“I found cannabis in my son’s room — fix him”

A parent ringing about an absent, competent 16-year-old is fundamentally a confidentiality-and-consent station. You cannot disclose a 16-year-old’s records, assess/treat or drug-test him on a parent’s demand, or act without his consent (at 16 consent rests on the Family Law Reform Act 1969, s8, and capacity is presumed under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 — Gillick is for under-16s and Fraser only for contraception; GMC 0–18 years and GMC Confidentiality 2017 govern disclosure), and you should neither confirm nor deny what he has discussed with the practice — and the reason matters: confidentiality is what keeps young people engaging with services. The skill is to hold that boundary kindly, after validating the parent’s fear and love, so it lands as care rather than obstruction. Then do what you CAN: a proportionate risk/safeguarding screen (escalation, other drugs, mental-health change, exploitation/county-lines, risk to self) that would change the calculus only if genuine risk emerges; general information; facilitating Jacob to attend confidentially himself; and signposting young-people’s drug and parenting/family services. The examinable hidden agenda is that "fix my son" masks the mother’s own crisis — a recent divorce, a sense of failing and losing control, possibly her own low mood — and the caller in front of you needs support in her own right. Decline harmful demands (covert testing, "scare him straight", records disclosure) without coldness, keep the door open for Jacob, and safety-net both of them.