Social Work Core Values

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.

Eventually, my values which influence my practice as a Social worker include my personal value my personal values, my value of self-determination, equality, equity, social justice, connectedness,& coming from a non-judgmental perspective, from a profession position, I value the AASW Code of Ethics and reflection of myself. (AASW, 2010)

The third value is dignity and worth of a person. This is one value that has been stressed in my social work classes. In my social work practice class, we recently read a novel titled The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Dignity and worth of a person, was one value that I witnessed while reading this novel. The characters were from another country and had beliefs that were not considered “ideal” to society, and there were times that they were not given the best resources and care because of these beliefs. Dignity and self worth is a huge value to have when dealing with clients who may not have the same views and beliefs as you. It is important to be ethical and respectful when dealing with clients no matter what religion, socioeconomic status, gender, or race they are.

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

Explain how you became interested in social work and why you chose social work as a major.

Looking at the values listed in the National Association of Social Workers (NASW, 2008) and the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW, 2010) code of ethics, I can see that the values held by the profession are also values I regard highly, such as respect for persons, social justice, professional integrity, service, importance of human relationships, and competence.

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

The social work values that I found, are dignity and worth of a person, and importance of human relations. Dr. Rodgers had a young man that lied to him several times, however he continued to help him. He gave him food, and a place to rest, all the while knowing that he was lying to him. He could see past the lying; he knew the

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.

Personal values and professional values run parallel in the social work field. Recognizing and managing your personal values while working with clients is an important task. Concentrating on your professional values is required for a social worker to assist her client to the best of her ability. During my internship there have been a number of cases that I have had to practice managing my personal values.

One ethical principles from the core values that I feel most strongly that is needed is dignity and worth of the person. If we, as the practitioners don’t believe our client is worthy then we would be incapable of advocating for them, servicing them, and putting the effort required to help them. Dignity and Worth of the person mean believing everyone deserves the same treatment. We have to be able to accept our client’s culture, sexual orientation, anything that makes them who they are. If we can accept our client, we will not be able to work with them. Another reason I believe dignity and worth of the person is essential, is because Social Workers need that reminder when dealing with clients that might have committed a crime against an innocent person.

The core values of social work are service to humans, desire to improve lives and understanding of needs of their clients and supporting them to the best of the social worker’s ability by following strict guidelines set by General Social Care Council (GSCC) Code of Conduct. Social justice is another value set to identify, help and protect the vulnerable clients, e.g. individuals with mental health illnesses, children, elderly people and victims of domestic violence that could be subject to either direct or indirect

My understanding of the social work profession and its core values is that social workers are caregivers, they provide assistance to people in need, and they address social problems. The social worker goal is the improvement of society to ameliorate the lives of individuals in need. The social work profession mission is to enhance the well-being of people and to assist them in meeting their basic needs, with particular emphasis on the needs of the poor, and the vulnerable individual. The Social Work profession has six core values. These core values are the foundation of the social work profession. The social worker incorporates these core values into his daily practices. Service to others is one of the fundamental values of social work. Social workers goal is serving others and putting the needs of their clients ahead of their own. Social justice is another core value of social work. Social workers aim at improving the lives of the disadvantaged, vulnerable people who are less fortunate or unable to advocate for themselves. Social workers understand the essential value of every human life, regardless of ethnic background, cultural differences or religious beliefs. Their goal is to respect the dignity and worth of every person. Another key value of social work is integrity. The social workers conduct themselves in a trustworthy, honest, and responsible manner at all times. Competence is another important core value of the social work profession. The

The National Association of Social Workers have provided the Code of Ethics as a set of guidelines for social workers to follow in order to assure they are practicing in an ethical manner. These guidelines have been revised to address any additional information or critiques that are necessary for quality conduct that have arisen since the first edition that was drafted in 1960. They strive to address core values, such as “service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity and competence.” (National Association of Social Workers, 1999). In order to remain stringent with these core values, the Code of Ethics strives to fulfil six key purposes: “identify mission based core values and appropriately guided decisions making when conflicts and situations with questionable ethics, outline ethical standards and principles, introduce social workers to ethical principles, standards, values and mission, and provide a guideline for the population worked with to hold their social worker accountable for” (National Association of Social Workers, 1999).). Ethical violations may occur if these guidelines are not diligently followed, which ultimately could result in being sanctioned. Some of the consequences that could arise are: mandatory additional educational classes and refreshers in a constricted timeframe, additional supervision for licensure, fines for legal costs, and having your license and membership revoked.

The six core values of social work are integrity, social justice, competence, dignity and worth of the individual, service, and importance of human relationships. It is vital that a social worker shows that they have integrity, meaning that they should have trustworthy tendencies. Social workers must entice social justice. They should assure that social change is okay and be there for those who are considered oppressed. Social workers should always remain competent and be willing to expand their knowledge and use it to the best of their abilities. Having dignity and knowing the worth of the clients is very important. Social workers should always remain respectful no matter the situation. The goal of a social worker is to provide service