Ethical Theories and Ethical Dilemmas in Social Work
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The essay discusses various theories of the ethical values associated with the practice of social work. Along with the theories, ethical decision-making and the ethical dilemmas are also discussed in the following essay.
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Running head: ETHICAL THEORIES AND ETHICAL DILLEMAS IN SOCIAL WORK Ethical Theories and Ethical Dilemmas in Social Work Name of the Student Name of the University Author Note
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1 ETHICAL THEORIES AND ETHICAL DILLEMAS IN SOCIAL WORK Abstract Theprofessionofsocialworkinvolveshelpingtheindividuals,families,groupsand communities. It also involves in the improving the well-being of the people. The discipline includes the study of the societies as a whole. It takes into account the major problems faced by the society such as poverty, population growth, unemployment and the like. The essay discusses various theories of the ethical values associated with the practice of social work. Along with the theories, ethical decision-making and the ethical dilemmas are also discussed in the following essay.Threeethical theories namely deontological theory, the theory of utilitarianismand the theory of justicehave been discussed below.
2 ETHICAL THEORIES AND ETHICAL DILLEMAS IN SOCIAL WORK Introduction Social work is a profession associated with the helping of individuals, groups, families and communities in order to improve the individual and collective well being of the people. Social workers help to enhance the ability of the persons to make them use the available resources for the betterment of themselves and the community. Social work not only administers the problems of the individuals but also the major problems of the society such as poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, domestic violence and the like (Hepworth, 2014). According to the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), social work is a profession that helps in the promotion of social change and the problem solving skills in relationship with individuals. It also helps in empowering and liberating the people in order to enhance their well-being (AASW, 2013). The discipline of social work intermediate at the points at which individuals interact with the environment and utilizes the theories related to human behaviour and other social systems. Ethical behaviour takes place when a social worker as an individual commits to be engaged in ethical practices. Ethical decision-making is the most important component of social work. Most of the social workers are facing ethical dilemmas while delivering their work. Discussion The Code of Ethics by the AASW conveys the values and the responsibilities that define the practice of social work. The Code of Ethics contains certain principles that every social workers should follow. The purpose of the code is identifying values and ethics that help in the underpinning of the ethical social practices. It acts as a guide and standard in order to conduct social work ethically. It provides a focus for the professional social workers (DuBois & Miley,
3 ETHICAL THEORIES AND ETHICAL DILLEMAS IN SOCIAL WORK 2013). The code guides the social workers in determining the rights of conduct with the employers, the organization, the AASW and with the other social workers. The code interprets the actions of the social workers in accordance with disputes related to legal issues. Earlier the social work values were not considered a compulsory part in the social work profession. It involved the personal values and motivations in order to work with the people who are in problem in some way or the other. A revised code of ethics for Social Work was passed by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) in the year 2012. The rules proposed by the BASW include the basic human rights, providing social justice and professional integrity. The basic human rights means providing equal respect and dignity to all the people as stated in the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights. It is the responsibility of the social workers to promote justice to all the people of the society with whom he or she is working. Professional integrity is to provide respect, to follow the rules and regulations, and to maintain reliability and trustworthiness (Beckett, Maynard & Jordan, 2017). The discipline of social work agrees with the fact that ethical dilemmas arise when a social worker has to make a choice between alternative actions. It arises when each of the actions is supported by morality and the outcome is not desirable (Pollock, 2014).Ethical decision- makingis the most systematic and reflective process by which these dilemmas can be avoided. It is expected that the social workers would critically note the dilemmas occurred during the profession. The social workers should be well aware of the values and norms present in the society. It is the sole duty of the social workers to identify to give priority to the actions he or she wants to. All the decision-making takes place by the power of relationship (Bond et al., 2013).
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4 ETHICAL THEORIES AND ETHICAL DILLEMAS IN SOCIAL WORK Deontology is a form of ethical theory that is used to distinguish the wrong from the right and is often associated with the name of Immanuel Kant. Kant was of the belief that the ethical actions are followed by the moral laws such as it is not ethical to steal or cheat or to lie anyone. Deontology is the simplest theory that can be applied to the ethical decision-making in the practice of social work and requires people to follow the rules and duties that have been mentioned. The theory of consequentialism judges the actions by the achievement of results. The costs and the benefits are not measured in deontology. Moreover, deontology avoids the occurrence of mistrust and individuality as social workers as an individual has to follow the rules and regulations (Korner & Volk, 2014). Many people do not accept the results that are produced by this theory. Following the rules and regulations make the theory of deontology easy to apply but can result in overlooking the possible consequences while trying to distinguish between the right and the wrong. Many scholars have criticised the theory of ethics as proposed by Kant. According to them duty, laws and rational nature are very abstract. Their existence demands that every individual follow the rules and act accordingly and morally. Kant’s theory does not give any importance to the situations that exists in the society. Actions, according to Kant, possess moral values if it is performed dutifully. The main problem with the deontological moral systems is that they do not provide a clear way to resolve the occurrence of conflicts between ethical duties (Hurley, 2013). Utilitarianism can be defined as an ethicaltheory, which helps to determineand distinguish between the right and the wrong, focusing specially on the outcomes of the social work practice. It is considered as a form of consequentialism. The theory holds that most of the ethical choices would produce the best outcomes (Wills, 2014). It is the most common approach
5 ETHICAL THEORIES AND ETHICAL DILLEMAS IN SOCIAL WORK towards moral reasoning and is used in justifying the military force. It is a great trouble for the utilitarian theory in evaluating values such as individual justice and individual rights. For instance, in a hospital, four persons are admitted and are dependent on the organ transplants such as heart, kidney, lungs and a liver. A healthy person is and all his organs are transplanted to those four patients. Then, four lives are being saved at the expense of one. This would be producing the most number of goods. Only a few would be considering and accepting the action. Although utilitarianism is considered as the most reason-based approach, it has a good number of limitations.The utilitarian theory is not a single theory but a cluster of theories that are related to each other. As these theories have been developed over a time of around two hundred years, criticisms have developed for various reasons having more targets. The major criticism of this theory is that its inability to quantify, compare or measure the happiness or benefits of the individuals and the social workers. Some scholars like John Rawls are of the view that the theory of utilitarianism ignores the concept of justice (Goodall, 2014). In this theory, the rights of a citizen are completely looked down upon if punishing the innocent brings about benefit to the complete society, which is opposed by Rawls. He is of the belief that the social contract theory is the best way to identify fairness by any government. John Rawls developed a theory of justice that was superior to the theory of utilitarianism and supported his concept of “intuitionism”. According to him, a moral theory is the rules that specify the information that is required to determine what actions are required to perform and determines the reaction of a person in a circumstance on which he or she has the information. Rawls is of the view that the structure of the society is the primary focus of justice. By the major institutionsofthesociety,hereferstothepolitical,socialandeconomicarrangements.
6 ETHICAL THEORIES AND ETHICAL DILLEMAS IN SOCIAL WORK According to Rawls, the basic structure of the society consists of the people born into various positions in the society having equal as well as unequal situations in their lives. Many scholars have criticized the justice theory proposed by John Rawls. A feminist critic such as Okin is of the view that there are inequalities between men and women that focus on the difference of gender roles in any traditional families. Rawls has completely neglected this view of justice within families. Some of the egalitarian critics have pointed out on Rawls’ stressed on the basic social goods. Some of the critics have criticized why Rawls have not included healthcare as the basic institution of a society. Domestic violence is one of the most common issues the social workers deal with in their day-to-day profession. They are skilled professionals and include the whole family in order to assess and solve the problems of the victims. While dealing with the cases of domestic violence, the social workers make sure that the children and the victims are safe (Root & Brown, 2014). Social workers work directly with the children in order to strengthen the relationship between the parents and their children so that the children are not affected by the violence caused in home. They are expected to remain updated with the new laws regarding the domestic work in order to help the families with the skills and knowledge to cope up with domestic violence (Campbell & Messing, 2017). Some ethical dilemmas that occur while providing services to the victims of domestic violence include lackof confidentiality and lack of informed consent. While providing service to the victims of the domestic violence, the social worker often discusses the case with the other staffs. Sometimes the case becomes very serious and the social worker has to refer to and take help of a counsellor (Ritchie et al., 2013). In both the cases, the social workers are not seeking
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7 ETHICAL THEORIES AND ETHICAL DILLEMAS IN SOCIAL WORK the permission of the victim,which is the right of the client. When the victim gets aware of the action of the social worker, the person might get irritated and develop a sense of mistrust on all the social workers. Here, the social worker is incapable of keeping the personal details of the client confidential. Often the social workershave miscommunicationwith the clients and do not disclose the limits of the treatment the client is supposed to undergo (Healy, 2014). Some victims who are facing domestic violence in their day to day life have to undergo psychotherapeutic treatments. It is the duty of the social workers to make them understand the need, process and the limitations of the treatment to the victims. The social workers should also take the consent of the victim prior to the appointment with the psychologist (Zastrow, 2016). When the social worker has not informed the client, he or she has to deal with the ethical dilemma. It often happens that the social worker while talking to the client and discussing about her problems gets sentimental and reacts along with the client.Another dilemma that occurs during social work is the application of self-determination. The deontological theory of ethics gives more importance to self-determination rather than the action producing more values (Payne, 2015).Other ethical dilemmas in social work practice include receiving gifts from the clients and involuntary commitment when a client wants to harm self (Levy & Slavin, 2013). In order to deal with the ethical dilemmas the social workers have to follow certain guidelines that would help in handling the dilemmas occurring during the practice. Often the social workers confuse between a non-moral or clinical and moral or ethical aspect(McAuliffe, 2014). The social worker at first has to identify whether the issue is ethical or clinical in nature. In order to address a clinical issue, the social worker has to apply certain ethical implications. The social worker should follow the rules as stated by the National Association of Social Workers or those by the AASW (Padgett, 2016).
8 ETHICAL THEORIES AND ETHICAL DILLEMAS IN SOCIAL WORK Conclusion There are various theories that explain the ethical values that are practiced in the social work profession. The deontological theory proposed by Immanuel Kant and the utilitarian theory are the two amongst all. Though many scholars have criticized both the theories, these theories are profoundly used in social work practice. Though the social workers follow strict rules while delivering services to the clients, sometimes ethical dilemmas occur. The occurrence of ethical dilemmas increases with the increase in the number of clients per day. Ethical dilemmas as lack of confidentiality and lack of informed consent are the most common to occur during social work practice. There are certain rules that the social workers follow in order to deal with the ethical dilemmas.
9 ETHICAL THEORIES AND ETHICAL DILLEMAS IN SOCIAL WORK Reference AASW. (2013). Ethics and Practice Guideline–Social Media, Information and Communication Technologies: Part 1. Bond, C. S., Ahmed, O. H., Hind, M., Thomas, B., & Hewitt-Taylor, J. (2013). The conceptual and practical ethical dilemmas of using health discussion board posts as research data.Journal of medical Internet research,15(6). Campbell, J. C., & Messing, J. (Eds.). (2017).Assessing Dangerousness: Domestic Violence Offenders and Child Abusers. Springer Publishing Company. DuBois, B. L., & Miley, K. K. (2013).Social work: An empowering profession. Pearson Higher Ed. Goodall, N. J. (2014). Machine ethics and automated vehicles. InRoad vehicle automation(pp. 93-102). Springer, Cham. Healy, K. (2014).Social work theories in context: Creating frameworks for practice. Palgrave Macmillan. Hepworth, D. H., Rooney, R. H., Rooney, G. D., & Strom-Gottfried, K. (2016).Empowerment series: Direct social work practice: Theory and skills. Nelson Education. Hurley, P. (2013). Deontology.The International Encyclopedia of Ethics. Körner, A., & Volk, S. (2014). Concrete and abstract ways to deontology: Cognitive capacity moderates construal level effects on moral judgments.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,55, 139-145.
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10 ETHICAL THEORIES AND ETHICAL DILLEMAS IN SOCIAL WORK Levy, C. S., & Slavin, S. (2013).Social work ethics on the line. Routledge. McAuliffe, D. (2014).Interprofessional ethics: Collaboration in the social, health and human services. Cambridge University Press. Padgett, D. K. (2016).Qualitative methods in social work research(Vol. 36). Sage Publications. Payne, M. (2015).Modern social work theory. Oxford University Press. Pollock, J. M. (2014).Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. Nelson Education. Ritchie, J., Lewis, J., Nicholls, C. M., & Ormston, R. (Eds.). (2013).Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students and researchers. Sage. Root, M. P., & Brown, L. (2014). An analysis of domestic violence in Asian American communities: A multicultural approach to counselling. InDiversity and complexity in feminist therapy(pp. 143-164). Routledge. Willis, J. E. (2014). Learning analytics and ethics: A framework beyond utilitarianism.Educause Review. Zastrow, C. (2016).Empowerment Series: Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare: Empowering People. Cengage Learning.