scholarly journals What Social Workers Should Know About Ethics: Understanding and Resolving Ethical Dilemmas

10.18060/124 ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine P. Congress
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Sexual Relationships ◽  
Dual Relationships ◽  
Personal Agency ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Social Work Practitioners

Recognizing ethical issues and dilemmas that arise in professional practice is crucial for social work practitioners, educators, and students. After a discussion about the limited, although growing, literature on social work ethics, the ten main tenets form the most current NASW Code of Ethics are presented. These topics include limits to confidentiality, confidentiality and technology, confidentiality in family and group work, managed care, cultural competence, dual relationships, sexual relationships, impairment and incompetence of colleagues, application to administrators and relevance to social work educators. In addition to understanding the Code of Ethics, social workers can use the ETHIC model of decision making for resolving ethical dilemmas. This easy to use five step process includes examining personal, agency, client, and professional values, thinking about ethical standards and relevant laws, hypothesizing about consequences, identifying the most vulnerable, and consulting with supervisors and colleagues. A case example involving confidentiality, HIV/AIDS and family therapy demonstrates how social workers can use the ETHIC model.

Beyond the Code of Ethics, Part II: Dual Relationships Revisited

2002 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 483-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Freud ◽  
Stefan Krug
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Dual Relationships ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Social Work Practitioners

The authors, both social work educators, serve on an ethics call line committee that provides insights on how the provisions of the (United States) National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics (NASW, 1996) interface with the ethical dilemmas encountered by the social work community. In this paper, the authors highlight aspects of social work practice that they consider ethical, yet not easily accommodated by the provisions of the current Code. They also question the 1996 introduction of the concept of dual relationships into the Code and suggest that the Code adopt the less ambiguous term of boundary violations. Also recognized by the authors is the need for clear boundaries for the protection of clients against temptations that might arise in a fiduciary relationship, and for the legal protection of social workers. But, the authors argue, social work practitioners in certain settings, with particular populations, and in certain roles, inevitably face multiple relationships as an integral aspect of their work. The authors conclude that social work's adoption of the psychoanalytic constrains of anonymity, neutrality, and abstinence has detoured the profession from its original double focus on individuals and their society.

Reflexivity, Ethics, and Divergent Perspectives: A Transformational Journey of Social Work Educators

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-109
Author(s):  
Heather Howard ◽  
Mary LeCloux ◽  
Dana E. Prescott ◽  
Katherine Walbam
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
National Association ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Minority View

Using classroom vignettes, this article portrays the experiences of four White social work educators with minority-view inclusion and conflict management that is a result of divergent perspectives in the classroom. The use of reflexivity is explored as a strategy for understanding educators' biases and assumptions in teaching. In addition, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics is applied as it refers to helping social work students learn to think critically to meet the needs and rights of clients and to address social inequalities, diversity, privilege, and oppression. The authors provide recommendations based on their experiences and reflections.

Porcelain ethics: a critical linguistic analysis of the treatment of race in the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua R. Gregory
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
National Association ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Social Work Ethics ◽  
Social Work Practitioners ◽  
White Hegemony

The linguistic treatment of race – or lack thereof – in the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics upholds hegemonic whiteness, the cornerstone of racialisation and attendant ideological and material violence of myriad forms. The Code: endorses and deploys language that renders race an ahistorical, decontextual commodity to be possessed; forgoes rigorous engagement with defining race as a situated and historically harmful social construction; and narrates the prescription of ostensibly universalisable social work ethics from a position distinctly influenced by and beneficial to hegemonic whiteness. This article delineates these propensities evident in the language of the Code and recommends a shift by social work practitioners, educators, researchers and scholars towards racial ethics that resist closure, embrace unsettlement and validate incommensurability in an effort to subvert white hegemony and actualise more authentic and comprehensive racial justice.

scholarly journals Social Work Values and Ethics: Reflections on the Profession's Odssey

10.18060/73 ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederic G. Reamer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Social Work Values ◽  
Ethics Complaints

Social workers' understanding of ethical issues has matured significantly. This article traces the evolution of the profession's approach to the values and ethics. During its history, social work has moved through four major periods-- the morality period, the values period, the ethical theories and decision-making period, and the ethical standards and risk-management (the prevention of ethics complaints and ethics related lawsuits) is diverting social workers from in-depth exploration of core professional and personal values, ethical dilemmas, and the nature of the profession's moral mission. The author encourages the profession to recalibrate its focus on values and ethics.

scholarly journals Ethical Issues of Professional Communication and Activities of Social Workers in Work with a Family of Military Services

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (6 (344)) ◽  
pp. 130-139
Author(s):  
Iryna Trubavina ◽  
◽  
Svitlana Boyko ◽  
Oleg Nikonenko ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
Military Personnel ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
The Family

The relevance of the article lies in the fact that for the first time the question was raised about the ethics of social work with the families of military personnel during a military conflict and a pandemic, the extreme conditions of existence of mankind, the humanitarian crisis. The following ethical issues of social work with families of military personnel are the main ones in the article: how to provide social services, by what criteria, on the basis of what rules in conditions of limited resources? The authors show the peculiarities of the family as a client of social workers and the need for special ethics with it, reveal the modern social problems of the families of military personnel. The article reveals the essence of ethics of behavior and communication of social workers with families. The authors define the characteristics of the family of a serviceman, prove the lack of training of social workers to work in war and pandemic conditions, its previous focus on work in peaceful conditions. The authors describe the experiencе, which allowed them to formulate the purpose of the study – to determine the essence of the ethics of behavior and communication of social workers in working with families of military personnel. The article reveals the concept of professional ethics of a social worker who works with a family, the components of ethics and features in working with families of military personnel through: values – of various types and levels, moral norms and their types, ethical principles, moral qualities of a social worker. The article shows the prospects for further research as the development of a code of ethics for social workers in war conditions.

Social work responses to terrorism: Balancing ethics and responsibility

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
pp. 822-835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Sweifach ◽  
Heidi Heft LaPorte ◽  
Norman Linzer
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Terrorist Attack

This article presents a qualitative study that examined how Israeli social workers contend with ethical issues regarding confidentiality and disclosure in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. Respondents of this study shared examples from their own experiences of how ethical issues emerged as a result of confidentiality obligations.

Zvereva, Iryna

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetyana Semigina ◽  
Tetiana Basiuk
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Professional Community ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Social Pedagogy ◽  
National University

Dr. Iryna Zvereva (1952–2013) was one of the prominent founders of social work and social pedagogy in Ukraine. From 1992 through to 1998 she worked at the State Center of Social Services for Youth, the first professional public social work organization in Ukraine. She became a professor at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and the Borys Grinchenko University of Kyiv. She led the development and international recognition of the Ukrainian professional community: under her leadership the Ukrainian Association of Social Educators and Social Work Specialists had joined the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) in 1994. She initiated the elaboration of the National Code of Ethics for Social Workers in accordance with international standards. She worked for the Ukrainian and international organizations that had introduced innovative, pioneer social work practices in Ukraine, and she authored over 200 publications on social work and social pedagogy.

The Development and Initial Validation of the Empathy Scale for Social Workers

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve King ◽  
Michael J. Holosko
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Empirical Evaluation ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Master Of Social Work ◽  
Initial Validation ◽  
Social Work Practitioners ◽  
Student Training ◽  
Empathy Scale ◽  
Work Knowledge

Empathy is a core principle essential to social work. Despite this emphasis, minimal empirical research of empathy has been undertaken by social work researchers. The purpose of this study was to develop and initially validate the Empathy Scale for Social Workers (ESSW). The ESSW is a 41-item self-report inventory designed to assess empathy in social work practitioners. The sample ( N = 271) consisted of social workers who had attained the Master of Social Work (MSW) degree. Findings revealed promising psychometric properties for the ESSW, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) demonstrated content, construct, and factorial validity. Results were encouraging and they lay the ground work for the continued development of the ESSW. This scale addresses a gap in social work knowledge regarding the empirical evaluation of empathy. Results have implications for social work as the scale may be used to assess student training needs and/or as a screening tool for social work supervisors and practitioners.

Preamble, Purpose, and Ethical Principles Sections of the NASW Code of Ethics: A Preliminary Analysis

2008 ◽  
Vol 89 (4) ◽  
pp. 578-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Woodcock
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Mission Statement ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
National Association ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Fourth Section

The first three, brief sections of the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers (1999) display striking inconsistency of content and uncertainty of purpose. The decision to incorporate those sections into a single code document along with the lengthy fourth section (Ethical Standards) appears to have contributed to their imperfection. The mission statement and the ethical principles, in particular, may develop better if they are divided into separate documents, each with its own distinct purpose. Such a development might help reduce the extent to which social workers must rely upon individualistic rather than shared wisdom in responding to common ethical issues.

Social workers’ attitudes toward human rights in a sample from Taiwan

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 295-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsin-Yi Chen ◽  
I-Chen Tang
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
General Knowledge ◽  
Educational Training ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Protests ◽  
Social Work Practitioners ◽  
Self Administered Questionnaire

The human rights concept is that everyone is entitled to enjoy those rights inherent to being human, without distinction. However, should human rights be considered a self-evident value for the social work profession? This study was to explore how social workers in Taiwan perceive the human rights concept. Responses from 276 social worker participants were analyzed by using a self-administered questionnaire. This study showed that social workers had a general knowledge of human rights. Receiving human rights educational training and engaging in social protests were important variables in increasing human rights awareness for social work practitioners.

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