Ethical Decision Making In Social Work
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You have chosen the noble profession of walking the path of social work. You find gratitude in alleviating the unprecedented sorrows and miseries of society and to improving their quality of life financially, physically, and psychologically. However, the road to social work is not a bed of roses. It is rife with dilemmas and difficulties which necessitate flustering ethical decision making on your part. There may be circumstances when you might feel baffled at making a decision that would be truly ethical, as social work automatically takes for granted the fact that you will be following an ethical attitude every moment. |
What do we mean by Ethical decision making? Ethics tells us the way to behave in a certain acceptable manner in society so as not to harm others around us and to bring about the greatest good of the greatest number of people. When you are devoting yourself to social work - serving the welfare of a child, families dealing with homelessness, patients dealing with substance abuse or mental health related issues you are making important decisions on improving the quality of life for society. Having a strong ethical base in social work is the most important parameter while making decision. Decision making largely depends on the particular case that we work on and hence the standards of ethical values differ from one situation to another. Yet, we cannot forego the fact that we are often faced with dilemmas where the conflicting interests of the client and our own values seem to be on the rocks. What should a person in the field of social work do in such circumstances? For instance, while counseling a pregnant 15 year old adolescent, should you respect her right to self-determination by not revealing the matter to an elderly relative or as a social worker, should you adhere to your duty of protecting the child from further misery and complications by disclosing the situation to her parents?
While making such grave decisions and tackling ethical issues, introspect on your own ethical values and gather information on the plausible available alternatives that can help you solve the problem, giving new directions to it. Ethical decision making essentially necessitates the greatest good of the community. Hence you can base your decision on such grounds, though it might at times, mean that you are choosing the moral values of the community at large over client self-determination, which ultimately goes to serve the needs of the client too in an ethical manner.
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