What is informed consent?
- Amy Such
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
This video has been made by Golden Thread Psychology to help explain what informed consent is and how you, as a parent or carer, can be in the best position to make a decision for your child or young person using informed consent.
Here's a copy of the BRAIN poster.
Video Transcript
"Hello, I'm Amy from Golden Thread Psychology. This video has been made to help explain informed consent.
Before an Educational Psychologist (or EP) can become involved with a child, they must first get consent from that child's parent or legal guardian - someone with parental responsibility. Consent means the parent has agreed to the EP's involvement - they are happy for the EP to help support the child.
Consent is very important. This is why we ask that a joint agreement form, or a JAF, is filled in and signed before we work with your child. It's your way of saying "yes, I'd like this offer of support to go ahead please".
To be able to properly consent - to be able to fully agree to an EP working with your child - you must first understand what it is you're agreeing to. This is what we mean when we talked about informed consent.
If you've been asked to fill in a JAF for Golden Thread Psychology, hopefully the SENCo (the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) at your child's school has taken the time to sit with you and talk about who we are and what our involvement might look like.
With this information, you can then use your BRAIN to help decide what's going to be best for you and your child.
BRAIN.
B. What are the benefits for you and your child if you say yes to the EP getting involved? How might it be helpful?
R. Risks - what risks might there be for your child if you agree to them working with the EP?
A. Are there any alternatives? If you say no to the EP, might there be some other actions or another professional that can help at this time?
I is for intuition. This one might feel a bit tricky, but what's your gut telling you? Does it feel right? Do you like the sound of what's being suggested?
And finally, N for nothing. If you don't do anything, then what? How might that affect your child?
BRAIN.
Some of these are very big questions so don't feel you have to answer them alone. If you've been asked to fill in a JAF and you're not sure, you can always ask for a meeting with your school SENCo and use the BRAIN model to work through your thinking with them.
Or, if you'd rather get to know us bit more, especially when it comes to I - intuition and that gut feeling, then give us a call or drop us an email. We'd be more than happy to talk through the BRAIN model with you and help you come to an informed decision about whether or not you'd like to say yes to EP involvement.
We hope you've found this video helpful!"
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