CJHS 395 Ethical Standards Summaries

Ethical Standards Summaries

Ethical Standards Summaries

Situation # 1: You are a human service worker who lives in a small town, and you work at the WIC center. You have a neighbor who you see come to the center for services. Describe some of the risks and approaches you could take to reduce those risks.

As a human service worker, my approach towards my neighbor should be to offer assistance with the brief description of needs, and finding a case worker who will be able to assist her. There can be a danger of familiarity that can hinder the relationship between clients and professional and in this case as a neighbor (this is considering that it is a permanent friend). As a human services provider, the ethical standard will not allow establishing a client-professional relationship with a friend due to conflict of interest. One of the two relationships will be damaged if not separated. As a human service worker, I will choose to keep the neighbor relationship rather than having the individual as a client and have the customer will confuse the types of services I would deliver as a professional thinking that the benefits or resources will be greater because of the kind of relationship. The increase to or exploitation of clients may impair the professional judgment.

Some individuals could be customers and professional at the same time while others do not and may take advantage of the situation. In the personal and vocational I decide not to take their case and keep these individuals as a neighbor because otherwise my professional reputation could jeopardize. Although I appreciate to the maximum relationships outside my profession, my job comes first. As a case worker, I want to be able to advocate for my clients with a clean conscience and full potential without feeling obligated or intimated to do so. Our first duty as case workers is to the customers and the integrity of our profession by delivering the best service possible in all honesty without bias. If at any given moment bias come into effect, customers should be transferred to another worker or facility to save left of the client-professional relationship.

Now, if a client becomes a neighbor, I will rather leave it to the neighbor to decide what kind of relationship will be best. She/he will have the option to select and along the road of services it will be up to me to pass the case to another worker if the neighbor relationship is damaging the professional service.

Situation # 2: You are a human service worker in a large city jail. You meet an inmate who seems intelligent, follows all program requirements and appears to be an excellent candidate for a successful release and reentry. Upon release, this patient sends you a friend request on Facebook. Describe the possible actions, outcomes, and risks and approaches you could take to reduce those risks.

In this case specifically, protecting my integrity as a human service worker as well as an individual, I would prefer not to accept the friend request to Facebook from this person. The risks can be greater as a professional not only to me but for those who know the type of work and services I provide. While others will not see anything wrong with this, for me is a risk not worth taking. Although it could be a great source of information to the case management, it is not in the personal aspect of my profession. Facebook or any social media has a thin line that many times it is crossed even without knowledge. If we are talking about a professional social media page, it will be another type of scenario but as a personal page, I rather not.

Social media is a powerful tool that opens doors not only in positive ways but also negative. Although not everyone in the system is the same, the consequences could be seen in a negative way as a human service worker. Our duty is also to cut any open crack in where anything can get it and hinder our professional reputation.Another factor to be careful about is accepting, and individual that has been released from jail can lead to more friend requests from other inmates, their friends, their families, and another type of individuals. This factor can be a door that no professional wants to open. The only benefit possible would be to study behaviors and actions performed on social media from the inmate’s part and determine personality and behavior, (when it regards an agency or professional social media page), otherwise it should not be permissible in the human service field.

As experts, these types of actions should be established in the policies and rules of the program or the beginning states of the human services to a client. In this field, it is not professional to mix business with pleasure. In this area, relationships need to be very carefully chosen therefor personal social media needs to be private and limited to family and personal friends.

Situation # 3:  The person you have been dating for about a year is now being investigated by Child and Family Services for child neglect and abuse.  As a human service worker, what responsibilities and risks do you have?  How do you reduce those risks or manage the situation?

As a human service provider, I will stop the relationship or dating at once for a couple of reasons. Child neglect and abuse are off limits for any professional never-the-less to a human service worker. Even when I should not be biased to any individual for any given reason, child abuse is a subject close to home.

In the personal life of a human service providers, issues as such can negatively impact both areas and this can easily be one. As mandated reporters, we can be found at fault if failure to report and also if seemed involved with a “child abuser.” The best way to handle a situation like this is to terminate the relationship until the termination of the case or conclusion. After that, it will be decided what steps to take upon completion of the investigation. My responsibility as a human services worker is to my profession whether in areas of the personal life or not, could be damage to relationships.

Dating someone is different that been married to an individual who is being investigated for child abuse and neglect, therefore it will be easier to terminate the relationship early enough not to be involved in such predicament; a situation that can hinder your reputation as human service worker and services you offer as a professional. There is not an easier way or better way to handle a situation like the one mentioned above. Even if the individual’s investigation results in being innocent, there will always be a question of whether or not the person is innocent or not and if the relationship exceeds to marriage, his/her previous records can affect you in the field of work and the veracity of your profession.

As case workers our duty to our clients is to ensure the protection, empowerment, provide appropriate resources addressing different situations such as psychological, medical, emotional, financial, and behavioral among other needs and situations like the one stated in this situation can hinder the reputation of the case worker. An individual with the previous history of child abuse involvement will have no credibility in the services willing to provide.