/
Sue & Sue, D. (2016). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
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