Human Service Ethical Dilemmas

Human service professionals come under scrutiny about their performance of duties on a regular basis. Furthermore, when carrying out their daily duties, many ethical dilemmas could surface for workers on a regular basis. Following proper ethical decision-making guidance in the human service agency is a core to success and acceptance by the community. If agencies do not follow ethical standards and guidelines, they cannot foster a positive atmosphere when attempting to help the people from their communities. In the modern era, there are many ethical dilemmas faced and leaders need to take the necessary steps to discipline those workers who succumb to the temptations. Leaders need to follow the standards and use decision-making models for ethical

Human service agencies have professionals whose goal is to accomplish the mission of helping people through their ethical decision-making process. However, there are also employees who do not adhere to the ethical guidelines and make poor decisions that cause the mission human service agencies fail because of the lack of trust by members of the community. One has to remember it only takes one poor decision to make a community lose trust for years to come. Human service workers will always be faced with ethical dilemmas on sometimes a daily basis. Diversity and multiculturalism, consent and confidentiality and dual relationship issues are three of many ethical dilemmas that workers face, but with the proper training and following the ethical code, human service workers can make ethical decisions without hindrance from internal and external

Leaders should know and follow the ethical guidelines in place for the agency. If the leaders do not follow the code of ethics, some of the employees may not either. This is an internal obstacle that will hinder any progress toward ethical practices within an agency. Additionally, regular ethics training from an external source will help all employees of an organization understand the accepted ethical practices. The training should start at new employee orientation. A scenario format is one of the best learning experiences. It will allow the new employee make decisions based on their moral reasoning. However, it is important to remember that training will not solve all problems of the ethical-decision making process. However, it will allow more employees to see the difference between ethical and unethical decisions. Many times, employees already have their minds made up and they will make unethical decisions regardless of the training. This could be an internal barrier that transfers from peer-to-peer if the leadership does not stop it fast