About the Book
This text can be used as a supplement in any course that includes consideration of social work ethics, whether in social work practice courses, introduction to social work courses, or courses or seminars on social work ethics. The author, Juliet Rothman, found that case material in current ethics texts is too brief to permit a thoughtful evaluation and decision-making process. Available ethics casebooks are from the medical field, and do not reflect many situations encountered by social workers. The text presents the elements of ethical decision-making, to provide students with a clear guide to ethical problem recognition and definition. It stresses the importance of gathering necessary information and presents three alternative, frequently-used systems of theories and principles (Gewirth's Ethical Principles Hierarchy, Loewenberg and Dolgoff's Ethical Principles Screen, and Beauchamp and Childress' Bioethics Model). The second part of the text includes 30 cases contributed by students from situations actually experienced during their field work practice. Students themselves had asked for a casebook that related directly to situations they were encountering in the field. Useful and practical examples of ethical problems, information necessary to their proper resolution, and the students' thought processes were edited, revised, and arranged to support and reflect the six Ethical Standards in the new NASW Code of Ethics, enacted in August of 1996. Clear and readable cases present examples drawn from child welfare, work with families, medical social work, social justice, and others. Each case is followed by five questions for thought and class discussion to stimulate ethical thinking. Two separate Tables of Contents allow instructors and students to find appropriate cases based on the Ethical Standards of the Code, or upon a field of practice.
Table of Contents:
Each chapter opens with “Introduction,” and closes with “Bibliography.”
Preface.
Introduction: Elements of Ethical Decision-Making.
Defining The Ethical Problem.
Gathering Information.
Theoretical Concepts.
From Theories to Principles.
Using The Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers.
Client Values, Societal Values, Personal Values.
Defining Options, Arriving At a Resolution.
Case Presentations.
1.NASW Ethical Standard One: Social Workers' Ethical Responsibilities to Clients.
Case Study 1-1: Protecting the Best Interests of a Minor, Elena Glekas, MSW.
Case Study 1-2: When the “Best Interests of Client” Harms a Third Party, Karen E. Altenberg, MSW.
Case Study 1-3: When Living Feels Like Dying: Ethical Decision Making with a Depressed Dialysis Patient, Mary A. Kardauskas, MSW.
Case Study 1-4: Reading the Future: When “Best Interest” Must Last Twenty Years, Amy Craig-Van Grack, MSW.
Case Study 1-5: “I'm Fourteen! My Parents Died of Cancer. I Have a Right To Refuse Treatment!”, Corinne Houlahan Cook, MSW.
Case Study 1-6: In The Client's Interest: Self Determination and Mental Retardation, Jose Carlos Vera.
Case Study 1-7: The Adoption Records Controversy: Three Primary Clients Whose Interests May Conflict, Sarah M. Russell.
Case Study 1-8: Work With Abusive Parents: Establishing the Limits of Confidentiality, Elizabeth Porter, MSW.
Case Study 1-9: Believing a Disturbed Child: Abused or Confused?, Shahla R. Adam, MSW.
2.NASW Ethical Standard Two: Social Workers' Ethical Responsibilities to Colleagues.
Case Study 2-1: Share and Share Alike: A Dilemma in Professional Educational Development, Karen A. Wilson, MSW.
Case Study 2-2: When a Colleague “Defines” Policy—and You Don't Agree!, Linda Lopez, MSW.
3.NASW Ethical Standard Three: Social Workers' Ethical Responsibilities to Practice Settings.
Case Study 3-1: Can Limitation of Informed Consent by an Agency Ever Be Justified?, Diane Inselburg Spirer, MSW, M.S.
Case Study 3-2: Computerized Record Keeping: Agency Efficiency vs. Client Privacy, Aimee H. Mclain, MSW.
Case Study 3-3: Meeting the Needs of Immigrants: Must Acculturation Be a Condition of Agency Service?, Thomas W. Gray, Ph.D.
Case Study 3-4: “Help Me Become Heterosexual! This Agency Serves Homosexuals, Doesn't It?”, Ann K. Ewing, MSW.
Case Study 3-5: An Employee Assistance Counselor's Dilemma, Mel Hall Crawford, MSW.
4.NASW Ethical Standard Four: Social Workers' Ethical Responsibilities As Professionals.
Case Study 4-1: When a Client Threatens Suicide: Client Autonomy and Professional Obligation, Gigi Stowe, MSW.
Case Study 4-2: “Now that You're Leaving, Why Can't We Just Be Friends?”, Joanna P. Martin, MSW.
Case Study 4-3: Motivation or Consequence? When “Help” May Result in Dishonesty, Fraud, or Deception, Margaret Crowley, M.Ed., MSW.
Case Study 4-4: Fidelity to a Client Unable To Communicate, Marian Kaufman, MSW.
5.NASW Ethical Standard Five: Social Worker's Ethical Responsibilities to the Social Work Profession.
Case Study 5-1: “My Clients Are in a Hurry!” Professional Integrity versus Client Self Determination, Shereen Rubenstein, MSW.
Case Study 5-2: Rape: When Professional Values Place Vulnerable Clients at Risk, Eileen Dombo, MSW.
Case Study 5-3:When Client Self Determination Places an Unborn Child at Risk, Patricia Y. Braun, MSW.
Case Study 5-4: “Discharge Her to A Hospice Now!”— A Conflict of Professional Loyalties, Josephine K. Bulkley, J.D.
6.NASW Ethical Standard Six: Social Workers' Ethical Responsibility to the Broader Society.
Case Study 6-1:HIV: The Confidentiality/ Duty to Warn Dilemma, Robin E. Rolley, J.D., MSW.
Case Study 6-2:Dealing Drugs; Can Confidentiality Ever Be Justified?, Julie B. Goodale, MSW.
Case Study 6-3:A Case of Distributive Justice, Gail Fleder, MSW.
Case Study 6-4:Outpatient Commitment: Must Mental Illness Preclude Civil Liberty?, Kimberly Platt, MSW.
Case Study 6-5:Genetic Research: For the Good of this Subject or for (Future) Society?, Daniel W. Wilson.
Case Study 6-6:A Commitment to Social Justice: Social Work and Immigration Policy, M. Therese Jones, MSW.
Appendix.
The Code of Ethics of The National Association of Social Workers (Revised 1996).
Index.
