Asmina Ethical Dilemmas

In order to best keep integrity within the relationship, a worker must inform the client in the beginning of the relationship, what the worker’s responsibility is regarding reporting requirements. A social worker may also be working with a child who shows concerning signs of abuse or neglect; the worker needs to be able to react and respond in a way that will not further upset the child or make them feel as though they are in trouble for sharing. Understanding the role of a mandated reporter is crucial as a social worker. Social workers build relationships with clients through frequent meetings, some which may be at the client’s home. Because of this, social workers have the opportunity to observe and identify causes and concerns of abuse which often start in the

Glady’s Heavenfire Case Battered Woman Syndrome has provided women who have been abused at the hands of their partners recognition in the criminal justice system and is allowing women to tell their stories. Although there are controversies surrounding battered woman syndrome, it should not be viewed as an excuse for killing their partners. It is a real disorder that has affected thousands of women 's lives all over the world. Discussing the Gladys Heavenfire case will bring awareness to the life of a woman who has been abused by her partner for several years. Furthermore, it provides information on Indigenous women who are more likely to suffer abuse than white women.

The risk assessment mandate of the current child protection practice is crop up in connection with individual responsibility of neo-liberal ideology. The right of the worker is given during their “mandate to investigate, monitor, assess and dispose of” (Strega & Carriere, 2009 p.16) of child protection cases under the legal system. As a result of child protection practice merely becomes a risk assessment model of bureaucratic approach. Apparently, child protection in Canada turns out as a mechanical social intervention with more focus on short-term remedial recommendations and limited or no emphasis on the holistic view of the problem (Strega & Carriere, 2009 p.20). This process is not really supporting the family in terms of a long term “helping, healing and change”.

Kerridge et.al (2009), developed an ethical decision making model made up of seven steps to guide a social worker to identify both ethical issues and to evaluate the values of the identified issues (Kerridge et.al, 2009). This model is applied to the three options that are elaborated and illustrated in Appendix’s B. C. and D. The first step in the model is to ‘clearly state the problem’ which is the argument of self-determination and own wishes versus Sophie’s mother’s wishes and the law. This elicits questions such as ‘Is a sixteen year old girl mature enough to make the decision of termination?’

Rational for the observations The rational for using these observations retrospectively is to make sense of the whole person Amy’s life history, looking over her notes, why had she not engaged historically? Why the resistance? I wanted to understand how and why this was happening not just respond to the immediate crisis, rehouse and decontaminate her home for the behavioural pattern to be repeated. This method allowed me to explore theories of human growth and development and evaluate them with criticality (Monette et. 2014).

Personal Identity and Managing Personal Values Who I identify as, the groups that I belong to, and the values I have will knowingly and unknowingly attach a level of privilege and power that can and will impact my professional identity and the work I do as a professional. The purpose of this paper is to examine how my identity could impact my work as a social worker, how my personal values conflict with my professional values, and to recall a time when I reduced the participation in oppression. The groups of which I belong can impact my ability to help individuals and communities in a number of ways.

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).

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. The first ethical dilemma is when the patient refuses medical treatment and services because he or she would not accept that there is any problem.

Social work practitioners are involved and aware of all social justice issues in the world today. Domestic Violence is just one major social justice issue which has become more prominent in the world. According to Royal College of Nursing (2013), domestic violence is an incident involving controlling and violent behaviour between intimate partners and/or family members. It also involves physical and emotional abuse. A practitioner working in the field of domestic violence can apply different theories in order to present the best possible outcome for the service user.

Chris McCandless, whose story is analyzed in Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, is a young adult who decides to leave his known habits and material belongings behind and live a completely self-sufficient life in the wilderness, a choice which ultimately leads to his death. In doing that, he also forfeits his family and friends. With that in mind, a question can be posed regarding the ethics of said behavior. As a childless, single and financially independent man, Chris McCandless has absolute ownership of his body and thus his decision to continue doing a sport that he knows can kill him is ethically defensible.

The beginning of the article discusses the ethical dilemmas during client support. It argues about two situations in which ethics needs to be considered. Some people argue that ethics is required in every case, while others disagree. However, the article says that value based decisions are needed in a social worker’s decision other than simply considering knowledge.

And instead, they may wish to encourage the client to choose another alternative. Hence, in such cases, the practitioners faced the struggle between balancing their own value systems and their professional obligation as a social worker. The third ethical dilemma is when the social work practitioner overheard the conversation between the patient and her family members that the hospital staff has been verbally abusing the patient. However, the social work practitioner does not have any evidence to prove the abuse.

Correspondingly, it will guide me to provide my clients with the ability to make informed consent. Additionally, this value is important to my future practice because it ensures that I become an advocate for my clients in every capacity, including human rights. Lastly, as a social worker, I will ensure that I work towards my clients being free from violence and the threat of violence (Heinonen & Spearman, 2010, p. 34). Secondly, as a social worker it is necessary that my practice is guided by my value of providing a service to humanity.

In order for Social Workers to efficiently carry out their duties they must be fully aware of the law that governs the land since every country has its own set of laws and each is unique to that country. Within a Social Worker profession confidentiality is an ethical concept and a legal duty of the social worker to keep client information private. There is absolute confidentiality, that is client’s disclosure are not shared with anyone and relative confidentiality is the information is shared with the client permission or through legal requirement, for example child abuse (Shebib 2003). In this scenario, Mrs. X is married to Mr. X and disclosures information to the Social Worker of cases abuse, marital neglect and the fear of losing her kids. It is of importance for Mrs X to know the laws that governs marriage, divorce, custody, maintenance and domestic violence.

A professional social worker who has a good ethical conduct must act in ways consistent with what the profession, society and individuals typically think are good values. Ethical behaviour in social work tends to involve demonstrating respect for key principles that the profession upholds. This paper seeks to critically discuss the importance of ethical conduct in professional social work practice. In doing so, I will explain the philosophical principles that guide ethical conduct in social work. Examples will be used to illustrate this.