Shaniya Robinson arrives at the County Human Services Authority for her monthly appointment with her social worker. Ms. Robinson is a 25 year old African American female who is receiving treatment for schizophrenia from the adult behavioral health services program. During a session the client reports that she is under a great deal of stress because she is having difficulty adjusting to being a new mother. Her five month old baby girl Shanice is teething and cries frequently. Ms. Robinson is also struggling financially because she is currently unemployed; her mental illness makes it difficult to sustain employment long term. And she does not receive support from the child’s father on a consistent basis. The combination of these interactional difficulties is weighing heavily on the client who reports an increase in positive and negative symptoms (i.e. auditory hallucinations and social withdrawal). Because the client does not have insurance she disclosed to her social worker that she self-medicates using marijuana in an effort to manage symptoms. More noteworthy, the client explains that she uses the same method to soothe the baby by blowing marijuana smoke in the infant's face. It is certain that Ms. Robinson divulged such information for several reasons, she wants help and she believes that any information she shares within the context of her sessions are confidential.
Confidentiality
The expectation in the practitioner/client relationship is that any information disclosed will not be shared with others. Confidentiality is emphasized to provide the client with a safe haven in which to share traumatic events or embarrassing personal information about themselves (Krase, 2013). Disclosing this type of sensitive information...
... middle of paper ...
...). Marijuana and Breast Feeding: Is it Safe to Smoke Marijuana and Breastfeed? Retrieved from http://addictions.about.com/od/legalissues/a/Marijuana-
And-Breastfeeding.htm?p=1
Krase, K. (2013). Social Workers as Mandated as Reporters: Conflicted Over Confidentiality?
Part IV. The New Social Worker. Retrieved from http://www.socialworker.com/feature-
articles/practice/social-workers-as-mandated-reporters%3A/page-2.html
Louisiana Children's Code. (n.d.). Retrieved on March 27, 2014 from http://www.nicholls.edu/frc/louisiana-chidrens-code/
National Association of Social Workers (2008). NASW Code of Ethics: Guide to the Everyday
Professional Conduct of Social Workers. Washington, DC: NASW.
Sheafor, B. & Horejsi, C.J. (2012). Techniques and guidelines for social work practice. (9th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
In the social work practice, social workers should abide by and respect the protocol of their particular organization. The first ethical standard I would like to discuss is that a social worker having cultural competence and social (NASW, 1999). A social worker must possess the knowledge of values, customs, tradition and history just to name a few in order to have success with clients that may identify as something other than their own identity. Culture directs impacts human behavior. Within this case study, due to Mrs. Sanchez’s culture, she struggled to assimilate with the American culture and this included her being able to learn the English language. Her culture was very important to her and I respect that. As a social worker, I would have
Working with people can be challenging, but so rewarding all at the same time. As humans, we are certainly not perfect and we are making mistakes daily. Making decisions is one thing that does not come easily to us, and depending on the day you can get multiple different answers to one situation. The NASW Code of Ethics is an extremely helpful tool when we are working with clients and something that does not ever waiver in ethical decision-making. If we are working in the Social work profession, then we must insure we are making the correct decision for everyone who is involved with the client.
This paper will evaluate and analyze an ethical dilemma that was presented in the textbook and the Case Study #1 that will be evaluated for this assignment. The questions that will be answered include what are the ethical dilemmas in the case and are these legitimate concerns for the social worker. In addition, when evaluating and analyzing the ethical dilemma in this case study it is necessary to look at why the social worker is worried about reporting newborns and why she feels that there are injustices and discrimination that come from these policies. Furthermore, as a social worker in this agency I would respond by figuring out what could be done in this situation and what courses of action could be done to change the injustices in the
According to NASW (2010), values are descried as the mission of the social worker in which this includes service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. An essential value that is applicable to my practice setting is the service value. This value is define as the social workers’ priority to help people and addressing social problems in the environments As an intern, it has been a priority to provide services to our client depending on their specific needs. There has been times that client have needed transportation in order for them to attend monthly events, clothes’ donations, and mentoring services. Another importance value that
Ethical Issues in Social Work I will provide practical help for new social workers to help them understand and deal with ethical issues and dilemmas which they will face. There are many ethical issues which are important to social work, but I feel that these are all covered by the care value base. The care value base Was devised by the care sector consortium in 1992, this was so that the workers in health and social care had a common set of values and principles which they would all adhere to. It is important because for the first time the social care sector had a clear set of guidelines from which ethical judgements could be made. The care value base is divided into 5 elements - The care value base covers - Equality and Diversity - Rights and responsibilities - Confidentiality - Promoting anti Discrimination - Effective communication Equality and Diversity Carers must value diversity themselves before they can effectively care for the different races, religions and differently abled people they will come across in their caring profession.
There are a number of problems that present in modern practice that can significantly affect or compromise confidential client information. Primarily, these types of problems are usually categorized as belonging into one of two areas of violation that provide unauthorized access to confidential information. The first area of disturbance of confidentiality occurs when the professional boundaries of the client-therapist relationship are breached, such as when practitioners partake in multiple relationships or decide to access public information about a patient online.
The Code of Ethics is an important part of a Social Workers career, by giving them basic guidelines, principles, standards, and values/morals for which they should follow. By following these guidelines a Social Worker can keep their work at a professional level and learn to keep work out of a personal level. This Code of Ethics has been set forth by the National Association of Social Workers, and is mandated in the field of practice (NASW, 2008).
Self-disclosure: Important aspects psychologists, therapists and counsellors should keep in mind when disclosing personal information.
Ethical situations will present themselves and understanding the social work code of ethics can help in making simple ethical decisions. However, there will be times that circumstances require further insight on how to handle more complex decision making. Several models across many industries give adequate steps on how to make difficult ethical decisions.. The author feels that using the social worker model would be best. There are six steps in this ethical problem solving model. Reamer & Conrad’s (1995) explains these steps as:
In the Social Work field, you will help others better their life circumstances and grow from the problem(s) they are experiencing. So it is important that you maintain and provide clear boundaries to make sure you keep professional responsibility and integrity. Over the years, the field of social work has faced many ethical challenges. You must follow the NASW Code of Ethics, HIPPA and core values. If in any situation that you violate one of the standards, guidelines or policies it is considered unethical. In this paper I will discuss a brief summary of the roles of the NASW code of Ethics, HIPPA and the core values. I will also discuss some of the common ethical dilemmas that are faced by child welfare workers during their time of practice.
Social work values and ethics at times may seem controversial, as there is a fine line between situations appearing to be ethical or unethical. Though I believe with regards to ethics the only situation I deem completely never ethical is a sexual relationship between a client and a professional. With regards to number one, I think that a client buying a professional a gift of under $10 like a coffee mug or a souvenir to show their gratitude may be ethical. Yet, if the worker were to buy the social worker something like a shot glass for example and the social worker accepts it may be inappropriate and unethical. According to Frederic G. Reamer PHD in his article “’Tis the Season: Managing Client Gifts” (2013) he states, “most clinical social workers agree that in many
Bogo also adds to the uncertainty to state that self-disclosure is a controversial subject matter (2006, p.101). In general, it seems like self-disclosure has a lot to do with the specific client and the strength of the relationship at hand. The exact same self-disclosure can evoke two opposite reactions for clients. For example, when a social worker shared the date of her birthday one client felt as though this increased the therapeutic alliance while the other client felt as though the social worker was taking the spotlight away from her and focusing it on herself (Goldstein, 1994). This shows how unique our clients are and that what works with one client may not work for the other.
“In this essay, we have been asked to critically assess the professional values in the ‘British Association of Social Work’ (BASW). With this the concepts of ethics and how this operates in social work practice and analyse the general role in governing and representatives bodies in social work practice”.
All social workers are beholden to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics. Professional ethics are the main core of social work. The profession has an obligation to articulate its basic values, ethical principles, and ethical standards. The code is composed of thematic sections that outline a social worker’s responsibility to clients, colleagues, employers, and the profession. Some responsibilities that a social worker has to a client are that the clients are their primary responsibility, fostering maximum self-determination in clients, respecting the privacy of clients, keeping information that has been shared during the course of their duties confidential and charging fees for services that are fair and considerate
The social work profession and its Code of Ethics dictate that social workers must act in the best interest of the client, even when those actions challenge the practitioner’s personal, cultural and religious values. In practice; however, ethical decision-making is more complex than in theory. As helping professionals, social workers are constantly faced with ethical decision-making or ethical dilemmas. As noted by Banks (2005), an ethical dilemma occurs “when a worker is faced with a choice between two equally unwelcome alternatives that may involve a conflict of moral principles, and it is not clear what choice will be the right one” (as cited in McAuliffe & Chenoweth, 2008, p. 43). In addition, ethical decision-making is a process that