14 DAY TRIAL // Therapists and doctors working with underage children, especially in their teens, have an ethical and moral dilemma in front of them – do they tell the parents or respect the will of the patient, who told them to keep quiet? Answering this question is no walk in the park, specialists say, as sometimes it’s best to just let things work out on their own.
Of course, a doctor's task is very hard to accomplish, when they are left alone with children who tell them various things that can be very serious. Most caregivers don't know how to react, because, in certain scenarios, they simply have to tell the parents, but do not have the approval to do so from their little patients. And if they lose the confidence of that kid, it's highly unlikely that they will ever get it back.
Generally, when treating young adults, physicians offer them a great degree of confidentiality, keeping issues related to their love life and substance abuse a secret. But knowing if and how to do this in middle-school children can be very difficult, as these kids are old enough to be asked some of the same questions as their older peers, but young enough to be denied total doctor-patient secrecy in some cases.
"They’ll preface it with ‘My mom’s not going to know about this, right?' I’m going to talk as much as I can about why this is not good, and all we know about alcohol and marijuana. There are enough studies out there that show how bad this is for brain development," argues pediatrician Dr. Herbert Lazarus, a clinical associate professor at New York University.
"The balance changes in part based on what the level of the health risks are, how mature that young person is, how much parental oversight they’re receiving," adds Children’s Hospital Boston chief of adolescent medicine, Dr. S. Jean Emans.