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The rise of AI generated texts offers promise but creates new challenges for social work teaching. A recent survey found that 89% of higher education students used AI on their homework. AI generated text may be difficult to distinguish from a student's own work, yet are being submitted as the student's own work. This poses new challenges to definitions of plagiarism in education and in professional publication, as well for policies addressing this issue. Identifying AI generated text is difficult and requires critical thinking. While some software options claim effectiveness, recent tests show their results are mixed. Recommendations are offered for assignment development and policy changes to address this new concern in social work education and in publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work ethics is vital to social work education and professional development. However, traditional didactic teaching does not always translate to internalization of social work ethics, and few visual teaching tools measure the extent to which the students have truly internalized professional ethics. Using the perspective of action research, the present study introduced a progressive teaching reform to a Master of Social Work (MSW)-level social work ethics curriculum at a social work school in China. The progressive reform went through two action cycles. In the first cycle, a preliminary attempt, the instructor redesigned the course structure and applied student-generated microfilms as a final assignment. In the second cycle, educators from China and the United States collaborated in class to revise the course in response to issues raised in the first cycle and explore refined and more effective pathways to help MSW students internalize and advocate for professional ethics through filmmaking. The present study examined successes and failures throughout the reform process, providing practical lessons and evidence for social work educators interested in adopting filmmaking as an experiential teaching tool in MSW educational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boundaries are a practice of separating one thing from the other; to make clear where I end and where you begin. Establishing and enforcing clinical boundaries is taken for granted as a necessary foundation of therapeutic work by social work's governing and administrative bodies. Upon interrogation, normative standards of ethical practice tend to serve broader populations and institutions by deputizing social workers to self-police, even as such boundary norms may fail to serve the individuals and relationships at the heart of clinical practice. As a collective of early-career clinical social workers, we have at times felt certain obligatory boundaries force us to choose between serving an institution and caring for an individual. We explore moments where tension between boundaries and care is felt in vignettes from our clinical work with queer, trans, and racial minority clients, and through our analysis of boundary-setting texts. Seeking to queer norms of boundary-making discourse, we explore the possibilities of resistance that empower clients and prioritize relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As concerns for reproductive rights continue to be debated across the United States, the June 24th, 2022, U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Mississippi case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade essentially upended the disciplinary foundations and ethical underpinnings of helping professions. The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) does not mandate the integration of reproductive justice content in social work education. And yet, threats to bodily autonomy burgeon across the United States prior to and after the dismantling of Roe v. Wade, affecting the populations social workers serve. The time has come to talk about, not around, reproductive justice in social work education as well as how social workers are being subverted from using their professional training and ethical commitment to clients. It is the intent of this article to explore approaches for safeguarding professional values and ethical principles during these sociopolitically tumultuous times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concern about the role social workers play in adult social care is long standing. Social workers, whose ethics commit them to supporting the empowerment of service users and to social justice, are required to work within a system that fails to secure either and is widely identified as in long-term crisis, despite a number of unsuccessful efforts to transform it. This article describes a detailed examination of the way one council operates. It reveals the gap between how the council says it does this and how this is experienced. It is suggested that the council, however, is not an exception. It follows the national template. The role social workers are required to play in this scenario is critical. They are key to delivery of the template. With little sign of resistance from the social work system itself, hopes for change rely on the emergence of grassroots and political initiatives that seeks a better future for social care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of digital technology by law enforcement apparatuses raises important social justice implications for existing race- and economic-based disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system. The purpose of the present survey research study is to describe and ascertain statistically significant differences and non-differences between, and predictors of, U.S. social work students regarding their attitudes toward, and intersectional knowledge of, law enforcement, privacy rights, and digital technology. With Human Subjects approval, in Fall 2019, the authors administered a 66-item survey across 150 institutions of higher education in the United States with both a Council on Social Work Education-accredited undergraduate and graduate social work program, including collaboratives, using a stratified, random sampling method (N = 430). Results include that students who do not challenge bigotry on social media are approximately two times more likely to: Endorse law enforcement's use of technology to assist in the apprehension of persons who merely stand accused of committing a crime; and, lack awareness that facial recognition programs result in false positives for people of color (who are overrepresented in the U.S. criminal justice system). Based on these findings, the authors discuss implications for social work education, making recommendations accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structured interviews with 227 social workers in Turkey categorized ethical problems in the work place. An inductive content analysis categorized nine themes (dual relationships, threats by clients, worker bias leading to prejudice, child custody issues, fraudulent use of state funds, procedural tensions, coercion by authorities, confidentiality, and taking people into state care) that required problem-solving strategies on the part of the social workers. The results indicated that when confronted with ethical situations the path for deliberation was not always clear, many decisions were made in consultation, whereas others were made independently. Future recommendations include advocating for education and training that utilizes ethical decision-making principles when problem-solving, as well as, stressing the importance of clear guidelines for seeking and utilizing supportive consultation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family Planning Services and Pregnancy Options Counseling (POC), often provided by licensed clinical social workers and registered nurses, have been a vital intervention for women and families for decades and continues to remain an important public health focus. Recent Title X Policy changes have altered service delivery of POC in many family planning clinics across the country. This paper explores Family Planning, POC, the new Title X regulations and their intersection with the evangelical, Christian faith and social worker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media has ethical implications for social work practice, and accordingly, for professional identity and social work education. In Spring 2019, we administered a 57-item survey to undergraduate and graduate social work students (N = 42) in order to ascertain attitudes about and knowledge of social media at a public university in the Southeastern United States. The purpose of the present study is to explore group differences between social work students who were enrolled in the course, Human Behavior and the Social Media Environment (HBSME), and those who were not, on social media attitudes and knowledge, and to make recommendations for social work education and research accordingly. Key differences were observed between students who were enrolled in HBSME and those who were not. In the Discussion section, we examine these differences against the backdrop of professional social work ethics. Accordingly, we make recommendations for social work education and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 25 years, migrant detention and criminalisation has steadily increased in the United States. This state of affairs has triggered social workers to advocate through policy and service on behalf of migrants. In order to evaluate contemporary practice, a critical position is generated through a genealogy of social work practice with migrants where the colonial archeology of contemporary social work practice is found in the history of the settlement movement. Here, an irony becomes apparent within social work. Social work practice is a settler colonialism paralleled by Gayatri Spivak's reading of colonial discourses resulting in the subaltern condition. Following Spivak's analysis, social work advocacies affirm migrant subalternity by re-presenting the migrant as an image of nonagentive victimhood while simultaneously representing migrants through political advocacies on their behalf. As a liberation ethics counter to the colonial discourses, Spivak's exit of subalternity as the road to hegemony is drawn for social work practice. In this effort, Indigenous Action Media's distinction between allies and accomplices is central to develop a social work practice as an ethics of liberation. Social workers thus become accomplices with criminalised and detained migrants on the road to hegemony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first COVID-19 case in Taiwan was confirmed on 21 January 2020. Compared to the global case fatality rate, the people in Taiwan have been affected moderately by this disease, from a medical point of view. However, when looking back to their life experiences over the past six months, one must pay attention to the social dimensions of this pandemic. In this article, we examine four key social issues that can provide some insights into the social work imagination, after this worldwide health crisis is over. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As neoliberalisation and other global disruptions change the understanding of human rights and social justice for social workers, how are protests organised by marginalised groups against social welfare and public health regimes understood and participated, or even resisted, by social workers? Although there is a vast literature on protest and community organising in the social work tradition, there is less exploration of marginalised groups organising against the systems in which social workers are employed, thereby leading to dilemmas for social workers. Hence, more knowledge is necessary about social workers' capability to respond to such protests. Using collective action and social movement theories, this paper introduces a conceptual framework in order to identify key factors and variables when marginalised groups organise against social welfare and public health regimes and social workers are involved. The conceptual framework concerns social workers' value negotiation of human rights and social justice principles, collective action framing, ethical decision-making, and ultimately, the thought process behind a social worker's response to collective actions against social welfare and public health regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this co-authored article, one contributor presents a case story from an interview with a social worker in Slovenia, while five others offer commentaries on ethical aspects of the case. The story comes from a practitioner working with a pregnant young woman, arranging for adoption following birth. The social worker respected the woman's request to keep her identity secret, hence not registering her in the institutional records. However, whilst the social worker was on holiday, the baby was born and anonymity was not maintained. Commentaries 1 and 2 evaluate the story through its form: as a narrative with a tempo and plot; and as a performance that creates its narrator as an agent with an ethical identity. Commentary 3 uses a normative moral philosophical framework (virtue ethics), while the final two commentaries take a more grounded approach. Commentary 4 views the social worker as using discretion to act in a space void of rules (there is no provision for anonymous birth), whereas Commentary 5 foregrounds the Slovenian code of ethics as a source of ethical standards unremarked upon by the social worker. The article ends with reflections on the value of exploring multiple perspectives and engaging in dialogue in developing ethical understandings and actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to identify the types of ethical dilemmas that Spanish social workers face in their respective areas of intervention. The intervention areas that have been studied are health, children, immigrants, women, family, marginalized persons, ethnic minorities, young people, prisoners, elderly people, refugees and asylum seekers, schools and social and employment-related integration, mental health, disability and drug addictions. A quantitative methodology was chosen using a version of the questionnaire prepared by Eileen J. Ain in a sample of 700 Spanish social workers. The statistical analysis shows the correlation between the different areas of intervention in Social Work and the most significant ethical dilemmas that such professionals have to solve. The most pertinent ethical dilemmas are found in the healthcare sector (confidentiality, disclosure of personal information and patient autonomy). The article is an important contribution for Social Work at the national level that emphasizes the importance of the ethics of Social Work in social interventions. It is proposed to deepen the investigation of each of the areas of intervention for future research, as well as to carry out comparative studies between different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a newly recognized profession in Vietnam over the last two decades social work has undergone significant development, both in training and practice. However, there are many challenges in its professionalization, in which ethics plays a key role. This article presents the key findings of a study about students' perceptions of ethics and developing competence-based ethical standards in social work programs. It first analyses the students' attitudes and understanding of professional ethics. Second, it clarifies the situation of ethics education in training institutions. Finally, it provides suggestions for the implementation of social work competence-based ethical standards for Vietnam and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of and need for a critical and global-oriented social work education on students' learning and developments in the context of international field training. The study uses mixed methods strategy of web survey, focus groups and document review of field reports. Participants in the study are social work students from social work programs in Norway and Sweden who have conducted their international field training in the Global South. The results of the study show that in order to obtain a critical and postcolonial understanding of global inequalities and the role of social work, students need to be truly prepared for international field training by critical and postcolonial knowledge, which will challenge many students' West-centric perspectives and facilitate them by a self-reflective positioning throughout their field training. The imagination of traveling to and 'learning about the others' should be then replaced by a move beyond 'us-and-them' divides in line with the ethical principles and values of social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research ethics provide important and necessary standards related to the conduct and dissemination of research. To better understand the current state of research ethics discourse in social work, a systematic literature search was undertaken and numbers of publications per year were compared between STEM, social science, and social work disciplines. While many professions have embraced the need for discipline-specific research ethics subfield development, social work has remained absent. Low publication numbers, compared to other disciplines, were noted for the years (2006-2016) included in the study. Social work published 16 (1%) of the 1409 articles included in the study, contributing 3 (>1%) for each of the disciplines highest producing years (2011 and 2013). Comparatively, psychology produced 75 (5%) articles, psychiatry produced 64 (5%) articles, and nursing added 50 (4%) articles. The STEM disciplines contributed 956 (68%) articles between 2006 and 2016, while social science produced 453 (32%) articles. Examination of the results is provided in an extended discussion of several misconceptions about research ethics that may be found in the social work profession. Implications and future directions are provided, focusing on the need for increased engagement, education, research, and support for a new subfield of social work research ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Love is marginalised in professional social work codes of ethics in Australia and internationally. Yet, reflecting the emancipatory imperative of social work, feminist bell hooks promotes love as a political process to transform systems of injustice such as capitalism, patriarchy, and racism. Analysing the works of hooks and other relevant literature, this article discusses "the love ethic", a model of relationship-oriented activism encompassing dialogue, nonviolence, interconnectedness between people and between people and nature, reflexivity, shared power, and solidarity. It provides some practical suggestions for love-based social work practice, such as self-forgiveness, pursuing gender-equal relationships, upholding fair workplace conditions, honouring Indigenous peoples, supporting oppressed people to assert their rights, connecting local and global action, nurturing symbiotic relationships with nature, and supporting empowering spiritualities. The love ethic supports radical social workers to engage in activism, and necessitates further exploration within academia and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social service professionals can face challenges in the course of providing family planning information to their clients. This article reports findings from a study that developed an original 27-item measure, the Reproductive Counseling Obstacle Scale (RCOS) designed to measure such obstacles based conceptually on Bandura’s social cognitive theory (1986). We examine the reliability and factor structure of the RCOS using a sample of licensed social workers (N = 197). A 20-item revised version of the RCOS was derived using principal component factor analysis. Results indicate that barriers to discussing family planning, as measured by the RCOS, appear to be best represented by a two-factor solution, reflecting self-efficacy/interest and perceived professional obligation/moral concerns. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debate has arisen in social work about the value of online education, with proponents providing examples of innovative approaches to online teaching and those against it citing the need for face-to-face interactions to suitably teach and assess social work skills. At the same time, social workers are increasingly making use of social media, websites, online databases, email, and text messaging services for work with clients. Consequently, social workers must be adequately prepared to make use of online technologies in their practice. Drawing on examples of online interactive activities used at two regional universities and informed by Chi’s conceptual framework of cognitive processes of learning, this article argues that learning via information and communications technology (ICT) helps prepare graduates for emerging digital practice and should be an integral part of social work education. Further, ICT enables educators to monitor the levels and quality of student rehearsal of practice skills and knowledge in interactive learning experiences helping promote competent practice, grounded in social work values. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Social work courses and practice frequently neglect religion and spirituality yet these are central to many service users’ lives and sense of identity. This article describes a teaching session that aims to address this evident gap for qualifying students, thereby legitimising the subject within the life of the course. The session aims to establish the reasons why social work should respond to matters of religion and spirituality and goes on to explore comparative religious, secular and professional ethics, students’ personal attitudes towards faith and spirituality and the implications for practice. It argues practice that is responsive and sensitive to clients’ religion and spirituality is not ‘new’ but based upon generic good practice principles. The lecture aspires to provide a single session introduction that can be incorporated into congested social work courses; readers are invited to adapt it for their own educational practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents the research findings from two focus groups (2013) set up to validate and enhance understanding of the findings emerged from the original PhD study (2010) regarding the development of social work values and ethics during a final field placement in Greece. The findings of the focus groups support the original study’s findings, but take them one step further by providing more in-depth information. They help to extend knowledge by revealing novel aspects evolving from each original finding discussed. The key messages from the study reveal the complex process of developing values and ethics in field contexts and underline the need for further research in the progression and development of a student’s ethical awareness and capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New findings about the brain are explicating how we make moral and ethical decisions. The neuroscience of morality is relevant to ethical decision making in social work because of a shared biopsychosocial perspective and the field’s explanatory power to understand possible origins of universally accepted morals and personal attitudes at play in ethical dilemmas. The neuroscience of morality and the evolutionary theory in which it is grounded are recommended for inclusion in social work ethics courses. Advantages to students include understanding of origins of moral attitudes, contextualization of their moral inclinations and emotional reactions to ethical dilemmas, and understanding of how the brain helps or hinders situational ethical decision making. A sample course module outline is provided, as well as ideas for inclusion of the neuroscience of morality in other courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social justice is a primary value of social work and therefore has a place in discussions of social work education pedagogy. This is especially true for conversations pertaining to students who are underprepared, due to educational inequalities, for successful completion of writing assignments at the undergraduate level. If underprepared students are treated as equals to prepared students, then the social inequalities that contributed to or caused a student to be underprepared are perpetuated rather than challenged. The authors explore responses to underprepared students that are consistent with social work's professional value of social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Access to family planning has been identified as critical to public health. Improving the linkage between medical and social services could result in improved access to care for those most at risk of unintended pregnancy. This study used a survey based on Alfred Bandura's social cognitive theory (1986) to increase the understanding of the barriers social workers confront in the provision of family planning information to clients. Although moral disagreement with family planning presented a barrier for some, workplace policy, participation in family planning trainings, and working in an urban setting were of greater value in understanding barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the results of a national study of social workers in the United States sanctioned by their state regulatory boards (N = 2,607) during the period 2000–2009. The purpose of this study was to identify the most frequent types of unprofessional conduct and common sanctioning patterns across state licensing boards. The highest incidences were found for unprofessional conduct including licensing-related problems (e.g., continuing education, working on a lapsed license); dual relationships; crimes; basic practice (e.g., record keeping, informed consent, and confidentiality); professionals practicing while impaired (e.g., alcohol, drugs, mental illness); and services below the standards of care. Revocation and license surrender were the most frequent types of sanctions followed by suspensions, letters of warning, or admonishment. Relevancies to education, training, and supervision are made and directions for future research are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine how advocates seek to improve the well-being of recipients who reside in organizations or systems of care in which factors influencing risk and jeopardy prevail. I use data from multiple action research projects to frame what I call ‘the advocate's compromise’: in systems and organizations regulating people who are considered vulnerable or dependent the advocate must advance collaborative relationships with care providers and supervisors so they become allies in advancing the well being of their charges. I place the advocate's compromise in context by amplifying a theory of diminished status, which offers a rationale for advocacy in social work. By identifying variation in its forms I illuminate the richness of advocacy practice in which the compromise is readily observable. In considering the context influencing the practice of advocacy in social work, I elaborate central aspects of the compromise, and reveal some of its ethical demands. Finally, I delineate principal strategies and tactics I have observed advocates employ to make the compromise a useful tool, particularly in total institutions, so incremental and limited advancements can make marginal improvements to a recipient's well-being without threatening the regulatory regime of care or supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses the role of international professional discourse in responding to cases of ethical and cultural dissonance. The discussion builds on the recent controversy over proposed legislation that would further criminalize homosexual behaviour in Uganda and the responses from international and regional professional organizations. For social work, the case was compounded by a statement from a local social work leader. The contributions and limitations of global ethical principles and international human rights standards in such cases are considered, with special attention to the salience of universalism and cultural relativism. Principles of discourse ethics and leadership ethics are also applied in the analysis. The authors conclude by recommending a moderately universalist stance that respects the dignity of all humans while preserving positive elements of African culture and worldview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I will examine how the Mental Capacity Act 2005 regulates the assessment of decision-making capacity in England and Wales. I will argue that there are difficulties in reconciling the Act with how people make decisions in practice. I will explore how ideas from the ethics of care and from phenomenology can be used to take better account of how capacity flows from a person's relationships as well as their individual abilities. I will conclude by discussing some of the ethical issues that have arisen in my assessments of decision-making capacity and how I have tried to respond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the authors explore the gap between education and action in putting the social work core value of social justice into practice. Describing how their School of Social Work has taken up this challenge, the authors analyze how a new social action course helps bridge this gap and draw on student reflection on their experiences and assignments in the course to show how students concretize and interiorize the meaning of social action and social justice. Learning by doing social action through a case study, group work becomes the vehicle through which students act on social issues and work for social change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper critically reflects on a social work student placement experience at an Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service. It utilises ethical concepts to analyse the goals and working methods of the medical-dominated service alongside the professional and personal values taken to the role. Discussion focuses on the organisation's assessment process and use of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), concluding that the utilitarian and managerialist principles embodied in their procedure conflict with anti-oppressive social work ethics. Particular attention is given to the role and power of a student including personal reflection on the social work methods used and how practice would be changed in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present a discourse analysis of social work practitioners’ commentaries on undocumented immigrants that were collected from a survey of practicing social workers’ attitudes toward immigration and immigrants. Analyzing 198 open-ended comments, we explore the discursive mechanisms practitioners employ to construct undocumented immigrants, and their professional responsibilities toward them. These views are illustrative of the ways in which the profession determines inclusion and exclusion, writ large in national immigration policies and laws and played out in the arenas of social work and social services. Disparate views of practitioners highlight tensions in the profession's relationships to law and social policies as well as to its own ethics and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares and contrasts the impact and the interface of different sets of values held by social care practitioners in their decision-making process with regard to ethical dilemmas. Specifically, it explores some of the fundamental distinctions between self-directed groupworkers and other qualified social workers practising in both statutory and voluntary sectors. The methodology is qualitative and draws upon a Grounded Theory process. In contrasting the contribution of different sets of values in decision making, we found that participants, regardless of their approach to work, showed an overall fit between their personal and professional values. However, when we explored the influence of participants’ agencies on their decision-making processes, participants tended to prioritise organisational values, whereas for participants practising in the self-directed approach, the impact was less marked. Reflections on the role of values in increasing social workers’ resistance to organisational constraints, and discussion of some implications for social work education, conclude the article. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Social welfare workers in the protective services field—among them social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists—are expected to follow the laws of the state in which they practice, but are also bound by their professional code of ethics. Often this does not present a problem, but at times ethical and legal expectations differ. This is particularly problematic where the professionals may be seen as agents of control, reporting possible child abuse, conducting child abuse investigations, inspecting homes, monitoring families, removing children from their homes and the like, often working with or reporting to law enforcement agents where expectations are different and codes of ethics absent. This paper explores the relationship between law and professional ethics, and, in particular, situations in which actions and decisions can be legal yet unethical or ethical but yet illegal. It then analyzes some critical child protective service activities where Child Protective Services (CPS) workers exert significant control over parents and children, and where the legal and ethical requirements may differ. Finally, the paper discusses the problems that CPS professionals face when law and ethics collide, and suggests various steps to resolve some of these conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a relatively recent incarnation in social work's long history of valuing evidence as a basis for practice. Few argue with the ethics and usefulness of grounding practice in empirically tested interventions. Critics of EBP instead focus on how it is defined and implemented. Critiques include what counts as evidence, who makes decisions regarding research agendas and processes, and the lack of attention to context. This essay reflects on such critiques and suggests that social work, as a profession that values human diversity, equality, and self-determination, is well situated to shed light on such debates about EBP. As a profession that supports a person-in-environment perspective, we must examine not only the theory but the practice of EPB in academic, institutional, and societal settings. It is also argued that, owing to our professional mission, it is not enough to acknowledge the risk of oppression and harm; we are obligated to take them seriously and include such potential for harm in our assessment of so-called best practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This piece comprises short presentations given by contributors to a symposium organized by the journal Ethics & Social Welfare on the theme of global ethics for social work. The contributors offer their reflections on the extent to which universally accepted international statements of ethical principles in social work are possible or useful, engaging with debates about cultural diversity, relativism and the relevance of human rights in non-Western countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a 'realist' stance is sometimes contrasted with a 'principled' one, this article argues that realism is, of itself, an important ethical principle. Acknowledging the problems that exist in defining 'reality', and the fact that the nature of reality is contested, the article nevertheless insists on an 'out there' reality. It asserts that the existence of this external reality is, in practice, generally accepted, and indeed must be accepted if we are to make the important distinction between truth and falsehood. The article proposes that discourse which is not grounded in the concrete reality of the specific situations in which social work is practised is potentially harmful because it results in a decoupling of language from what it is supposed to represent and creates a potential for language to be used to deceive. The article then discusses 'Realism about Outcomes' and 'Realism about Context' as two out of a number of different areas in which realism is important in practice and policy making. It concludes that genuinely ethical social work practice and policy making require that we attempt to engage with the world as it actually is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most contentious issues in social work practice concerns what should be written about people who access social work services, how comprehensively, and in what format social work assessments, interventions, and outcomes should be documented. The present paper describes a structured approach linked to an action research project that was undertaken by hospital-based social workers to identify and minimise problems associated with documentation in the medical record. The Social Work Ethics Audit provided social work staff with a risk-management tool that highlighted documentation as a key area of ethical risk. Through a process of evaluating existing recording practices, social workers were able to meet the challenge of improving social work recording in medical records, returning it to its proper place as a vital component of clinical and ethical practice rather than an administrative task submerged beneath competing priorities. It was anticipated that the social work documentation proforma that resulted from the ethics audit process would have applicability in other health care settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The responsibility of the social work profession to be inclusive and equitable in its service provision is reviewed via policies relating to professional training regarding sexual orientation issues. A comparative review of Canada, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA) and international standards regarding sexual orientation issues in social work codes of ethics and curricula standards was undertaken. A consistency exists in the USA between its ethics code and curriculum standards further backed by a mandated approach, but it is weak in the area of ethically principled practice skills. Both Canada and the UK are less consistent and comprehensive and lack a mandated approach. The results speak to where consistencies exist and where they need to be established in order to develop an infrastructure that properly trains social workers in cultural competency for these populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A framework for resolving social work's ethical problems must allow for explicit discussion and justification (Osmo and Landau 2001). As opposed to a preoccupation with what ‘ought to be’, it is argued that ‘what ought not be’ is the more useful question to ask when resolving a moral problem. The University of Kentucky's social work program has adapted an ethical decision-making model proposed by Bernard Gert (1997) that (1) identifies the common harms rational people wish to avoid, (2) specifies the general moral rules by which people abide in order to avoid these harms, (3) recognizes that rules violations do occur and can be justified in particular situations, and (4) provides an explicit justification procedure for violating the moral rules when rational, impartial people would publicly allow such a violation. How this decision-making process unfolds in the classroom and encourages students to develop critical reasoning capabilities is described herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Findings are presented from an Australian study on the implementation and evaluation of a Social Work Ethics Audit Risk Management Tool. The aim of the research is to determine the extent to which ethics audits are useful and applicable to Australian human service organisations. Over the period of the study, social workers and other human services staff and volunteers used the ethics audit to achieve outcomes that included provision of legitimate space for discussion of ethics in the workplace, and identification of gaps in knowledge and skills about ethical practice, and the policies and procedures that support and enhance such practice. The paper provides an analysis of how practitioners and managers grapple with the concept of ethical risk management, and outlines strategies that were developed in an effort to move towards greater accountability and ethical reflection in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using e-learning (Blackboard™), a course in ethics promotes reflective learning and critical thinking skills for graduate social work students as participants in an on-learning experience. Reflective learning, based on Schön's (1983) "reflective inquiry," is facilitated with participants' engagement in weekly case-based discussion of ethical and legal concepts. The internet course exemplifies the principle of "say-writing" (Wegerif, 1998) as an effective strategy for promoting reflective learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social work code of ethics clearly articulates a commitment to social justice, which includes engaging in organizational practices that promote cultural diversity. This article reports findings from a qualitative study on multicultural initiatives in human service agencies. Particular attention is focused on whether efforts were compromised and, if so, what the consequences might be. Interviews with practitioners and consultants, and supporting agency documents, revealed four themes that compromise multicultural initiatives: an absence of vision, piecemeal activities, community neglect and client objectification, and lack of accountability. Implications include resource loss, staff reactivity, and working on borrowed time. Jeopardized multicultural initiatives present serious ethical dilemmas, as they impede the profession's ability to fulfill mandates regarding social justice and diversity. Recommendations are offered for agency personnel in order to engage in more successful multicultural efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because teaching about values and ethics is essential in social work education, social work educators need to become knowledgeable about the 1996 NASW Code of Ethics and its application to social work practice and education. Three major new areas in the Code, confidentiality with managed care, technology, and family and group work, cultural competence, and appropriate professional relationships, are addressed. Besides teaching students about the current Code of Ethics in order to prepare them for professional practice, social work educators can increase their understanding of how the Code applies to their work with students and model professional behavior to students through ethical educational practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]