ETHICS IN ACTION
This is NOT one of the six NASW core values: Service, Social Justice, Independence, or Integrity.
What is Independence?
This term describes the trusting, respectful professional relationship a social worker develops with a client.
What is rapport?
A new client arrives and begins describing several problems. What should the social worker generally do FIRST?
A. Develop a treatment plan
B. Conduct an assessment
C. Refer the client elsewhere
D. Contact the client’s family
What is conduct an assessment?
A social worker connects a client with housing, transportation, food, and other community resources. What social work role is being demonstrated?
What is a broker/resource connector?
This is considered social work’s signature pedagogy and gives students the opportunity to apply classroom learning in supervised practice.
What is field education
This ethical principle supports a client’s right to make their own decisions when there is no serious or imminent danger.
What is self-determination?
This process requires giving clients enough information about services, risks, benefits, alternatives, limits, and rights so they can voluntarily decide whether to participate.
What is informed consent?
A client begins crying during an intake interview. What should the social worker do FIRST?
A. Change the subject
B. Refer immediately for psychiatric treatment
C. Acknowledge the emotion and allow the client to express it
D. End the session
What is acknowledge the emotion and allow the client to express it?
A social worker helps a client understand their rights and speaks up when those rights are being ignored.
What is an advocate?
This person is responsible for actively participating in supervision, completing learning activities, communicating concerns, and demonstrating professional behavior during placement.
Who is the social work student/intern?
Discussing a client’s case loudly in a public elevator creates a violation of this ethical responsibility.
What is confidentiality/privacy?
This occurs when a client redirects feelings or expectations connected to important people from their past onto the social worker.
What is transference?
A client repeatedly misses appointments. What should the social worker do FIRST?
A. Terminate services
B. Explore the reasons for the missed appointments
C. Send a warning letter
D. Contact the client’s family
What is explore the reasons for the missed appointments?
A social worker helps two people or groups resolve a disagreement and negotiate a solution.
What is a mediator?
This document identifies the student’s learning activities and explains how the student will demonstrate social work competencies during field placement.
What is the learning agreement or practicum plan?
Declining a current client’s personal social-media friend request helps maintain this important professional standard.
What are professional boundaries?
This refers to the social worker’s emotional reactions toward a client that may be influenced by the worker’s own experiences or unresolved feelings.
What is countertransference?
During a session, a client says, “Sometimes I think everyone would be better without me.” What should the social worker do FIRST?
What is conduct a suicide and safety assessment?
A social worker teaches parents strategies for improving communication with their teenagers.
What is an educator
A social work student encounters an ethical situation at their placement and is unsure what to do. What should the student do?
What is seek supervision and consultation?
When a client makes a statement suggesting immediate risk of serious harm, this should generally occur before deciding on an intervention.
What is a safety/risk assessment?
One of these means giving everyone the same resources, while the other means responding to different needs and barriers.
What are equality and equity?
A client asks the social worker whether they should leave a relationship. The worker strongly believes the client should leave. What is the BEST response?
What is help the client explore options, risks, values, resources, and consequences while supporting self-determination?
A social worker brings agencies, residents, and community organizations together to address homelessness in a neighborhood.
What is a community organizer/collaborator?
A field student is asked by the agency to complete a task that appears unethical or outside the student’s role. What should the student do FIRST?
What is discuss the concern with the field instructor or supervisor and seek appropriate consultation?