Health Professionals And Social Workers

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
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SOCIOLOGY
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Introduction:
Social work is emerged as a core health profession with an origin intensely linked to the
development of contemporary public health in the United States (Banks, 2016). Like any other
health professionals, social workers are a crucial pillar of improvement of public health. In this
context, social workers must incorporate a non-judgmental and empathetic approach to address
the concern of individuals who are seeking the assisting of social workers (Rishel, 2015). Hence,
the paper aimed to provide a brief idea of the ethical issues in the social workers and the
effectiveness of non-judgmental stance with the assistance of a case study. The case study
highlighted a judgmental approach of social workers towards homosexuality of a lesbian couple
which further gives rise to ethical issues. This paper will provide ethical issues in the case study,
advice for the young works and reflection on non-judgmental stance in the following paragraphs.
Discussion:
Ethical issues:
The case involves a lesbian couple who recently migrated to the community. They want
professional help to accomplish two goals such as getting married according to law and have a
child. While discussing the case, the young social worker refuses to offer help by exhibiting a
judgmental attitude towards homosexuality. In this case, the judgmental stance is an ethical issue
which further breach ethics and values of social workers. According to the NASW Code of
Ethics, the social workers should have reflected on values such as service, Acceptance, non-
judgmental attitude, controlled emotional involvement while providing care to the individuals
who are seeking help (Socialwork.utexas.edu, 2019). The primary goal of a social worker is to
address the need of the people by respectfully treating each person despite gender race, ethnicity,

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and sexual orientation (Freund & Band-Winterstein, 2017). While helping others and
establishing a therapeutic relationship, the professionals should be aware of their professional
values and beliefs that it should not interfere with the personal values and beliefs of the workers
(Mänttäri‐van der Kuip 2016). Taking a deep insight into the situation, it was observed that the
young social worker failed to balance between professional and personal values which further
challenged dignity, worthiness, and autonomy of the couple, highlighting it is an ethical issue.
Advise for the young social worker:
Marlowe et al. (2016), highlighted that social work believes that acceptance is the crux
of all help and social workers should not form an opinion about the client such as good or bad,
worthy or unworthy. A social worker must treat the client as somebody who is asking for help
and he or she should be willing to help without the influence of own culture, personal beliefs,
and values (Ahmed, Amer & Killawi, 2017). In this context, it is the responsibility of the
supervisor to advise the worker for considering the non-judgmental attitude towards the client.
The worker is required to alter the personal values and become aware of personal values while
helping the client (Dentato et al., 2018). The supervisor can assist the worker to adopt
professional values and develop self-awareness of not merging professional values with personal
values. It will enable the workers and the client to feel free for developing an understanding of
each other
Actions taken:
According to the verdict of Obergefell v. Hodges, on October 26th june 2015, the
supreme court of USA struck down all state bans of same sex marriage and legalize same-sex