The NASW Code of Ethics for Social Work Practice: Core Values and Ethical Standards, Exams of Social Work

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NASW Code of Ethics and more

The NASW Code of Ethics serves six purposes... -

1. The Code identifies core values on which social work's mission is based.
2. The Code summarizes broad ethical principles that reflect the profession's core values and establishes a set of specific ethical standards that should be used to guide social work practice.
3. The Code is designed to help social workers identify relevant considerations when professional obligations conflict or ethical uncertainties arise.
4. The Code provides ethical standards to which the general public can hold the social work profession accountable.
5. The Code socializes practitioners new to the field to 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 procedures to adjudicate ethics complaints filed against its members.* In subscribing to this Code, social workers are required to cooperate in its implementation, participate in NASW adjudication proceedings, and abide by any NASW disciplinary rulings or sanctions based on it. Core Values of the Social Work Profession -
7. Service
8. Social justice
9. Dignity and worth of the person
10. Importance of human relationships
11. Integrity
12. Competence Service - Social workers' primary goal is to help people in need and to address social problems. Social workers elevate service to others above self-interest. Social workers are encouraged to volunteer some portion of their professional skills with no expectation of significant financial return (pro bono service).

Social Justice - Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social workers' social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice. Dignity and Worth of the Person - Social workers respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person. Social workers treat each person in a caring and respectful fashion, mindful of individual differences and cultural and ethnic diversity. Social workers promote clients' socially responsible self-determination. Social workers seek to enhance clients' capacity and opportunity to change and to address their own needs. Social workers are cognizant of their dual responsibility to clients and to the broader society. They seek to resolve conflicts between clients' interests and the broader society's interests in a socially responsible manner consistent with the values, ethical principle and ethical standards of the profession. Importance of Human Relationships - Social workers understand that relationships between and among people are an important vehicle for change. Social workers seek to strengthen relationships among people in a purposeful effort to promote, restore, maintain, and enhance the well-being of individuals, families, social groups, organizations, and communities. Integrity - Social workers are continually aware of the profession's mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical standards and practice in a manner consistent with them. Competence - Social workers should provide services and represent themselves as competent only within the boundaries of their education, training, license, certification, consultation received, supervised experience, or other relevant professional experience. Client Self-Determination - Social workers respect and promote the right of clients to self-determination and assist clients in their efforts to identify and clarify their goals. Limitations exist when (as per professional judgment) clients' actions or potential actions pose a serious, foreseeable, and imminent risk to themselves or others

Intrinsic worth and value of the individual - Intrinsic value as it is related to humanity is a belief that all human beings have the same worth as their fellow human beings. It is the belief that just by the virtue of being human no one has the right to impede on the rights of others for any reason. Intrinsic value states that humans have worth based on their humanity, not deriving worth in relation to anything else. Social workers treat each person in a caring and respectful fashion, mindful of individual differences and cultural and ethnic diversity. Client's Right to Refuse Service - In instances when clients are receiving services involuntarily, social workers should provide information about the nature and extent of services and about the extent of clients' right to refuse service. Ethical Issues Regarding Termination - Social workers should take reasonable steps to avoid abandoning clients who are still in need of services. Social workers should not terminate services to pursue a social, financial, or sexual relationship with a client. Social workers who anticipate the termination or interruption of services to clients should notify clients promptly and seek the transfer, referral, or continuation of services in relation to the clients' needs and preferences. Bioethical Issues - Bioethics is concerned with questions about basic human values such as the rights to life and health, and the rightness or wrongness of certain developments in healthcare institutions, life technology, medicine, the health professions and about society's responsibility for the life and health of its members. Fundamental values are at stake: human life, the dignity of the frail and elderly, just healthcare, bodily integrity and the ability to make reasonable decisions. Ethical Decision-Making Model -

1. Identify the problem and the persons, institutions, clients, professionals, support systems, victims, and others that are involved in this problem.
2. Determine who should be involved in decision-making.
3. Identify the relevant values held by those identified in step 1, including the client and worker.
4. Identify the goals and objectives whose attainment you believe may resolve (or reduce) the problem.
5. Identify alternate intervention strategies and targets, and assess the effectiveness and efficacy of each alternative in terms of the identified goals.

6. Select and implement the most appropriate strategy.
7. Monitor the implementation, paying particular attention to unanticipated consequences; evaluate the results and identify additional problems, opportunities, and options. Ethical Assessment Screen -
   1. Identify the relevant professional values and ethics, your own relevant values, and any societal values relevant to the ethical decision to be made in relation to this ethical dilemma.
8. What can you do to minimize conflicts between personal, societal, and professional values?
9. Identify alternative ethical options that you may take.
10. Which of the alternative ethical options will minimize conflicts between your client's, others' rights and welfare, and society's rights and interests?
11. Which alternative action will be most efficient, effective, and ethical, as well as result in your doing the "least harm" possible?
12. Have you considered and weighed both short- and long-term ethical consequences?
13. Final check: Is the planned action, impartial, generalizable, and justifiable? Ethical Rules Screen - Examine the Code of Ethics to determine if any of the Code rules are applicable. These rules take precedence over the worker's personal value system. If one or more of the Code rules apply: Follow the Code rules. If the Code does not address the specific problem or several Code rules provide conflicting guidance: Use the ethical principles screen. Ethical Principles Screen - (There is not an official order but the following is generally accepted. Consider which ethical principles apply to the situation. Those higher on the list should be addressed first.)
14. Protection of life
15. Equality and inequality
16. Autonomy and freedom
17. Least harm
18. Quality of life
19. Privacy and confidentiality
20. Truthfulness and full disclosure

Responsibility to Seek Supervision - It is important to the profession to have assurance that all social workers are equipped with the necessary skills to deliver competent and ethical social work services. Equally important is the responsibility to protect clients. Supervision is an essential and integral part of the training and continuing education required for skillful development of professional social workers. Supervision protects clients, supports practitioners, and ensures that professional standards and quality services are delivered by competent social workers. The supervisor is responsible for providing direction to the supervisee, who applies social work theory, standardized knowledge, skills, competency, and applicable ethical content in the practice setting Professional Development - A self-directed process, which requires social workers to assume responsibility for the growth of their own professional knowledge base. Regardless of career stage, social workers are ethically required to keep informed of current research, theory, and techniques that guide social work practice to better serve clients and constituents. Professional Boundaries - i. The professional relationship is limited and focused on the problem for which help is sought. The professional assumes responsibility for helping the client with his problem(s), and traditionally, the relationship terminates once these objectives have been achieved. ii. The Code of Ethics suggests that dual relationships and conflicts of interests can be accommodated within sound SW practice if professional discretion is used and there is no risk of exploitation or potential harm to the client iii. When the worker's own needs become entangled with the professional relationship, emotional feelings may become destructive. The social worker has responsibilities to the following.... -

1. Clients
2. Colleagues
3. In practices settings
4. As professionals
5. The social work profession
6. The broader society

Social Work Responsibility to Clients - Social workers' primary responsibility is to promote the well-being of clients. Social workers' responsibility to the larger society or specific legal obligations may on limited occasions supersede the loyalty owed clients, and clients should be advised (ex: child abuse, threats to harm self or others). Social Work Responsibility to Colleagues -

1. Social workers should treat colleagues with respect
2. SWers should cooperate with SW colleagues and with colleagues of other professions when such cooperation serves the well-being of clients.
3. SWers should seek the advice and counsel of colleagues whenever such consultation is in the best interests of the client
4. SWers who refer clients to other professionals should take appropriate steps to facilitate an orderly transfer of responsibility.
5. SWers who have direct knowledge of a social work colleague's impairment (due to personal problems, psychosocial distress, substance abuse, or mental health difficulties) and that interferes with practice effectiveness should consult with that colleague when feasible and assist the colleague in taking remedial action.
6. SWers should take adequate measures to discourage, prevent, expose, and correct the unethical conduct of colleagues Social Work Responsibility in Practice Settings -
7. Social workers generally should adhere to commitments made to employers and employing organizations.
8. Social workers should work to improve employing agencies; policies and procedures and the efficiency and effectiveness of their services Social Work Responsibility as Professionals - Social workers should strive to become and remain proficient in professional practice and the performance of professional functions. Social workers should critically examine and keep current with emerging knowledge relevant to social work. Social workers should routinely review the professional literature and participate in continuing education relevant to social work practice and social work ethics. Social Work Responsibility to the Social Work Profession -

1. Social workers should uphold and advance the values, ethics, knowledge, and mission of the profession. Social workers should protect, enhance, and improve the integrity of the profession through appropriate study and research, active discussion, and responsible criticism of the profession.
2. Social workers should educate themselves, their students, and their colleagues about responsible research practices. Social Work Responsibility to the Broader Society -
3. Social workers should promote the general welfare of society, from local to global levels, and the development of people, their communities, and their environments. Social workers should advocate for living conditions conducive to the fulfillment of basic human needs and should promote social, economic, political, and cultural values and institutions that are compatible with the realization of social justice.
4. Social workers should promote conditions that encourage respect for cultural and social diversity within the United States and globally. Social workers should promote policies and practices that demonstrate respect for difference, support the expansion of cultural knowledge and resources, advocate for programs and institutions that demonstrate cultural competence, and promote policies that safeguard the rights of and confirm equity and social justice for all people.
5. Social workers should act to prevent and eliminate domination of, exploitation of, and discrimination against any person, group, or class on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, political belief, religion, immigration status, or mental or physical disability.