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With Event Application concerns regarding suicidal thoughts or past attempts, Reliant typically will may require (depending on the specific situation) an additional condition of a counselor/therapist recommendation before acceptance - if the event director and Reliant are still in favor of moving forward toward acceptance.   

The potential condition for acceptance is that we Reliant would like the participant applicant to sign a release waiver with their counselor that allows /therapist. This waiver would then allow the program director (or program director and local pastor) to be able to call contact the counselor and get their recommendation on whether they think the participant should attend the applicant attending the program or not.  We want Reliant wants the program director to be on the waiver because we want to have the ability to contact the counselor/therapist to keep the lines of communication open over the summer the entire course of the event, if a follow up conversation ever becomes necessary. However, we would be open to allowing a local pastor to be that person as well if the local pastor is also attending the program with them to continue following up.

The participant’s applicant’s acceptance is could be conditional on them signing the release waiver and thereby giving the director/local pastor being able the ability to talk with the counselor/therapist.  If they do the applicant does not want to sign the release waiver then that shows (, then this may possibly be deemed an unwillingness to co-operate instead of (which could be construed that they are potentially hiding something) and Reliant may decided decide that it is not willing to accept them due to for liability reasons. If the counselor/therapist does not recommend them attending the program, then in general generally Reliant will not accept them.

If after talking to the counselor, the /therapist does recommend the applicant for attending the program, but program director is now still not convinced that they the applicant should be accepted ,  (even after talking to the counselor/therapist), then Reliant reserves the right to not accept the applicant  even if the counselor says it’s fine then we will not accept them.

In most cases, the participant is already seeing a counselor. This is standard procedure for the counselor to talk to someone (we recommend the program director or if need be the local pastor) about their client. Once the participant signs the release the counselor is able to communicate with that person  as to whether or not they recommend their client attend the program over the summer. 

If the participant is not seeing a counselor/therapist, then we may ask that they go see a licensed counselor in order to move forward with our conditions for acceptance. But,  we also understand that a counselor may not want to make a recommendation after just one session or two therapy sessions and we will need to take that into consideration on how to move forward from there. 

These types of scenarios will be discussed treated on a case by case basis. Reliant is may potentially ok moving move forward with accepting a participant an applicant prior to the conditional acceptance criteria being completed, with the caveat that we could still potentially withdraw the participant applicant after initial acceptance if after this condition is met we still feel like they any condition(s) are met and we still later decide that the applicant should not move forward with actually attending the program.  We suggest Reliant suggests that the program director at least have the participant say applicant state that they are willing to move forward, with understanding this condition, before we officially accept them. The final decision is left in the program directors hands to say if they would prefer we that Reliant wait until the conditions condition(s) have been fully met and discussed before moving forward or if they feel . Or if the program director feels comfortable, we Reliant can move forward knowing we could potentially retract our acceptance at a later time. 

Asking for Counselor's Recommendation

Here an example of  how to ask the participant event applicant for a their counselor's recommendation for a Reliant summer program: This would typically be sent to a representative from the local church leadership that the program participant applicant is from, that would then meet with the participant applicant and give them this information to give pass on to the counselor. 

The local church leadership would set up a meeting with the participant applicant and explain the following:

• Share with them the applicant that we are excited for him/her to have this opportunity.
• Discuss that we want to make this summer a success for them.
• Explain that there are a couple of conditions some condition(s) that he/she needs to meet in order to be accepted.
• Explain to him/her the needed recommendation from his/her counselor/therapist and how to get obtain that (see instructions below).
• Explain that we would will need to wait for the program director to review the counselor's recommendation before we move forward.
• Explain to her them that if he/she is conditionally accepted, one of the conditions is generally to meet with a staff member for # of weekly meetings to for check in accountability, and to care for him/her.
• After the meeting, respond back to the program director with how the meeting went, and if he/she accepts those conditionsagrees to those condition(s).

Letter from Counselor/Therapist

If the counselor does not say this specifically say the written recommendation to the program director may not be forwarded or shared, then Reliant would like to have a copy of the recommendation to keep for their records. If Thus, if the counselor notes that this may only be shared with the program director, then Reliant will put the decision in the program director's hands to make the call decision as to whether or not they recommend acceptance of the applicant based on the counselor's recommendation (as not to break the confidentiality agreement). If the program director sees any reason based on this the counselor's recommendation, not to accept the participant applicant, then the program director would need to make the decision to not accept the participant. 

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