Text c: Code of ethics

Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers was approved by the 1996 NASW Delegate Assembly and revised by the 1999 NASW Delegate Assembly.

Professional ethics are at the core of social work. The profession has an obligation to articulate its basic values, ethical principles, and ethical standards. The NASW Code of Ethics sets forth these values, principles, and standards to guide social workers' conduct. The Code is relevant to all social workers and social work students, regardless of their professional functions, the settings in which they work, or the populations they serve.

The NASW Code of Ethics serves six purposes:

1. The Code identifies core values on which social work's mission is based.

2. The Code summarizes broad ethical principles that reflect the profession's core values and establishes a set of specific ethical standards that should be used to guide social work practice.

3. The Code is designed to help social workers identify relevant considerations when professional obligations conflict or ethical uncertainties arise.

4. The Code provides ethical standards to which the general public can hold the social work profession accountable.

5. The Code socializes practitioners new to the field to social work's mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical standards.

6. The Code articulates standards that the social work profession itself can use to assess whether social workers have engaged in unethical conduct. NASW has formal procedures to adjudicate ethics complaints filed against its members. In subscribing to this Code, social workers are required to cooperate in its implementation, participate in NASW adjudication proceedings, and abide by any NASW disciplinary rulings or sanctions based on it.

The Code offers a set of values, principles, and standards to guide decision making and conduct when ethical issues arise. It does not provide a set of rules that prescribe how social workers should act in all situations. Specific applications of the Code must take into account the context in which it is being considered and the possibility of conflicts among the Code's values, principles, and standards. Ethical responsibilities flow from all human relationships, from the personal and familial to the social and professional.

Further, the NASW Code of Ethics does not specify which values, principles, and standards are most important and ought to outweigh others in instances when they conflict. Reasonable differences of opinion can and do exist among social workers with respect to the ways in which values, ethical principles, and ethical standards should be rank ordered when they conflict. Ethical decision making in a given situation must apply the informed judgment of the individual social worker and should also consider how the issues would be judged in a peer review process where the ethical standards of the profession would be applied.

The NASW Code of Ethics is to be used by NASW and by individuals, agencies, organizations, and bodies (such as licensing and regulatory boards, professional liability insurance providers, courts of law, and agency boards of directors, government agencies, and other professional groups) that choose to adopt it or use it as a frame of reference.

Violation of standards in this Code does not automatically imply legal liability or violation of the law.

III. Decide which of these statements are true and which are false:

1. The NASW Code of Ethics is to be used only by NASW.

2. Violation of standards in this Code automatically imply legal liability or violation of the law.

3. Professional ethics are at the core of social work.

4. The Code is relevant to all social workers and social work students, regardless of their professional functions, the settings in which they work, or the populations they serve.

IV. Fill in the gaps in the following sentences choosing the right words from the box given below:

V. Match the ethical principle with its explanation:

А. Propriety.	The social worker should strive to becоmе and remain proficient in professional practice and the performanсе of professional functions.
В. Competence and Professional Development.	When setting fees, the social worker should ensure that they are fair, reasonable, considerate, and commensurate with the service performed and with due regard for the clients' ability to paу.
С. Service.	The social worker should respect the privacy of clients and hold in confidence аll information obtained in the course of professional service.
D. Integrity.	The social worker should act in accordance with the highest standards of professional integrity.
Е. Scholarship and Research.	The social worker's primary responsibility is to clients.
F. Privacy of Clients' Interests.	The social worker engaged in study and research should bе guided bу the conventions of scholarly inquiry.
G. Rights and Prerogatives of Clients.	The social worker should regard as primary the service obligation of the social work profession.
Н. Confidentiality and Privacy.	The social worker should maintain high standards of personal conduct in the capacity or identity as social worker.
I. Fees.	The social worker should promote the general welfare of society.
J. Respect, Fairness, and Courtesy.	The social worker should assist the profession in making social services available to the general public.
К. Dealing with Colleagues' Clients.	The social worker should take responsibility for identifying, developing, and fully utilizing knowledge for professional practice.
L. Commitments to Employing Organizations.	The social worker should adhere to commitments made to the employing organizations.
М. Maintaining the Integrity of the Profession.	The social worker should make every effort to foster maximum self-determination оn the part of clients.
N. Community Service.	The social worker should uphold and advance the values, ethics, knowledge, and mission of the profession.
О. Development of Knowledge.	The social worker should treat colleagues with respect, courtesy, fairness, and good faith.
Р. Promoting the General Welfare.	The social worker has the responsibility to relate to the clients of colleagues with full professional consideration.