Guiding Principles - Ethical Considerations for Mentoring/Coaching Youth

This is the first in a series of blog posts about mentoring young people.

“First, do no harm” – attributed to Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689)

In psychology, psychiatry, counseling, and other helping professions there are governing bodies that outline specific ethical principles, and there are laws based on these principles that govern licensed professionals. However, there is no governing body for mentor/coaches. Although the lack of a governing body may appear to offer more freedom since there isn’t a group dictating professional practice, the lack of a governing body actually presents a conundrum because there is no set of codified guidelines to help guide you in your mentoring/coaching relationship. Regardless of the technique you use in working with youth (e.g., reframing, asking open ended questions, practicing problem-solving), there needs to be a set of guiding principles to your work with youth.

In this section we will discuss important guiding ethical principles to follow when working with youth. These ethical guidelines form the basis for most helping professions and are the guiding principles most often advocated in the field of mentoring youth.

1.Do no harm
The Hippocratic Oath implores physicians to “abstain from doing harm” or “never do harm”, but the later modification to “First, do no harm” elevates this ethic to primary status. It is the first consideration when working with people – if you don’t know what to do, don’t make the situation worse. It is very easy to get caught up in the need to “help” and feel that you must do something. Sometimes doing something, like giving uninformed advice, is worse than doing nothing.

Since everything you do can have both positive and negative consequences, you must balance this principle with principle #2 of promoting the youth’s welfare. For example, if an adolescent tells you he is going to commit suicide, then contacting his school counselor or other authority is the best thing because the good of preventing his suicide clearly outweighs the harm of breaking any confidentiality.