Ethical Dilemmas in social work practice free essay sample

In every profession: we as the professionals are faced with ethical dilemmas. An ethical dilemma is a conflict of moral principles, occurring when a person is faced in certain situations, where adhering particularly principal might result in the violation of the other (Buzzle. com, 2014). In the Department of Education (DOE) we identify the students and families of the New York City public school system as our clients. Our families and students develop a strong relationships with staff, which is normal. Students spend 181 days of the year in school with educational, clerical and clinical staff (schools. nyc. gov, 2014). As a family worker of the DOE I am faced with ethical dilemmas that force me to check self and take a professional stance towards a situation. Dilemmas at the your workplaces can sometimes be the hardest decision to make in life, however as a professional we must take the proper steps to move further and not jeopardize our license and/ or career. As a family worker of the School Base Support Team, I have the most parent contact due to the many hats I wear in my position. At the department of education I take on many roles and help out in different sectors of the educational system. I build relations with parents, grandparents, foster parents, service providers, outside case manager, workers of the Administration for Children Services (ACS) and our students. In building these relationships, we as staff have a lot of outside commonalities (i. e. social clubs, mutual friends, shared interest and come from the same geographical community). In my position, I have an advantage over a lot of staff. I come from the community that I work in, I have observed many of the children that enroll into my school grow and develop inside and outside of the school setting. Most of the children, that attend this educational institute, parents have grown up with me in the same community and we share the same cultural background as well as upbringing. This advantage can have its ups and downs, especially when faced with ethical dilemmas. I am the person whom makes the initial contact with the parent in different situations: before an evaluation is started, when attendance is a lacking, when a special education student is involved in a situation, when outreach is needed for specified reasons and when Office of Children and Family Services needs to be notified. Being such an asset to the educational institute and the community sometimes put me in a position where ethical dilemmas can occur. An ethical dilemma that I can remember taking place during my second year in my position as a Family Worker/ Clerical Associate. I was well aware of the basic codes of ethics and as a young lady, who resided in the community where 97% of the student body also resided, I put a lot of things in perspective before working in my community. I limited my social network friends, became very humble, and made it clear to the parents that I had prior relationships during my childhood that â€Å"my job is my job†¦ its business! † There was now a new relationship that was forming as an administrator/ family worker in the educational institute where the families are our clients. As a familiar face from my community, this forced me to reflect on dual relationships as discussed in â€Å"Beyond the code of ethics, Part I†, it leaves an open door to necessary exception, so keeping a strictly professional relationship helps me avoid dilemmas (Freud Krug, 2002). Relationships in the field are very important and can be the drive for change. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) core value of importance of human relationships ethical principal looks at the importance of the relationship, building stronger relationships with meaning to promote, restore, maintain, and better wellbeing of individuals, families, social groups, organizations and communities (NASW, 2008). I always kept my relationships with parents and families strictly professional to avoid any mishaps or miscommunications. As a Family worker I assist with the monitoring of daily attendance and when attendance is alarming it is my responsibility to follow specific protocol before reporting a case of educational neglect due to excessive absences from school. Ms. SmithX, A single parent of two, works a full-time job and has a hard time getting her school aged daughter to school regularly or if she does attend, getting her to school on time. I am very familiar with the parent of this child, she was currently very involved in the school before taking on this new job that has her working long and hard hours. I grew up with this parent, Ms. SmithX, on the same street of my neighborhood, we played together as kids, attended the same schools and even hung out together our late teen years. When this student attendance became alarming, I took the proper steps to alert this parent of the issue of the attendance as well as finding ways to help the problem as a professional. My thoughts at first being that I knew her for a long time- would she be responsive and proactive in fixing the issue before ACS got involved? I’ve sent home a notice to meet with Ms. SmithX to discuss the issue of attendance via mail as well as with the child and reached out via phone numerous times. I was then forced to make a home visit. This family resided out of the school zone and many option were at hand. A home visit was conducted and as the parent opened the door she was relieved to see it was me, a familiar face, who was going to assist with finding a resolution for this issue. I began the home visit by re-introducing myself and the reason for the visit. Ms. SmithX was well aware and seem very compassionate about getting help. Ms. SmithX was given many options: busing transportation, advocacy for schedule change at the job, and even an automatic transfer to a closer school in their zone. Ms. SmithX was scheduled to come in for a meeting a few days after the home visit. Upon exiting the home, I spoke to Ms. SmithX 1 to 1 and I express to her in a professional manner â€Å"this is my career and my job, nothing personal I am just trying to help you as a parent to our student. † Ms. SmithX was very clear on the process and the consequences if she did not follow through with process on adjusting the issue. By the looks of things it look like Ms. SmithX was overwhelmed. Ms. SmithX never showed up and 3 attempts was made after that to try and get her in office to discuss the concerns of attendance, academics and the possible chance of her being reported to OCFS if change does not occur. In following through my supervisor was aware of the prior relationship and ask if it would be difficult for me to follow through on this process due to the parent being incompliant of the resources put in to play to help with her situation. I express to my supervisor that I was going to do this professionally and ethically and I knew it was time for me to make the decision. It was very hard because I had faith that Ms. SmithX was going to make that change. The call to OCFS was made and the report went as far as a removal. The feeling that came over me, made me feel as if I was in a tug-of-war with myself. In the article â€Å"Identifying the discomfort†, discuss Anderson’s views of the study of ethical dilemmas encountered by social workers-in-training and the two ethical issues arising from the subjective evidence which were lack of confidentiality and allowing self determination to come into play even when it may be difficult and painful for the client (Dodd, 2007). I knew that this would hurt Ms. SmithX but I also knew she was going to get the help that she needed. To watch someone I grew up with, from the same cultural and educational background, fail and lose her children hurt me to my core but if I didn’t act immediately the situation could have got worse. As a social worker-in-training, the deontological perspective was the bases for reasoning in this case. I acted as, if it was my duty to make sure this child was in a safe place and made the decision I felt was morally right. Base on the power point presentation, Social work ethics and the decision making process, from Practice Lab II it states that Deontology is obligation or rule based and that runs concurrent to the approach I took on reasoning this dilemma and the Utilitarian (Teleology) is a more outcome-based approach and right and wrong are determined by consequences of the act (Hunter, 2014). In the Utilitarian perspective I had to acknowledge and consider the consequences for self as well as other and get more pleasure and avoid the pain but that wasn’t the best approach in this situation. Two years later, I cross path with Ms. SmithX again in public with her two children. Ms. SmithX thanked me for doing what I had to do because it was a wake-up call for her. Ms. SmithX talked about her experiences and what she is doing differently now. It was truly a blessing to see such blessings come from an ethical dilemma such as that one.