The Role of Human Service Professionals

The ethical guidelines for human service professionals mandate that, “Human service professionals respect the integrity and welfare of the client at all times.” (Freeman, S. J. 2000)

Chapter 3 explains the importance of ethical competence specific to the human services field. As a professional it is important to know and understand an organizations code of ethics, as it will be a reference tool in how to handle certain situations you are faced with. Human service professionals enter into the profession with a personal set of values, goals and ethical conduct but, must always remember that their actions should always reflect the values and ethics of the company they are now a part of (site). In the event of an ethical issue a professional should always refer the ethical standards to determine what action should be taken (site). Ethics are also in place to facilitate legal implications that stem from malpractice lawsuits.

Social workers encounter ethical dilemmas every day during their work. Banks, in her explanations says these are occurrences whereby a social worker encounters two unwelcoming situations and there is a conflict of moral values, and there is no clear choice as to which decision to make.(Banks, 2006).To elaborate on this , Banks implies

Human services is a profession developed in response to the direction of human needs and human problems in the 1960's (Taylor,2015) Characterized by an appreciation of human beings in all of their diversity, human services offers assistance to its clients within the context of their communities and environments (Taylor,2015) The educator of Human service professional, guide to promote and motivate the distinctive values and characteristics of human services. Therefore, human service professionals sustain integrity and ethics of the job, encourage clients, communities, and magnify their own professional development. Some of the basic values of the human services profession include respecting the dignity and happiness of clients; promoting self-determination; respecting cultural differences; advocating for social equality; and to act with integrity, honor, kindness and fairness. Human service professionals utilize these standards in ethical and professional decision making (O’Brien,2010) Conflicts can occur from the code and laws, policies in the work place, cultural practices, credentialing boards, and personal beliefs (O’Brien,2010) A Human service professional should display their ethical-decision making during situations to assure they’re making careful choices.

2.Demonstrate a working knowledge of the Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals and the consequences of non-compliance.

The method of ethical decision making which was developed by Dr. Cathryn A. Baird presented two components contained in all ethical decisions which are; The Four ethical Lenses and the 4+1 Decision process. The Four Ethical Lenses issue claims that different ethical theories and the means in which we tend to approach the situations which form part of our ethical traditions are looked at in four different perspectives. From each perspective there are different values on which to decide whether the action taken is either ethical or not and each lens also lays emphasis on determining whether the decision made is of ethical requirement. In the 4+1 Decision Process, people who are responsible for making final decisions in an organization do it

Every day people make decisions that may have profound effect on their personal and/or professional lives as well as the lives of others. The decision people make have a foundation on their personal, cultural, and perhaps organizational values. When these values are in disagreement, an ethical dilemma occurs.

Explain a range of ethical and moral dilemmas which social workers and the team may encounter when dealing with this care – look at case study on the assignment brief.

The range of problems facing human service clients is multi-faceted. No one person has just one problem, and there are plenty of clients to go around (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011). I believe this point is well articulated by Neil Headman, assistant professor of human services at the University of Illinois at Springfield (2011), who stated “It does not matter who your client is, everyone needs help” (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011).

Human service professionals should keep up to date in their area of practice through reading and continuing education opportunities. Professionals should engage in regular consultation with other colleagues and careful monitoring by supervisors. Human Service agencies should make a policy of conducting regular internal audits and rigorous program evaluations which ensure that ethical and legal policies are being met. In addition, professionals should be obeying mandatory reporting laws, practicing within their scope of practice, respecting a client’s autonomy, and diligently documenting their sessions and interactions with their clients always (Smith,

The primary role of any functioning society It's to ensure its citizens have access to all the necessary tools to survive, strive, and make the community better as a whole, this concept should include but, not limited to the following : food, shelter, rights, duties, functioning justice system, access to education, jobs and, access to health care among many other primordial components to ensure a safe and healthy community and stronger society. In The United States of America citizens enjoy a system designed to care and protect the less privileged and the most vulnerable, and the dedicated people who are in charge of delivering this important life changing task are called Human Service Professionals.

In the human services field, personal ethical belief systems combined with professional ethics work in partnership to guide human service professionals in unraveling ethical dilemmas. An increasing number of professionals and clients seek out to define the fundamental policies of the human services field. Humans develop an integration of values, standards, and beliefs from birth throughout life. The values, standards, and beliefs developed through life assist in characterizing personal ethical belief systems. Our personal ethical belief system unites with our professional ethics to shape the ethical decision-making process. A code of ethics is essential

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).

Making consistently ethical decisions is difficult. Most decisions have to be made in the context of economic, professional and social pressures, which can sometimes challenge our ethical goals and conceal or confuse the moral issues. In addition, making ethical choices is complex because in many situations there are a multitude of competing interests and values. Other times, crucial facts are unknown or ambiguous. Since many actions are likely to benefit some people at the expense of others, the decision maker must prioritize competing moral claims and must be proficient at predicting the likely consequences of various choices. An ethical person often chooses to do more than the law requires and less than the law allows.

Moral and ethical integrity is a major factor that affects the success and productivity of an organization because of its impact on the functions of management and the management team. As organizational ethics has increasingly become an issue of major focus resulting in organizations to face huge dilemma, there have been several questions on who should manage ethics and integrity in the firm (Segon, n.d.). In most cases, organizations tend to delegate the ethics function to the human resource management practitioners or department. This is primarily because organizational ethics is largely related to the type of employees within an organization. Notably, the development and establishment of organizational ethics is regarded as a complex