SOCIAL WORK (ETHICS AND VALUES Free Essay Example, 2500 words

These moral principles help in regulating the social work profession. Therefore, there is dire need for every social worker to follow these codes of ethics in order to overcome the challenges while maintaining a good relationship with their clients. The terms value and ethics remain an interchangeable core in social work. The term value involves attitudes, beliefs, or conceptions of what is good or desirable, therefore, providing direction for the social worker, and they stem from personal, social, or agency values. Different types of values affect different people’s decision-making, and priorities may come up depending on the type of dilemma. This case study involves a social worker who is responsible for rehabilitating young people involved in drugs. The progress seems successful although the decision she is about to take may affect the results. The young people may feel betrayed by the social worker once she gives out information to the police on the dealer’s wherea bouts. The social worker has a duty to help, advocate, and link these young people to good services while resolving such dilemmas. The Council on Social Work Education (2008) demands that every social worker applies social work ethical principles in decision-making, practice, recognizing and managing personal values while tolerating ambiguities during ethical conflicts. We will write a custom essay sample on SOCIAL WORK (ETHICS AND VALUES or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now These values revolve around virtue ethics theory that involves a person’s character normally developed through their personal beliefs. The social worker should weigh her values, which in this case involve saving the young people when making her decision. On the other hand, the BASW provides a code of ethics and recognizes that legal obligations may require a social worker to share confidential information. According to Dolgoff et al. (2009 p. 45), ethical absolutism in social work is vital and argues that an action is inherently wrong or right apart from any consequences that might result from it. Gaie (2004p. 128) notes that any practice is morally right or wrong because of some feature intrinsic to the act itself and not because of its consequences. Therefore, a nurse shall always tell the truth to the client despite how much damage it may cause in this particular situation. In addition, deontologists like Plato believe that a person should act only according to absolutism theory hoping it becomes a global law and that fulfilling one’s obligation has a greater priority than the consequences. These ethics compel the social worker to tell both the police and the young group of people the truth despite the consequences.