Legal and Ethical Obligations in Social Work Practice

Legal and Ethical Obligations in Social Work Practice

With the increasing rate of social transformation, it creates the need for social workers to adapt to provide the best support to clients. Social workers are daily exposed to issues caused by violence, isolation, substance abuse inequality, and the list continues. Social workers who have acquired proper training, have the experience and poses positive mind-set are have been forefront in developing strategies that are effective in addressing these social issues (Kelly et al. 2019). But still, there are several constraints that they face on their quest. With the same goal in mind, the American Academy of Social Work and Welfare developed an initiative known as The Grand Challenges for Social Work. This main initiative objective is to blend science with social work principles and values in the process of creating cohesion in societies. The cohesion can be facilitated through nurturing new and revolutionary ways of addressing existing social issues. Consequently, this paper seeks to identify and discuss three critical grand challenges and identify social problems related to each one of them.

There are three main grand challenges,closing of the health gap, stopping of family violence, and finely, achieving equal opportunity and justice. The grand challenge of closing the health gap has been controversial since it has been politicized in every election. Approximately more than sixty million American have insufficient access to basic health care. At the same time, they are exposed to social issues such as discrimination, poverty, and living in a dangerous environment that increase exposure to illness (Trahan et al. 2019). Perception has been a significant issue which has been hindering people from accessing to best medical facilities, both financially and ethnic discrimination. People who get minimum wages are not in the best position to access the best healthcare facilities due to high expense requirement. Living in a dangerous environment where sanitation is less considered people are exposed to uncountable risk factors, and healthcare facilities are not built up to standards in such areas. Therefore, by implementing evidence-based social and innovative strategies can be of great significance in improving the healthcare system to accommodate all kind of people in society..

Stopping family violence is another grand challenge for social workers. The report presented by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence indicated that a minimum of twenty people are physically abused in every ten minutes, which accounts for ten million people being victims of abuse annually. This physical assaults can be perpetrated by either parent, intimate partners, or even adult children. These assaults are not only threatening the wellbeing of victimized individuals by causing physical injuries or death but also it costs billions in spending for criminal justices and medical care. The social issues related to stopping family violence are quite significant in size (Trahan et al. 2019). Children, youths or couples who are exposed to or victims of family violence experience mental, emotional, and social damage that significantly affect their development journey. In most occasion, they end up being socially isolated, and others turn out to be violent. For that reason, family-based interventions can be of relevance in aiding people to identify abuse early and prevent it from escalating in future.

Finely achieving equal opportunity and justice becomes one of the grand challenges to be addressed. Prejudice has been known to be the sole obstacle for accessing chance for employment, education and health care services. This kind of discrimination has been known to facilitate social issues such as poverty, illiteracy, illness, and poor living standards. To solve this problem, stereotyping, racism, and other kinds of injustice need to be confronted. When these discriminatory obstacles are done away with, everyone in the society will have opportunities that will create room for advancement. Because it is only by accepting the diversity that each individual brings on the table can a nation develop in unity and advance in how social challenges are handled?

When making an ethical decision concerning social issues, there are several ethical principles and standards illustrated by the NASW code of ethics. This code of ethics is intended to guide day to day professional conduct of social workers. The ethical principles and standards that social workers use start by services. The primary goal of each social worker is to help people in need and try to solve a social problem; it is their duty to elevate service to others above their self-interest. By dedicating their skills, knowledge, and values, they ensure that they do everything to solve a social problem facing people (Kelly et al. 2019). These ethical guidelines facilitate social justice. Social workers have the duty and autonomy to challenge social injustices, such as those in grand challenges.  It has been their duty to endorse sensitivity and acknowledge oppression, ethnic and cultural diversity.

The grand challenge concerning the issue of healthcare and the creation of equal opportunity. The ethical principle guide social workers to advocate for dignity and individual worth. It is a guarantee for social workers to admiration the essential dignity and worth of each individual. Each social worker treats and cares for everyone in a respectful, mindful of individual cultural and ethnic differences. It has been their duty to promote social responsibility and self-determination of their clients (Trahan et al. 2019).Also, social workers are urged by the guidelines and laws to acknowledge the relevance of human relationships. As a result, they are known to centralize the importance that human connection holds. For that reason, they engage people on the partnership level while helping the vulnerable.

When it comes to laws and regulation in my state that that apply to social workers, they range from the statutory, regulatory, case, and constitutional requirements. Most of federal statutory laws and regulations enacted by congress have an impact on social workers. For instance, laws that govern the obligation of social workers to report potential abuse or neglect of vulnerable people in society; the right of minors to consent to drug abuse management. The regulatory laws have developed institutions that govern social workers and monitors their service delivery. There are constitutional rights that make sure that the rights and privileges of both social workers and vulnerable individuals are not abused in one way or another.

In conclusion, when it comes to maintaining professionalism as far as the grand challenge of social workers is a point of focus, integrity and self-respect are vital drivers. Every problem starting from closing the health gap, ensuring equal opportunities and dealing with family abuse, they can all be solved through treating each person with integrity and respect. Lives of people are valuable than cash, the idea of healthcare facilities discriminating people because of their financial status can be over-looked if people are treated equally despite their background in all aspect of life. The world has been changing, and the social challenges are also increasing in number, which calls for the need for social work to advance in strategies that can be used to solve them.

Reference

Kelly, M. S., Singer, J. B., Shin, A., Iverson, M., & Williams, D. (2019). How Much Social Work Research Is in Social Work’s Grand Challenges?: A Critical Review of the Evidence for the 12 Challenges. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 16(5), 511-523.

Trahan, M. H., Smith, K. S., Traylor, A. C., Washburn, M., Moore, N., &Mancillas, A. (2019). Three-dimensional virtual reality: Applications to the 12 grand challenges of social work. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 37(1), 13-31.