Australian social workers are directed and regulated by the AASW and by the Code of Ethics as established by the AASW. The AASW code of ethics is predominantly centred on the code created by the IASSW thus making the Australian code universally compatible internationally. Australian qualified social workers can practice and are in demand not only nationally but also worldwide. (Department of Employment, 2012). They must also work within the parameters of the policies formed by the proprietors of which ever company, organisation, agency or service contractor for which they are employed. As most organisations have their own codes of conduct set out for their employees to apply to their daily practice in conjunction with the AASW Code of
The professional track I am pursuing is clinical mental health counseling. In regards to The American Counseling Association ethical guidelines, a counselor is to adhere to enhancing the human development, appreciating multiculturalism/diversity, advocating social justice, ensuring counselor-client relationship integrity, and practicing in an efficient and ethical manner (American Counseling Association, 2014). According to the American Mental Health Clinical Association (2016), the counselor is to be committed to their clients, committed to other professionals, committed to the clinical supervision, obtain professionalism, committed to the community they serve, and maintain integrity (American Mental Health Clinical Association, 2016).
Profession Code of Ethics Comparison As a social work student, we are provided with the foundational education necessary to succeed in our profession. The National Association of Social Work (NASW) Code of Ethics is the most significant publication because it “is intended to serve as a guide to the everyday professional conduct of social workers” (NASW Code of Ethics, 2017). For this assignment, we are charged with exploring other professional codes of ethics to gain a better understanding of how they may be similar or differ from one another. Therefore, I choose to explore the American Counseling Association (ACA) Code of Ethics with the intention of conducting a comparison analysis of both documents.
The National Organization for Human Services (NOHS) Ethical Standards is intended to serve as a guide to the everyday professional conduct of the helper. The standards are extremely broad and subject to interpretation, by the helper. Therefore, the standards are not static; they are revised as new concerns occur during the client-helper relationship.
Values and Ethnics The NASW code of ethics core social work values is heavily active until this day. The code of ethnic its self is a set of guidelines for the ethnically practice of social work. The core value found in the code of ethics is Social justice, service integrity, importance of human relationship, dignity and worth, and competence. This code of ethics reflexes the relationship of the worker to the client and the worker. These codes of ethnic are placed to improve and establish rules and boundaries from social workers to clients and the importance of the ethnical value its place for the helping of the social worker.
Ethical Issues in Social Work Practice The social work profession and its Code of Ethics dictate that social workers must act in the best interest of the client, even when those actions challenge the practitioner’s personal, cultural and religious values. In practice; however, ethical decision-making is more complex than in theory. As helping professionals, social workers are constantly faced with ethical decision-making or ethical dilemmas. As noted by Banks (2005), an ethical dilemma occurs “when a worker is faced with a choice between two equally unwelcome alternatives that may involve a conflict of moral principles, and it is not clear what choice will be the right one” (as cited in McAuliffe & Chenoweth, 2008, p. 43).
This competency is all about being able to make critical decisions in the case of ethical dilemmas and acting professionally in the work place. Although ethical dilemmas rarely have clear-cut solutions, this competency tells social workers to turn to the NASW code of ethics and supervision for guidance. That is exactly what I did for my "Ethic Paper" which you can find below. For this assignment, I was asked to interview a licensed MSW about an ethical dilemma they faced in their career, how they handled it, and how they came to their decisions. This assignment allowed me to better understand how an ethical dilemma is handled in the real world (as opposed to the many hypothetical situations we discuss in class) and also challenged my interviewing
In regards to the scenario of the patient Cindy who had an affair while being married, one of the red flags that I noticed was AACC Code 1-143 counseling with family, friends and acquaintances. According to the scenario, Cindy, as well as her family, attend the same church as the counselor, but also know the counselor very well. This was a breach in ethics on the counselor’s part, because in the AACC code, it states in Code 1-143, “Christian counselors do not provide counseling to close family or friends.” (Clinton, Ohlschlager, and Hart; pg. 269). The counselor has already broken the ethics code by giving Cindy counseling advice, which is part of the AACC code 1-145 (pg.269). According to the AACC code 1-410 Maintaining Client Confidentiality (pg.262), the counselor cannot tell Cindy’s husband about the affair. So what the counselor should have done once Cindy walked into the counselor’s office, was tell her she needed to go see a different counselor. The counselor could have explained to Cindy it was against the code of ethics to give her counseling advice, this way Cindy’s feelings would not get hurt. Also, it would have helped the counselor because then they would not have known Cindy’s personal problems, and therefore would not be tempted to share them with her family. However, since the counselor has already broken the ethics code and Cindy has said
Throughout the past couple decades there has been an extreme growth in the amount of technology and advancements in medicine. Alongside advancement in the medical field, social media and communication outlets such as Facebook and Twitter have gained popularity in unison. Social media and information outlets have proven through the extreme use by the general population to be a helpful and beneficial outlet for many patients and others alike. Information available online has provided a channel for potential patients to view and receive knowledge without the anxiety of meeting with a physician or medical professional. Information gateways are not always satisfactory though, and in fact have acquired quite the negative connotation throughout the
In the social work profession, it is a requirement to have a thorough understanding of ethics and some of the ethical dilemmas that one can face. On my journey as a social work student one of my assignments was specific to ethical dilemmas. The ethical dilemma that I chose to write in this paper about was multiple relationships and violating counselor client boundaries. The class that I wrote this in was HMS 102 which was values of human services. The main topic of the paper focused on the negative effects of sexual relationships. It also discussed crossing boundaries with clients and having other relationships such as friendships or other kinds of attachments to the client. In my field placement at Hardin Memorial Hospital social workers may have to be carful not to cross boundaries with clients especially in such a small town in which you may possibly know or know of a client.
Current Ethical Issues in Human Services 10 Questions: 1. Did you know this was illegal? Standard 13 a. Yes, but were about to discharge them because both of the women seemed to not need continuing services from me. 2.
The week of October 12, 2015, I was challenged with an ethical issue. One of my responsibilities here at NSU-STEP as a social work intern is to administer intake- a process whereby data is collected from potential clients to determine eligibility. Through the process we often ask questions and collect sensitive information such as social security cards, birth certificates, income etc. Confidentiality is essential through this procedure because we are gathering sensitive information from the client. However, because we were very busy one afternoon my coworker and I were asked to conduct intake simultaneously in a small office with only one desk.
From time to time, social work practitioners face different challenges and one of such example is being confronted with ethical dilemmas. An ethical dilemma is defined as “when the social worker sees himself or herself as facing a choice between two equally unwelcoming alternatives, which may involve a conflict of moral values, and it is not clear which choice will be the right one” (Banks, 2012). Ethical dilemmas can occur in the context of either client or organisational-related conflict situations at work.
5. The Code socializes practitioners new to the area of social work's mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical standards. 6. The Code articulates standards that the social work profession itself can use to assess whether social workers have engaged in unethical conduct. NASW has formal methods to decide ethics complaints filed against its members.
An ethical dilemma happens when two or more ethical principles conflict with one another. Ethical dilemmas are problematic situations in which it is not clear which choice will be the right one. The CP is stuck as to what to do next because there is not just one outcome that will satisfy the ethical principles as stated in the Singapore Association of Social Workers (SASW) Code of Ethics (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2012).