This document outlines the agenda and objectives of an ethics workshop for social workers sponsored by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). The workshop aims to familiarize participants with social work ethics values, principles, standards, and the NASW Code of Ethics. It includes exercises for discussing perceived ethical dilemmas and how to apply different ethical frameworks. Participants are encouraged to reflect on their own beliefs and consider issues like cultural competence, respect for clients and colleagues, and anti-discrimination. The workshop also addresses navigating ethical conflicts that may arise between organizational demands and professional values.

1. 1
Ethics and Social Work
Practice
Janlee Wong, MSW
National Association of Social
Workers

2. 2
Workshop Background
• Education workshop sponsored by NASW
• Participants should come willing to
participate in exercises and follow ground
rules
• Participants are to respond to the
exercises as social workers with a
knowledge of the NASW Code of Ethics

3. 3
Workshop Objectives
• What it means to be a professional
• Familiar with Ethics Values, Principles,
Standards
• Description and exploration of perceived
differences and dilemmas
• Discussion of Competency
• Resources

4. NASW
• What it means to be a professional
• You can’t be a professional and not a
member of professional association
• Not a union or government agency
• Private, non-profit (more versatile)
• We can’t do it without members
4

5. NASW Slide Show
• What are the benefits you can connect to
or think you may use in the future as a
professional social worker
5

6. 6
The Big Challenge
• Be aware of own spiritual/religious beliefs
• Knowledge of own bias
• Willing to challenge own beliefs
• Willing to articulate or explore own beliefs
• Respectful of beliefs of others
• Willing to listen
• Commitment to furthering your own skills,
knowledge and experience

7. 7
Perceived Dilemmas: Choose
• Sexuality
• Reproduction
• Marriage
• Education
• Government role
• Morality
• Religion/spirituality
• Charity
• Science
• Orientation
• Choice/Life
• Man/woman
• Broad/specific
• Small vs. big
• What good/bad?
• Small vs. big
• Public/private
• Directed/not

8. 8
Discussion Construct
Use this to frame your thinking
• Legalist
– What does the law say and do you follow
what the law says
• Moralist
– What is good and bad based on your “morals”
be they religious, philosophical or political
• Ethical
– Enhance human well being and meet basic
needs

9. 9
Warm Up Exercise
• Think of a situation that you feel was or
could have been unethical.
• What were your different courses of
action?
• What did you do and how did it turn out?
• How did you arrive at your decision (e.g.
consultation, research, intuition, etc.?)

10. What Was the Basis For Your
Thinking?
Characterize your thinking by the following:
• Legal, Regulatory
– Where did you learn this?
• Morality
– Where did you learn right or wrong?
• Ethical
– Where did you learn about ethics?
10

11. 11
Small Group Exercise
Discuss the following vignette. You’ll have 20
minutes including a 10 minute break to
discuss the vignette and decide what you
would do as a social workers. Consider
responses in the following categories:
• Legalist
• Moralist
• Ethical
A group discussion will be conducted afterwards

12. 12
The Big Challenge for Next Exercise
• Be aware of own spiritual/religious beliefs
• Knowledge of own bias
• Willing to challenge own beliefs
• Willing to articulate or explore own beliefs
• Respectful of beliefs of others
• Willing to listen
• Commitment to furthering your own skills,
knowledge and experience

13. 13
Small Group Exercise
• You receive a child neglect report about an
undocumented immigrant.
• She is 28, unemployed & has 3 children ages 4, 6 and 8
• She is leaving the children alone at home to party at
night. The six year old was found wandering the
neighborhood.
• If found out, she could be deported (her kids are citizens)
• What do you do?
• While considering your options, categorize them in
legalist, moralist and ethical terms.
• Be ready to report back in 20 minutes

14. 14
The Ethical Code
• Origin and development
– Early social workers, morality codes
– Rise of professional social workers
• Subscription and Enforcement
– Obligated to act ethically as a professional
social worker
– Ethical Duty as a professional social worker
• Evolution and today’s usage
– As a guide to ethical decision making

15. 15
NASW Code of Ethics
• The Code doesn’t specify which values,
principles or standards are most
important and outweigh others*
• It’s not a set of rules
• Social Worker ethics may conflict with
agency policies, or laws and regulations
• There may be reasonable disagreements

16. Ethical Pretest and Slides
• 2 minutes to complete Handout
• Review pretest slides and compare your
answers
16

17. Code of Ethics Slides
17

18. 18
NASW Code of Ethics
• The standards (6 areas)
1. Client
2. Colleagues
3. Practice Settings
4. As Professionals
5. To the Profession
6. To Society
• Supports:
– cultural competence/social diversity
– Respect for colleagues
– Fighting discrimination as professionals and through
social action

19. 19
Perceived Dilemmas and Ethics
• Sexuality
• Reproduction
• Marriage
• Education
• Government role
• Morality
• Religion/spirituality
• Charity
• Science
• Describe the ethical
issues for the terms
on the left using the
following:
– Client self
determination
– Responsibility of
– Role of
– More information
– Social justice
– Social action

20. Ethics to Practice
• While you may be versed in ethics, it
doesn’t do you any good until you practice
it
• One of the foundation values in ethics is
relationship
• To be an ethical and effective social
worker you must be able to form a
relationship with your client
20

21. Forming A Relationship with
Client
• Developing a relationship with the client is
key to social work practice
• When the client trusts you through the
working relationship, behaviors can
change
• Trust is based on ethical behaviors and
beliefs such confidentiality, respect and
confidence
21

22. Are these trust building ethical
behaviors?
• Giving personal information to client such
as personal email, phone number,
address, social networking site (Facebook
etc)
• Hugging and embracing
• Availability by phone for as long as client
needs it (work or home)
• Visits to client as much as client needs
them (scheduled and unscheduled)
22

23. Are these trust building ethical
behaviors?
• Having dinner or going to movies with
client. Treating the client.
• Helping the client with own money
• Having a drink with the client
• Inviting client to celebrate birthdays and
holidays with worker’s family
• Sharing successes and problems in
worker’s personal life
23

24. Are these trust building ethical
behaviors?
• Sharing one’s own personal life story
when client has a similar life experience
• Bending or breaking agency rules to help
client
• Telling the client how to bend or break
rules
24

25. Harming by Helping
• Unethical behaviors misconstrued as
helping or trust building can be harmful
• Can you identify any in yourself?
• “When social workers have not clearly
identified and/or managed their emotional
issues and baggage that they brought into
the profession, the scope and nature of
client/worker relationships can become
quite blurry.” Rose M. Handon, BSW, MSA, LSW
25

26. Conflict and Dilemma
• High percentage of ethical dilemmas result
of conflict between organizational
demands and professional values
26

27. Conflicts
• Organizational
Policies
• Statutory and
regulatory
requirements
• Ethical codes
• Personal values
• Moral authority
• Loneliness and
Isolation
27
What conflicts have you had or seen?
What happened?

28. Stress Results
• Anxiety, depression, stress related
disorders
• Relationship problems, physical and
mental illness
• Lack of confidence in decision making,
changes in work performance, uncertainty
about the profession, prejudice against
clients, demotion or loss of employment
28

29. Coping
• Not following agency rules and procedures
• Passive aggressive
• Low and decreasing tolerance
• Denial or “brush off”
• Afraid to write reports or to speak up
• Withdrawal, burnout
• Substance abuse
29

30. In Child Welfare
• Supervisors play a vital role in modeling,
coaching, and engaging in frequent
discussions with workers on topical issues
of client engagement, rapport-building,
and assurance of proper boundaries in the
worker/client relationship.
• Impacts could be increased or diminished
depending on supervisory and social
support networks within the organization
30

31. Coping
• Fitness or exercise
• Become task focused
• Seeking new knowledge
• Seeking new supervisors, co-workers,
mentors
31

32. Cynical Realization
• About money, power and politics
• Not about serving people
• Some turn to social justice and activism
• Some leave their jobs or the field
32

33. Exercise
• Vignette
– 19 year old drug addicted single mom abused
and neglected 1 month old baby, gave baby
drugs
– Child in foster care for 6 months now, mom
was referred to drug treatment and parenting
classes
– Mom attended a few classes but dropped out
– Mom promises to do better
33

34. Ethical Values
• Who is the client
• How can the client be helped?
• How can those around the client be
helped?
• Can the system help?
• If not, what can be done?
• Is there a conflict with the system?
• Can the social worker help?
34

35. More Ethical Issues
• Take a minute to reflect on your personal
values regarding:
– Abortion
– Immigration
– Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual
• Do they differ from the ethical
perspective? How?
35

36. 36
Vignette #1
You work at a private agency that provides
counseling to pregnant teens. Your 16
year old client is 1 month pregnant and
wishes an abortion. Your agency has a
new director and he has issued a new
policy. Before any abortion is performed,
48 hours must elapse after a parent or
guardian is noticed. The notification may
be waived upon a request to a court.

37. 37
Vignette # 2
You receive a referral of children in a drug
bust. You find out there is an
undocumented 14 year old with a record
and has committed crime. Some
community groups are lobbying for policies
that would require you to report your client
to both law enforcement and immigration.

38. 38
Vignette #3
You work for a private adoption agency that
works only with married couples. A gay
couple has come to your agency to adopt
a child and you find out they recently
married. Your director is opposed to gay
marriage and gay adoptions.

39. 39
Wrap Up
• Did the issues in this workshop make you
uncomfortable?
• Were you concerned about the
implications of the exercises in your
practice as a social worker?
• Did you feel you could not consider some
ethical perspectives due to your beliefs?
• Are there some practice areas that you
feel you cannot work in?

40. 40
Summary
• All social workers are faced with ethical
dilemmas everyday
• Ethics are not laws or scriptures
• Ethics provides a means to discuss and consider
different perspectives
• Ethics provide a guide but the decision is still up
to the social worker
• A social worker must determine if they are
competent to provide services to certain
populations in certain settings

41. 41
Resources
• Belcher, J.R. D. Fandetti and D. Cole (2004). Is
Christian Religious Conservatism Compatible with the
Liberal Social Welfare State?, Social Work, 49, 269-
276
• Garland, Diana R. (February 17, 2006). Religiously
Affiliated Organizations and the Opportunities and
Challenges of “Faith Based Social Initiatives.
Invitational Address Council on Social Work
Education, Chicago IL. Retrieved from
http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php
/24345.doc
• Hodge, D.R. (2002). Does Social Work Oppress
Evangelical Christians,? A “New Class” Analysis of
Society and Social Work, Social Work, 47, 410-414.

42. 42
Resources
• Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/
• NASW Code of Ethics – www.socialworkers.org
• Reamer, F.G.,(2006). Ethical Standards in Social Work,
Washington, DC NASW Press
• Social Work Speaks (2005), Washington, DC, NASW
Press
• Summers, A.B., S.J. Brannen, (October 28, 2006),
Bridging the Gap Between Social Work Educators and
Conservative Religious Students, Workshop Presented
at the Baccalaureate Program Directors Annual
Conference, Los Angeles, CA

43. References
• McAuliffe, Donna, (2005), “I’m Still Standing:
Impacts and Consequences of Ethical Dilemmas
for Social Workers in Direct Practice, Journal of
Social Work Values and Ethics
• Handon, Rose, (2005), Client Relationships and
Ethical Boundaries for Social Workers in Child
Welfare The New Social Worker Online
Magazine
43