Ethical and Legal Considerations of the Developing Social Worker copy

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1 Ethical and Legal Considerations of the Developing Social Worker Gabrielle Saldana College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Grand Canyon UniversityUNV-605 Dr. Carin Blevins March 18, 2023 Ethical and Legal Viewpoint

2 Volunteerism When providing services to clients, social workers are expected to uphold the values and standards outlined in the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics. The ethics are for “social workers and social work students, regardless of their professional functions, the settings in which they work, or the populations they serve” (NASW, 2017). This means that even if the services are pro bono or volunteer work, social workers are still obligated to abide by these values. There are six specific ethical standards that social workers should follow. These are social workers’ ethical responsibilities to clients, social workers’ ethical responsibilities to colleagues, social workers’ ethical responsibilities in practice settings, social workers’ ethical responsibilities as professionals, social workers’ ethical responsibilities to the social work profession, and social workers’ ethical responsibilities to the broader society (NASW, 2017). Self-Disclosure In addition to the standards and values social workers should consistently practice, it is important to consider self-disclosure and the use of it during interactions with clients. In the article, Exploring Decision Making Around Therapist Self‐Disclosure in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy , the authors state the self-disclosure must have a clear purpose. If a social worker chooses to self-disclose, is it beneficial for the client? Or is the social worker looking for a specific response from the client? (Miller, et al., 2018). The goal of self-disclosure is to “foster growth within the client in the areas of insight, awareness, and creating positive change” (Lamb, N.d.). Social workers want to ensure that the client-therapist relationship remains professional. Inappropriate use of self-disclosure could lead to the client believing that they have a personal relationship with the therapist and this could cause harm to the relationship. If self-disclosure is not necessary or helpful, social workers should steer clear from sharing.

3 Objectivity Boundaries and objectivity play a crucial role in the social worker and client relationship. Knowing how and when to engage with a client is a skill that should be formed early on in the social workers profession. Phillip Dybicz states in his article that “the ability to form a genuine connection with the clients one serves, to communicate that one cares about their well-being and values them as a person, continues to play a prominent role in the helping process” (2012). The challenging part is not necessarily being able to practice these skills, but more so being able to stay objective in the midst of it. William Powell argues in his article that “social work, at its root, is personal by definition and involves interactions with others that are difficult to imagine happening in a ‘purely’ objective world” (2019). Knowing that this profession calls for personal interactions and deep-rooted work, why should a social worker remain objective? The Clinical Social Work Association provides an answer to this question by stating that “ The maintenance of professional boundaries and objectivity is crucial to effective and responsible treatment” by remaining objective, it “prevents the possible harmful intrusion of their own unresolved personal issues into the therapeutic relationship” (n.d.). Objectivity allows the social worker to remain neutral and provide services to the client that keep the relationship professional. Self-care Throughout a social worker’s career, they will have exposure to many different populations and settings. This can be very rewarding, but also demanding at times. Self-care plays a vital role in preventing burnout for the working professional and it is “intricately tied to our ability to be fully present for our clients in order to deliver quality services” (Lewis, et al., 2019). In order to prevent burnout, Felicia Wilson addresses four things that can be done on both

4 the organizational and personal level. She suggests that training on self-care and burnout should be provided, organizations should create a work environment that appropriately responds to stress, new social workers should be paired with seasoned professionals, and the individual must be proactive by balancing life and work and potential engaging in therapeutic services (2016). Burnout is highly prevalent among social workers and in order to prevent burnout early on, is it necessary to engage in self-care and practices that honor personal growth and well-being. Spirituality Integrating spirituality in the social work profession is attainable, but should be done with caution. The NASW code of ethics requires social workers to have cultural competence and within this, social workers are to respect their client’s spirituality/religion (NASW, 2017). Given that spirituality and religion can often be a driving factor for an individual’s decision making, “ it is important for social workers to incorporate the domains of religion/spirituality into the biopsychosocial assessment framework in order to achieve truly holistic and inclusive analyses of clients across different field settings” (Parada, 2022). This allows for the social worker to explore spirituality and maintain it for themselves by strengthening their interventions and approaches. The code of ethics is also another way for practitioners to maintain spirituality outside of work because these standards “are concepts to be embraced and to live by in daily practice” (Bent-Goodley, 2017). Social Work Dispositions Service, social justice, and the dignity and worth of a person are the essence of the social work profession. Service is a call to action where the social worker does an inward working of the heart that results in an outward expression of service. This calls for self-awareness and an understanding that the client's needs are above our own. Social workers are expecting to use their

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