Social Workers Code Of Ethics

1321 Words3 Pages

Abstract What is a code of ethics? A code of ethics is a set of guidelines to help professionals in a business work honestly and appropriately throughout all aspects of their occupation. Each profession has a “code of ethics” they must follow. The two codes of ethics that will be discussed are the code of ethics for the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the American School Counseling Association’s (ASCA) ethical standards. The primary purpose of National Association of Social Workers (2008) is “to help meet the needs of people depending on their current situation, whether that is poverty, vulnerability, etc.” (NASW Delegate Assembly). Whereas according to the American School Counselor Association (2010), the main focus for …show more content…

According to NASW Delegate Assembly (2008), social work bases its profession on a set of core values. These core values include: service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence (NASW Delegate Assembly, 2008). Social workers like school counselors have to follow a set of professional guidelines. These are known as “the code of ethics of the National Association of Social Workers.” The NASW serves six main purposes for their code of ethics. According to the National Association of Social Workers (2008), these purposes are: “1) identifying core values on which social work’s mission is based, 2) summarizes broad ethical principles that reflects the profession’s core values and have a set of specific ethical standards that should be used to guide social work practice, 3) help social workers identify relevant considerations when professional conflict or ethical issues arise, 4) provide ethical standards where the general public can hold social work profession accountable, 5) helps bring understanding to people new to the field of social work’s mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical standards, 6) it expresses standards so that the social work profession itself can use this to assess whether social workers have engaged in unethical behavior” (NASW Delegate Assembly, 2008). Social workers must maintain professional ethical behavior toward a variety of activities. These activities include: “1) ethical responsibility to clients, 2) ethical responsibility to colleagues, 3) ethical responsibility in practice settings, 4) ethical responsibility as professions, 5) ethical responsibility to the social work profession, and 6) ethical responsibility to the broader society” (NASW

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