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Values and Ethics in Social Work
The Nature of Values
A value is a type of belief, centrally located in one’s total belief system, about how one ought, or ought not to behave, or about some end-state of existence worth or not worth attaining.
The Nature of Values
Instrumental Values: How we should or should not behave
Provide the moral or ethical guidelines that help determine how we conduct our lives, and as social workers, how we perform our work.
The Nature of Values
Terminal Values: Reflects the bottom line of what we want to accomplish.
The Difficulty of Dealing with Values
Values are such a central part of our thought processes that we often are not consciously aware of them and therefore are unable to identity their influence on our decisions.
The Difficulty of Dealing with Values
A person may be forced to choose among values that are in conflict with one another. This is known as a value conflict.
The Difficulty of Dealing with Values
Addressing values in the abstract may be quite different from applying them in a real-life situation.
The Difficulty of Dealing with Values
Values are problematic because they change over time.
The Place of Values in Social Work
Values clarification is an important aspect of social work practice.
Social workers must be concerned with his or her own values , and control for inappropriate intrusion into practice situations. This is known as value suspension.
Values Held by Social Workers
Commitment to the primary importance of the individual in society.
Commitment to social change to meet socially recognized needs.
Commitment to social justice and the economic, physical, and mental well-being of all in society.
Values Held by Social Workers
Respect and appreciation for individual and group differences.
Commitment to developing clients’ ability to help themselves.
Willingness to transmit knowledge and skills to others.
Respect for confidentiality of relationship with clients.
Values Held by Social Workers
Willingness to keep personal feelings and needs separate from professional relationships.
Willingness to persist in efforts on behalf of clients despite frustration.
Commitment to a high standard of personal and professional conduct.
Areas of Practice Addressed by the NASW Code of Ethics
Standards related to the social worker’s ethical responsibility to clients.
The social worker’s ethical responsibility to colleagues.
The social worker’s ethical responsibilities in practice settings.
Areas of Practice Addressed by the NASW Code of Ethics
The social worker’s ethical responsibilities as a professional.
The social worker’s ethical responsibility to the social work profession.
The social worker’s ethical responsibilities to the broader society.
Competencies Required
ForSocial Work
Practice
Competencies Related to Interpersonal Helping
Self-awareness and the ability to use self in facilitating change.
Knowledge of the psychology of giving and receiving help.
Ability to establish professional helping relationships.
Understanding differing ethnic and cultural patterns, as well as the capacity to engage in ethnic-gender-, and age-sensitive practice.
Competencies Related to Interpersonal Helping
Knowledge and application of the Code of Ethics as a guide to ethical practice.
General understanding of individual and family behavior patterns.
Skill in client information gathering. Ability to analyze client information and
identify both the strengths and problems evident in a practice situation.
Competencies Related to Interpersonal Helping
Capacity to counsel, problem solve, and/or engage in conflict resolution with clients.
Possession of expertise in guiding the change process.
Competencies Related to Professional Development
Ability to be introspective and critically evaluate one’s own practice.
Ability to make use of consultation. Ability to consume and extend
professional knowledge.
Frequently Used Social Work Competencies
Case Planning and Maintenance Individual and Family Treatment Delivery System Knowledge Development Staff Information Exchange Risk Assessment and Transition Services Staff Supervision
Case Planning and Maintenance
Expertise in service planning and monitoring
Ability to carry out the employing agency’s programs and operating procedures
Knowledge of client’s background factors Skills in interagency coordination Ability to engage in case advocacy
Individual and Family Treatment
Sufficient knowledge of human development to make in-depth psychosocial assessments.
In-depth knowledge of family functioning. Skill in the selection and application of
individual and/or family treatment modalities.
Delivery System Knowledge Development
Ability to maintain up-to-date knowledge of a variety of human service programs.
Skills in building interagency coordination and linkage.
Staff Information Exchange
Ability to prepare and consume written and oral presentations regarding agency programs.
Capacity to facilitate staff members’ ability to make decisions and resolve problems.
Ability to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration.
Risk Assessment and Transition Services
Ability to apply general systems and/or ecosystems theory when assessing factors affecting a practice situation.
Skill in engaging clients in examining problems in social functioning.
Skill in utilizing social work assessment techniques.
Risk Assessment and Transition Services Continued
Skill in the use of crisis intervention. Ability to facilitate client transitions
between services and/or to terminate service.
Staff Supervision
Knowledge of the literature regarding the supervisory process.
Capacity to facilitate the work of supervisees.
Ability to conduct worker evaluation and professional development.
Prevention:
The
Future of
Social Work
Three Stages of Prevention
Primary Prevention
Secondary Prevention
Tertiary Prevention
Three Stages of Prevention
Primary Prevention
Actions taken prior to the onset of a problem to intercept its cause or to modify its course before a person is involved.
It is the elimination of the noxious agent at its source.
Three Stages of Prevention
Secondary Prevention
Involves prompt efforts to curtail and stop the disease in the affected persons and the spreading of the disease to others.
Three Stages of Prevention
Tertiary Prevention
Involves rehabilitative efforts to reduce the residual effects of the illness, that is, reducing the duration and disabling severity of the disease.
Advocacy
The social worker advocate is one who is his/her client’s supporter, advisor, champion, and if need be, representative in his/her dealings with the court, the police, the social agency, and other organizations that affect his/her well-being.
This is Individual advocacy.
Advocacy
The social worker advocate is one who identifies with the plight of the disadvantaged. He/she sees as his/her primary responsibility the tough-minded and partisan representation of their interests, and this supersedes his/her fealty to others. This role inevitably requires that the practitioner function as a political tactician.
This is advocacy on behalf of a group or class of people.
Empowerment
Empowerment is a process whereby persons who belong to a stigmatized social category throughout their lives can be assisted to develop and increase skills in the exercise of interpersonal influence and the performance of valued roles.
Network
Network is the process of developing multiple interconnections and chain reactions among support systems.
Personal networking Networking for mutual aid and self-help Human service organization networking Networking with communities for
community empowerment
Class Action Social Work
A forensic social work/legal profession collaborative litigation activity involving social work concerns, with the goal of obtaining a favorable court ruling that will benefit the social welfare of a specific group of persons.
Examples of Class Action Social Work
Serrano v. Priest: Argued that the quality of a child’s education should not be dependent on the wealth of a school district.
Examples of Class Action Social Work
Nicacio v. United States INS: Hispanic plaintiffs who were exhibiting psychiatric symptoms, allegedly caused by stressful interrogations conducted by patrol officers of the United States INS.
Reference
Morales, A.T. & Sheafor, B.W. (2004). Social work: A profession of many faces. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
