Role Of Nasw Code Of Ethics In Social Work

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Maintaining professional ethics in social work can pose unique challenges. All social workers must obey the law and protect their clients' rights. Ethics are the core basis of social work itself. The NASW Code of Ethics is intended to serve as a guide to the everyday professional conduct of social workers. When faced with an ethical problem it will not always lead to a single clear and or correct answer, but there are many possible answers to guide you. (www.socialworkers.org) The American Psychological Association’s (APA’s) Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (hereinafter referred to as the Ethics Code) consists of an Introduction, a Preamble, five General Principles (A–E), and specific Ethical Standards. The Introduction…show more content…
He told me that in his practice he encounters ethical concerns on a daily basis, and had a detailed one in mind. Jim recently had a session with a 13 year old girl named Serena whose parents are going through a divorce. The mom brought Serena to see Jim for a reason unrelated to the divorce. Jim discussed confidentiality with both Serena and her mother, stating that Serena was his client not the family and anything discussed was confidential unless imminent harm was an issue. Throughout the several months of seeing Serena, Jim would occasionally get messages from Serena’s father regarding the parents' issues and would badmouth Serena’s mother. Jim asked for a meeting including only the parents to reiterate the rules of confidentiality and told them he was not interested in their opinions of each other or their issues. These sessions were for Serena and had nothing to do with…show more content…
He then asked Jim to set up a session with just Serena and himself so he could tell Jim his side of the story. Jim called him and Serena’s mom separately, and said that the next meeting would have to be with both adults and no child because the reason for treatment was so far removed from the nonsense that was going on. Jim felt he was being ineffective because of the difficult place they put him in. It is not an ethical violation to tape a session, but in this case it was an ethical concern because of what it was being used for. Serena’s father wanted to use it in court against her mother for personal gain. I asked Jim his thoughts on taping sessions and he said he has had clients do so after asking permission because, sometimes it is hard to remember everything. He said he has no problem with a client taping a session. He also went on to say it's not ok for him to tape secretly, but he can tape with permission he just never does, it's just one more thing he would have to safely store for confidentiality. He also shared that there really is no need for a therapist to tape unless it’s for learning
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