Analyzing Social Work Ethical Principles Through a Case Study Approach

This case study examines the ethical principles of social work through the lens of a family facing complex challenges. The case revolves around Marie, an elderly woman, and her daughters, Lisa and Toni, highlighting issues of assisted living, medication adherence, and family dynamics. The study explores the importance of interpersonal skills, including communication and conflict resolution, in addressing these issues. It delves into the application of ethical reasoning, the identification of ethical dilemmas, and the need for social workers to navigate ambiguities while respecting the values of the profession. The analysis covers social cognition theory, family strengths and resources, potential treatment goals, and the difficulties that may arise during intervention. The conclusion emphasizes the crucial role of social workers in guiding and supporting individuals and families while adhering to ethical standards.

Running head: SOCIAL WORK ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
Social Work Ethical Principles
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Case study........................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Reference.........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Social workers have the responsibility of conducting and engaging into a social work
ethically. Social workers have a deep knowledge of the value of the profession, relevant law and
ethical standards that are necessary for the social service. Social workers manage and recognize
the personal values that in an effective guide them to work on the professional practices. When
making the ethical decisions and working according to the standards mentioned in the rule book.
The principles that a social worker must acknowledge is to tolerate any sort of ambiguity that
comes across during resolving the ethical conflicts, application of the strategies related to the
ethical reasoning in order to arrive at the principled decisions (Dolgoff, Harrington &
Loewenberg, 2012). This study deals with a case study which highlights a character Marie. This
character needs a professional consultation, advice and counselling which will be provided by a
social worker.
Case study
According to the case study, Toni has asked for a help from a social worker to assist in
finding an assisted living facility. Also, she has asked to convince her mother (Marie) to take her
pain medication. Lisa also wants the social worker to convey to Marie, the benefits of the
grandchildren that stay with the grandparents. Marie has also revealed that her another daughter
named Lisa, might have taken an unopened bottle having the pain medicine.
Discussion
Interpersonal skills
When engaging with the family mentioned in the case study, a social worker needs to
have the interpersonal skills. These interpersonal skills include the communication skills like the

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speaking and listening effectively. Listening skills are equally important in comparison to the
speaking skills because, when engaging with the family members it is first necessary to
understand the problems and issues faced by them. Thus, problems can be resolved effectively
only when listened attentively. Effective strategies are made only after listening to the problems
and conveying the solutions to the family members verbally. Interpersonal skills also include the
conflict resolution skills. When engaging with a family, there will be instances where there will
conflicting issues and they are inevitable. Thus, resolving such issues require the skills that
reduce conflicts (Koprowska, 2014).
The areas that require the social worker to empathize is with the mental condition of
Marie. According to Marie, she gets irritated with the children of Lisa and does not entertain the
chaotic environment in home. Another area of empathy can be related to the mental state and
shock that Marie experienced when she lost her friend and husband (Eriksson & Englander,
2017).
Human behavior and social environment
Strengths- According to the case study, one of the prime strength is the decision of Marie
to stay close to the two daughters (Lisa and Toni). Staying close to the family will give Marie a
sense of security. On the other hand, Marie depicted a picture of an independent lady who
worked hard to bring up her own business.
Resources- the resources that can be used in the assessment are the valuable inputs of
information from Toni with respect to the various issues that she highlighted. Another resource
can be drawn from the interpersonal skills of the social worker. The importance of the listening

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is vital for the purpose of extracting important information from the family members. This
information can be used a s valid source of the resources.
Problems- The problematic areas are that, Marie had undergone knee replacement and is
under a therapy to gain mobility. For this reason, Marie was prescribed drugs. However, one of
the major issue is that, Marie refuses to take medicine as per the direction of the physician.
In order to further work with the with the case study of the family in future, the critical
areas that needs to be identified are: according to Toni, her mother is experiencing difficulty in
living alone and desperately needs to be sent to an assisted living facility. Another issue is that
Lisa is taking advantage of Marie and taking her help to keep the children under Marie’s watch
(Media.capella.edu, 2018).
Focus of work
The focus of the work is going to be keeping the family bonded together. Elder people
require the constant care and watch. Because due to the ageing, there are certain age related
issues like loss of memory, impaired mobility and reduced vision. Regarding the case of Marie,
she wants to stay alone although in close proximity of her daughters. Although, her two
daughters cannot take care of their mother and Marie herself is old enough to take her own care.
Thus, sending Marie to an assisted living facility can atleast ease the issues currently faced by
Marie and her family members (Lewinson, Robinson-Dooley & Grant, 2012).
The potential treatment goals include counselling of Marie to take the medicine as
prescribed by the physician. The only reason for such a goal is to improve mobility of Marie. If
Marie can be convinced to take medicine in a proper way, then she can recover faster from the
knee replacement operation that she had under gone previously (Bentley & Walsh, 2013).

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knowledge needed to understand the person
According to the Social cognition theory, social cognition is used in communication,
psychology and education which says that an individual’s capability to acquire the knowledge is
directly related to the observing others through the social experiences and interactions.
Especially the family mentioned in the case study requires a close observation of the various
members. The behavior of Lisa is a bit different from that of Toni. The attitude of Lisa is a bit
unethical and is irresponsible to a certain extent. The way she leaves her children under the
watch of her ailing mother is creating further confusion and problem (Fiske & Taylor, 2013).
Strategies of ethical reasoning
Ethical reasoning is the capability of a person to develop ethical arguments, assess and
identify the ethical issues from several directions (Valentine & Hollingworth, 2012). The first
major ethical issue that arises is that both Lisa and Toni are in an ethical dilemma that they
cannot take care of their mother and want her to be sent to an assisted living facility. Whereas,
Lisa is seen to be violating the ethical principle because Lisa has been found to be leaving her
children under the watch of Marie. Marie also feels irritated by the activities of her
grandchildren. This tendency of Marie, is not ethically acceptable because important that the
children must receive care from their grandparents. Another ethical dilemma can be identified
from the perspective of Marie taking her own decision of retiring from business. She although
did that out of her physical demands, but now she feels that she feels lonely without any purpose
of life.

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Ambiguity in resolving the ethical conflicts
To resolve the ethical conflicts, there is a need to tolerate the ambiguity and it must
include a process of identification of the ambiguities. One of the major ambiguity is regarding
the fact that Marie complained that Lisa might have taken one of the unopened bottle of pain
medicine. This is an area of ethical conflict between Lisa and Marie. However, this ethical
conflict can be tolerated by the way that, Marie is having issues with forgetting certain stuff. She
might have kept it somewhere and then might have forgotten the place. Thus, blaming Lisa for
removing up one of her pain medicines. The another ethical conflict is that; Marie wants to stay
alone. Whereas, Marie’s daughter has found that their mother is unable to take her own care.
Thus, they want to shift Marie to an assisted living facility. This can be tolerated if Marie can be
convinced that, she needs to shift to an assisted living facility in order to improve her health
condition and reduce the felling of life with no purpose (Naswma.org, 2018).
Foreseen areas of difficulty
The difficulties that might be faced by the family members due to the introduction of the
treatment goals are: firstly, the counselling done to Marie reveals can yield positive results if
Marie follows it. This might improve the health condition of Marie and she might prefer to stay
alone in her house. On the other hand, Lisa might find it easy to keep her children under the
watch of Marie, which might further irritate her. The other aspect is that if Marie is sent to an
assisted living facility, then the children of Lisa and Toni might not receive the care of the
grandparent.

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Conclusion
Therefore, from the above study it can be concluded that, social workers through their
work ability in counselling and changing lives of people that are facing difficulties in day to day
life. However, a social worker must work in accordance with the ethical standards and the ethical
principles to reduce any kind of issue that might affect the working environment. This particular
study is based on a case study, that elaborates on the life of Marie and her two daughter Lisa and
Toni. Marie has become an elderly lady and lacks the mobility and zeal due to knee replacement.
A social worker is employed by the family assess the various issues faced by the family and
devise strategies to mitigate them.

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Reference
Bentley, K. J., & Walsh, J. (2013). The social worker and psychotropic medication: Toward
effective collaboration with clients, families, and providers. Cengage Learning.
Dolgoff, R., Harrington, D., & Loewenberg, F. M. (2012). Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series:
Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice. Cengage Learning.
Eriksson, K., & Englander, M. (2017). Empathy in social work. Journal of Social Work
Education, 53(4), 607-621.
Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. (2013). Social cognition: From brains to culture. Sage.
Koprowska, J. (2014). Communication and interpersonal skills in social work. Learning Matters.
Lewinson, T., Robinson-Dooley, V., & Grant, K. W. (2012). Exploring “home” at an assisted
living facility: looking through residents’ lenses with Photovoice.
Media.capella.edu. (2018). Transcript. Media.capella.edu. Retrieved 31 January 2018, from
http://media.capella.edu/CourseMedia/MSW5007/TheCaseOfMarie/transcript.html
Naswma.org. (2018). Essential Steps for Ethical Problem-Solving - National Association of
Social Workers. Naswma.org. Retrieved 19 January 2018, from
http://www.naswma.org/page/100/Essential-Steps-for-Ethical-Problem-Solving.htm
Valentine, S., & Hollingworth, D. (2012). Moral intensity, issue importance, and ethical
reasoning in operations situations. Journal of Business Ethics, 108(4), 509-523.