Needham Acts - Mentors and Coaches

What should I do about my concern?

Your responsibility is to communicate your worries or concerns about a youth to his or her parents. As a coach or youth leader, you are only able to provide information to parents or guardians and are not able to seek medical attention unless you have been given permission to do so. Your relationship with parents and guardians is a vital link in providing support to our youth so it needs care and respect especially when you are worried about the well-being of their children.

If you are concerned that a youth is at immediate risk of self-harm and a parent or guardian is not immediately available, you should contact emergency services. In Needham, call 911 and explain what the emergency is. After emergency services have been contacted, you should make every possible effort to reach parents or guardians to inform them about what has happened. While this is a complicated decision that may be second-guessed at a later time, it is important to have the safety of our youth as our first priority. Everyone in our community has to do his or her part to create a safe environment for our youth.