Ethical Issues Of Social Work Practice

This essay will address the ethical dilemmas faced by social workers and how they address these ethical dilemmas when working with service users and carers. It will be illustrated that codes of practice and codes of ethics are of paramount importance when dealing with these dilemmas as they are ones that guide social workers as to how they should try and solve these dilemmas.

(1) Respect for persons: “Treating persons as autonomous agents and protecting those with diminished autonomy”. (Individuals with lessen autonomy are entitled to protection).

Social workers face complex ethical issues in every aspect of their profession. This work is often ethically challenging because it involves direct contact and interaction with individuals who are vulnerable. There are many factors that influence our decision making especially when working with at risk youths, we often face challenges in wanting to take on certain roles to protect our clients. These roles often conflict with our professional obligations. When our personal and professional values conflicts, our decisions may affect the individual, family, group, community and the organization.

Social work takes its values from various sources, including – Kantian, Utilitarian, Common Morality and Professional Codes of Conduct. Both the Kantian and Utilitarian theories cannot provide social work practice with a complete set of values and ethics. Both the theories have their limitation and strengths. Kant saw the world in black and white, even if a lie could prevent a greater evil the act of lying is fundamentally wrong. Utilitarian theory justifies actions by the end justifying the means. Social work concerns “respect for the person”, this idea originates from Kant, an eighteenth century German philosopher. Beauchamp (1996) defines the principle as a fundamental standard of conduct on which many other standards and judgements depend, a principle that provides an essential norm in a system of thought or belief. Common morality is the idea that all humans have an inbuilt awareness of certain moral norms e.g. murder is wrong, stopping a child running into the road is right. Western philosophy has been debating ethics and morality for thousands of years and still has not formalised a definition for them, so how can anyone truly understand? Furthermore, if the greatest philosophers throughout history have been debating ethics and morality, how can the common man truly understand it?

As a social worker many problems may arise because of the constant grey area of either letting your personal values interfere with your professional opinion. It is essential to provide your client with information and tools to help them succeed and overcome their problems. Following the core values is essential to being a resourceful, competent social worker. In some cases, core values are in conflict. In a situation where more than one core value is in conflict it is considered an ethical dilemma (Hick, 2009). It’s not guaranteed that a perfect solution will arise, therefore one of the core values is subsided because the other has more of an impact on the client.

The section of the National Association of Social Work Ethics that will be discussed will be number four which includes Social Workers’ ethical responsibilities as professionals. This ethics code concentrates on a several different factors which include: 4.01 Competence, 4.02 discrimination, 4.03 private conduct, 4.04 dishonesty, 4.05 personal impairment, 4.06 misinterpretations, 4.07 solicitations, and 4.08 acknowledging credit.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has written a code of ethics that serves many purposes. The main purpose is to identify the core ethics and values that provide the foundation for the profession. It details six basic principles for social workers to follow: service, social justice, dignity and worth, human relationships, integrity, and competence (National Association of Social Workers, 1999). The code acts as an ethical guide for students, and those professionals just

Virtue ethics is a normative theory whose foundations were laid by Aristotle. This theory approaches normative ethics in substantially different ways than consequentialist and deontological theories. In this essay, I will contrast and compare virtue ethics to utilitarianism, ethical egoism, and Kantianism to demonstrate these differences. There is one fundamental aspect of virtue ethics that sets it apart from the other theories I will discuss. For the sake of brevity and to avoid redundancy, I will address it separately. This is the fundamental difference between acting ethically within utilitarianism, egoism, and Kantianism. And being ethical within virtue ethics. The other theories seek to define the ethics of actions while virtue ethics does not judge actions in any way. The other theories deal with how we should act, while virtue ethics determines how we should be.

The commitment to act ethically is an essential aspect of social work due to the effect it can have on the quality of the service offered to those who engage with us. Through group discussions in our foundations of social work practice I have become extremely ethically aware and now will always seek to ascertain and respect, as far as possible, each individual’s preferences, wishes and involvement in decision making. From discussions with my fellow classmates I have learnt to strive to respect and uphold the values and principles of the profession by making sure I promote and work towards the code of ethics wherever possible. This in turn enables me act in a reliable, honest and trustworthy manner having worked closely with service users in a professional setting and learned of their good and bad experiences with practitioners through the service user experience we undertook in class. I believe I am now in a good position to apply the social work ethical principles to my professional practice, in a way that seeks to empower my service users and enable me to emulate the best practice. In addition from reading social work journals and staying on top of news regarding the profession more generally I am knowledgeable about the value base of social work as a profession .

This policy has many principles that social workers are obliged to, in order to inform and guide ethical practice. One principle specifically that relates to Aileen’s case is section 3.2 stating that, “social justice is a core obligation which societies should be called upon to uphold. Societies should strive to afford protection and provide maximum benefit for all their members” (AAWS, 2010). In addition, the AAWS Code of Ethics elaborates on the principle of social justice requiring all social work professionals to; promote social fairness by reducing barriers with special regard for those who are vulnerable or oppressed, advocate for and fight against inequalities and injustice, and work to eliminate all violations of human rights (AAWS, 2010). Relating back to Aileen’s case, if these principles within the policy of the AAWS Code of ethics were to be implemented and operated on all levels including the micro, messo and macro levels, will create a platform and equal opportunity for equitable and socially just outcomes to be achieved in all

There are many ways in which social workers can avoid ethical dilemmas. In regards to the Jones case I will explain five ethical dilemmas. I will explain what 3 core values could have benefitted the Jones family and I will give three strategies I will use to practice ethical behavior in my field of social work in the future.

There is a great necessity for the code of ethics in social welfare. The first code of ethics was “adopted in 1960” and was a single page (NASW,1998, para. 8). The last major adoption was in 1996, which was similar to what we see today, in the 2008 edition. In this changing profession it is absolutely necessary for a social worker to have something to reference to when there is an ethical dilemma, because they will transpire from time to time (NASW, 1998).

However, as time went on, several problems arose which had to do with the principle of justice in healthcare. In America, it is the accepted norm that it is unjust to treat one person better or worse than another person, in similar circumstances (Tong, 2007, p.29). In an attempt

the colour of his skin, then it could lead to him having a feeling of

Ethical practise is difficult to properly define. “Caseworkers, supervisors, and other staff should be guided by an overarching set of ethical standards that inform their decision-making and conduct when working with children, youth, and families. Relationships with clients and colleagues should be based on mutual respect, commitment, and honesty, and should take into consideration cultural differences and the right to privacy.” (U.S Department of Health and Human