Human Service Worker Values

‘As social care worker, you must be accountable for the quality of your work and take responsibility for maintaining and improving your skills knowledge ‘.

Social work is a profession which has the objective to improve the quality of life of other individuals. The NASW code of ethics is used as a guideline for social workers and the interaction they have with their clients. In addition, within the code of ethics, there are six values, which include service, social justice, dignity and worth of a person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. Therefore, going into the social work field it is important to understand that your

Social work professions need to understand the importance of how individuals interact both with other people and their environment, to have an understanding how individuals are affected by these interactions (Rogers, p. 2). According to Rogers (2016), “Social workers are knowledgeable about human behavior across the life course; the range of social systems in which people live; and the ways social systems promote or deter people in maintaining or achieving health and well-being. Social workers apply theories and knowledge from the liberal arts to understand biological, social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual development (p. 2). Their work with clients begins with assessments to evaluations of intervention and is based in and supports of the core value system of the profession.

– My personal values will have to be respecting others, education, and helping and caring for others. The person(s) who I feel influenced me the most in forming my values is my parents and my grandmother. They influenced me because growing up they always preach about treating others with respect even if I feel like they don’t deserved it. They also made sure that education was a priority and not an option. For as helping and caring for others I always saw them helping when they didn’t necessary didn’t have too and not one complain or threw it in the person face. The value that lead me into social work is helping and caring for others wanting to see them do better and make better decision in life.

In order to be a Human Service agent you must have discovered your values and beliefs. When you discover your values and beliefs you are underlying what you can do for your clients, what attributes you can offer them, and setting up a foundation for providing great care.

My first personal value that will impact my work as a social worker is respect. In terms of social work and ability to influence my additional values, respect is the most important. For me, respect means to honor others and appreciate their perspective. While my definition of respect may seem simple, its usefulness is multifaceted. One may respect a person, a place, a situation, a circumstance, etc. I learned concepts of respect as a child as my parents were teaching me to observe boundaries. They wanted me to respect my room, and keep it clean, and they explained to me how they respected my personal space. In return, my parents taught me to respect their boundaries, their room, and

Iruonagbe, Chiazor, & Ajayi (2013) beautifully described the sentiments of my heart regarding family making mention it is not only the oldest social institution, but indeed the most important. The responsibilities of families are great ranging from guidance, to support, and more importantly it gives the individual a sense of belonging and commitment. My personal value as a social worker is family is a bond that is not to be broken. When one of us is made weak, the other steps in and pick up the pieces. We are guided by love respect and sacrifice. I come from a strong background of caregivers. I have watched my mother care for her elderly mother until she took her last breath, or family unable to care for their child and most assuredly another member will raise that child. In like manner of Mrs. Vishnick being a widow myself I bore the responsibility of my children and applaud her for doing the same. I understand she is 87 years of age, and her adult daughter has a mental disability, still I am empathic to her situation. In my culture, it is expected other members will step in as no one is a throw away. Mrs. Vishnick should not have to carry the burden alone. Family must be able to depend on each other, as we are one another’s protective factor. God and our faith in him will see us through.

I think that it is very important for a social worker to tune into their own experience. For the simple fact that as social workers we are taught to connect with the client on their level. In order for a social worker to connect on the clients level that have to be able to have a genuine understanding of the client and the only way to do that it so b able to relate to the client through the social workers experiences.

Social work exists to provide effective social services to individuals, families, groups, communities and society so that social functioning may be enhanced and the quality of life improved. (Zastrow, 2013) Assessing my strengths and weaknesses as a social worker helps me see what I must maintain, and what I must improve on to become the kind of social worker that educates and inspires. The skills I identify with in my practice are; empathy, identifying strengths, and respect. These skill sets are vitally important to ensure clients receive the best possible outcome.

After examining the videos from this week, both women made some very valid points on key characteristics of human service professionals. I think one of the main prominent characteristics that a human service professional should exhibit is the commitment to making a change in individuals’ lives. When a human service professional is focused on making change they will do everything in their power to add to their professionalism. For example, when this is a component that they possess, they will be committed to training to help the clients better; they will make themselves flexible to broaden their abilities to helping in different areas no matter of their title (Duncan, Video). For the Bible declares, “The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped” (Proverbs 11:25, MSG).

Providing service to others is one of the primary values in Human service. Human service workers acknowledge that providing service to others is their priority, it’s more important than the professional personal

Self-reflection and correction in social work practice is important for continued learning and professional development. Without self-awareness, social workers cannot separate their personal feelings, values, and attitudes from their professional. This is important because we need to focus on the needs of the client, not what we think they need. Knowing how to separate our personal feelings and values from our professional feelings and values will prevent us from getting burnout and help us maintain professional boundaries.

It is important for a social worker to remember their motivations for joining the profession as this will have a continued and lasting impact on their working practice. Whether unconsciously or intentionally a social worker will have agendas to achieve, whilst these may be noble and not necessarily detrimental to working practice, self-awareness is necessary to

Self-awareness and the use of self is a key component in social work practice. Depending upon how one integrates their personal being and accompanying thoughts, experiences, emotions, and consciousness into the helping profession has a profound impact on whether that integration is positive or negative, particularly when it comes to that of one’s relationships with their clients. While remaining impartial is often critical to effective social work practice, the complete separation of self from one’s professional practice is not only impossible to realize, but would arguably have less of a meaningful impact with one’s relations with clients as well as self. Understanding the use of self and the importance of self-awareness in the social work profession is the first step in establishing a healthy means of practicing and the impact that our own individuality has when interacting with clients. In this paper I will analyze, and further critically reflect upon, four academic journals on the topic of the use of self in social work; later applying this learning to an experience from my field placement.

Improving the lives of individuals is the objective of the social work profession. There is six values within National Association of Social work Code of Ethics (NASW): Service, Social Justice, Dignity, and Self-worth of the person, Importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. These values are for social workers and their work with the client(s). Regardless of one’s race, religious belief, sex or sexual orientation each value benefits all individuals. Social workers should always practice professional values. Clients suffer from when the social worker does not uphold values. Code of Ethics is established for all social workers to obey and follow them. In this this paper, I will discuss the how “Importance of Human Relationship” will be the easiest to uphold and how “Social Justice” will challenge me as a social worker working with future clients, community and organizations.