Each student will select one question to answer. You must include the page number in the book which assisted you with your answer. Each student will comment on two of their peers responses. No two students may answer the same question.
1. Define the concept of autonomy and explain the conditions that must be present for a client to be truly autonomous.
2. Given the following vignette, discuss who the client is.
Daniel has been working in juvenile justice for twenty years. He was just given a case of a 10-year-old Caucasian female named Lilly. Lilly was sexually abused by her uncle, Lenny, from age two to eight. A suspicion of abuse was reported to CPS by Lilly’s Kindergarten Teacher at the age of 5 and by her first grade teacher at the age of 6. The teachers reported Lilly to be obese, in dirty clothing, not bathed, having greasy hair, strong body odor, and isolating herself from everyone. Each time CPS went to the home it was clean and there was no substantiation of any form of abuse. Lilly refused to answer teacher and CPS questions. By age 8 Lilly was running away from home and steeling food from the lunches of her peer group. She became a part of the Juvenile Justice System when she ran away from home missing 50 days of school her third grade year. She was found by police doing drugs in a crack house. If you were Daniel, who would you identify as the client? Why?
3. Discuss the concept of client self-determination, what it involves, who it involves, and why it is important in social work practice.
4. Describe the three different types of ambiguity and uncertainty and how they increase the possibility of ethical dilemmas occurring in social work practice.
5. A pregnant woman receives positive indications of a genetically defective fetus. She and her partner have no desire to terminate the pregnancy, despite the doctor’s expectation that they should. As the social worker expected to persuade the mother to abort, how would your decision be affected by your own values and religious beliefs?
6. Discuss the ethical dilemma that arises out of the two sometimes contradictory professional principles: 1) the principle to provide professional help when needed in order to assure that person’s welfare, and 2) the principle not to interfere with a person’s freedom.
7. Read exemplars 6.1 and 6.2 on page 101 and discuss who the client is.
8. Discuss ways in which you can combine client self-determination with the social workers use of professional knowledge and skill.
9. Is it ethical as a social worker to implement the more effective strategy when the client prefers another approach which you know is going to be less effective?
10. Ask the class to volunteer times in their placements when they felt uncertain about a decision they made. What were the consequences of their decision, if any?
11. 32. Using Table 6.1 provided on page 102, using exemplars 6.1-6.4, identify the applicant, client, target and beneficiary of each exemplar.
12. Create a list of what they feel should constitute client rights. Then see where they fit in the Ethical Principles Screen, Figure 4.4 on page 66.
4. Describe the three different types of ambiguity and uncertainty and how they increase the possibility of ethical dilemmas occurring in social work practice.
ReplyDelete3 types of ambiguity and uncertainty make for ethical problems in social work practice:
1)Uncertainty about values and goals
2)Uncertainty about scientific knowledge and about the facts relevant to any specific situation
3)Uncertainty about the consequences of the intervention.
The social worker needs to be knowledgeable about themselves and the field that they are in. If there are any uncertainties it is best to connect with someone in higher power that can guide you through an unfamiliar process.
Dolgoff, R., Frank, L., & Donna, H. (2009). Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice. pg 108. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
Thank you and please remind your peers to post! This does count as a grade for each of you!
ReplyDelete3. Discuss the concept of client self-determination, what it involves, who it involves, and why it is important in social work practice.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of self determination is the individual’s right to make his or her own decisions. Many people hold that self determination is an absolute right. In understanding self determination it is important to understand that the role of the worker is to only offer options and consequences. Client self determination involves the client as well as the social worker. Self determination is an important concept of the social work field because it helps the clients to be left with the ultimate decisions of what they want out of life. However there may many ethical dilemmas that may occur when dealing with self determination. Therefore making is extremely important for the worker to have an understanding of how to handle these dilemmas when faced with them.
Pg107-108
Dolgoff, R., Frank, L., & Donna, H. (2009). Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
6. Discuss the ethical dilemma that arises out of the two sometimes contradictory professional principles: 1) the principle to provide professional help when needed in order to assure that person’s welfare, and 2) the principle not to interfere with a person’s freedom.
ReplyDelete- Ideally a social worker should not experience any conflict between these two rights (or principles), but what if a person’s well-being can be achieved only at the expense of his or her freedom? Who defines well-being? Who defines the need for professional help? Who can legitimately request professional help for another person? Unless there are serious indications to the contrary, no social worker will want to interfere with another person’s freedom, even if that person is her client. It is, however, generally agreed that there are occasions when intervention become necessary even if it is at the expense of freedom. Most people agree that a person’s right to self-determination should be limited when its exercise will result in harm to another person, but what if the harm is only to the person himself or herself? Though the conditions that justify intervention may seem clear, a social worker will discover many ambiguities. What is clear and present danger? How can it be demonstrated? When is harm sufficiently grave to warrant coercion? Who may coerce? How certain must the social worker be that her intervention will prevent the harm before she is justified in curtailing a person’s freedom?
Dolgoff, R., Frank, L., & Donna, H. (2009). Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice. pg 106-107. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
7.) The client is an 18 year old female who is six months pregnant. Her current relationship status is single. She is seeking help for an abortion. She recently visited a local counseling center to receive help. At the time of the procedure she was informed that the fetus was considered viable and was placed in the neonatal intensive care unit as a high risk premature baby. She upset to learn about the live infant. She refused to look at the baby or take care of it. Instead, she threatened to sue the doctor and the hospital if the infant survived despite her expressed wish for an abortion. She then asked the medical social worker of the hospital to make sure the baby not be given intensive care, but rather left alone so that it would die quickly.
ReplyDeleteThe second clientele was a classroom population of students in a particular teachers class. It was a fifth grade class and the teacher could not control the students. So the teacher informed the school social worker of this problem in an attempt to help resolve the problem. The teacher then informed the social worker that the problem may be due to the class being full of students who do not speak English.
Dolgoff, R., Frank, L., & Donna, H. (2009). Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice. pg 101. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
1. Define the concept of autonomy and explain the conditions that must be present for a client to be truly autonomous.
ReplyDeleteautonomy is defined as self determination, self rule, and being able to make free choices. THe conditions that must be present for a client to be truly autonomous are:
The context provides more than one option from which a oerson can make choices.
The person is aware of all availabkle options.
The person has acurate information aout the cost and consequences.
The person has the capacity to make a decision on the basis of this assessment.
The person has the capaility to act on the basis of his or her choice.
PG 107-108
Dolgoff, R., Frank, L., & Donna, H. (2009). Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice. pg 107. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
Excellent responses everyone! Please remind your peers to post! Thanks!
ReplyDelete8. Discuss ways in which you can combine client self-determination with the social workers use of professional knowledge and skill.
ReplyDeleteSome of the ways I can combine the client self-determination with the social workers use of professional knowledge and skill includes asking myself are my intentions in the best interest of the client, making sure my personal investment in the situation is clear and not motivating my actions, and making sure there is no conflict between my interests and the those of the client.
Dolgoff, R., Frank, L., & Donna, H. (2009). Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice. pg 105. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
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ReplyDeleteChapter 6
ReplyDelete3. Discuss the concept of client self-determination, what it involves, who it
involves, and why it is important in social work practice.
The concept self determination is the act or power of making up one's own mind about what to
think or do, without outside influence or compulsion. It involves just the client and the purpose is to just give the client options and the consequence to each option, and let them make the choice on their own. It is important because if you tell them what they should do, they will become too dependent on you as the social worker, and also if something goes wrong and what you told them to do doesn’t work out. If falls back on you and also the agency that you are working at.
Dolgoff, R., Frank, L., & Donna, H. (2009). Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice. pg 105. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
The concept of self determination is the individual’s right to make his or her own decisions. Many people hold that self determination is an absolute right. In understanding self determination it is important to understand that the role of the worker is to only offer options and consequences. Client self determination involves the client as well as the social worker. Self determination is an important concept of the social work field because it helps the clients to be left with the ultimate decisions of what they want out of life. However there may many ethical dilemmas that may occur when dealing with self determination. Therefore making is extremely important for the worker to have an understanding of how to handle these dilemmas when faced with them.
ReplyDeletePg107-108
Dolgoff, R., Frank, L., & Donna, H. (2009). Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
Dolgoff, R., Frank, L., & Donna, H. (2009). Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice. pg 66-68. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
ReplyDelete12. Create a list of what they feel should constitute client rights. Then see where they fit in the Ethical Principles Screen, Figure 4.4 on page 66.
Clients Rights EPS
1. Protections of life 1. Protection of life
2. Right to self-determination 2. Equality and inequality
3. Right to privacy 3. Autonomy and freedom
4. Justice and equality 4. Least harm
5. Freedom 5. Quality of life
6. Treatment (link to different resources) 6. Privacy & Confidentiality 7. Truthfulness & full disclosure
Ethical principle screen (EPS) list seven principle that should be used to guide social work practice. Categorize from most important to least, starting with protection of life, equality in inequality, autonomy and freedom, least harm, quality of life, privacy and confidentially, truthfulness and full disclosure. The clients rights I established are correspond to (EPS). I believe the protection of life should apply to all persons, both to the life of a client and to their lives of all others. All persons in the same circumstances should be treated in the same way no matter, age, race, or gender. The client also has the right of freedom and self-determination. Client should think and make decisions for him/her self, whiling knowing the consequences that come with their decision. Every person has a right to privacy. Professionals have a duty to protect the privacy of clients and groups to the greatest extent possible consistent with laws and the will and agreement of the clients.
10. Ask the class to volunteer times in their placements when they felt uncertain about a decision they made. What were the consequences of their decision, if any?
ReplyDeleteDepending on the outcome of their decision. This is an learning experience so there is room for mistakes. The person who made the decision should not feel ashamed because he or she are not alone. I learned that every intervention that is made may not have a positive outcome for that individual person. It is important to make plans that are effective and will give that client a positive outcome.
Dolgoff, R., Frank, L., & Donna, H. (2009). Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice. pg 108. Belmont: Cengage Learning.