In seven pages this report discusses how problematic ethical situations are confronted by human services workers in a consideration of moral guidelines for decision making. Eight sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_BWhswork.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
In fact, a human service worker who is employed in an agency such as childrens protective services is likely to encounter more personal ethics issues in the space of a
week than an office worker in a non-human services agency will encounter in a year. Because human service workers deal with the daily life problems are widely divergent groups of
people, he or she is often placed in a position of having to make decisions that have the potential to be physically and emotionally harmful. As a result, the need
to be fully aware of ethical considerations is what that cannot be over-emphasized. It is also an issue that requires that the individual worker to be fully aware of his
or her own ethical obligations and their personal commitment regarding their support and advocacy for their clients. Discipline and Ethical Dilemmas In the past, a human service workers formal
base of knowledge, as related to professional ethics, was relatively limited in terms of understanding ethical consequences and outcomes which could have an impact on the client being served. The
mandate was often to just "do the right thing," a maxim which does not adequately cover the multiplicity of possibilities encountered by someone in human services. After all, the most
fundamental component of human services work is the fact that it is grounded in moral principles which work toward the greatest possible good for people who need social services programs
and assistance. That much is agreed upon in virtually any and all arenas. More recently, such specific ethical knowledge bases and training has significantly expanded and improved. In part the
change has been due to the inclusion of guidelines and formalized codes of ethics for specific functions. As Dr. Frederic Reamer has repeatedly noted in his writing: "Social