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Re:This may relate to the discussion...
DBS · 03/12/04 at 1:06 PM ET
There is no therapeutic relationship here. Monica acted as a private citizen.
From NASW code of ethics: 1.05(c) Social workers should obtain education about and seek to understand the nature of social diversity and oppression with respect to race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, political belief, religion, and mental or physical disability.
Notice there is no indication in 1.05c that a social worker is required to understand diversity only as it relates to her or his clients. It does not say above that �oh by the way, this only applies to your clients; you don�t have to understand social diversity when it comes to your neighbors or friends�. And in her original post, she said:
The situation is that my next door neighbor is in a "relationship" (and I use that term loosely here) with a complete bonehead who not only has a substance abuse problem, but a self-support deficit. She can't see that the only reason he is with her is for sex and a free place to stay.
Because this is the first thing she said in the original post, from what I read here, I get the feeling that she has issues about diseased men. Social workers, according to the NASW code of ethics also have ethical standards to uphold to the broader society, not just to clients they have entered into a professional relationship with. Having this kind of attitude outside a therapeutic relationship can affect situations inside a therapeutic relationship. If she has this kind of attitude about her neighbors or friends whom she sees every day, it is bound to carry over into her professional relationship. That is why social workers also have responsibilities to broader society as per NASW code of ethics: Ethical Principle: Social workers challenge social injustice. Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social workers' social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice. These activities seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity. Social workers strive to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision making for all people.
Again nowhere in there does the term �client� come up. Just because there was no therapeutic relationship here, that does not mean that she as a social worker can act as if she does not have a social work license.
In my opinion, and this is MY OPINION, from what I read in NASW ethics, social workers are not average degreed professionals such as a computer programmer, or a factory worker, etc. It is like being an MD or a Dentist, or a priest, and social workers, on or off the clock, have a higher standard to uphold. That is why they are licensed. I don�t agree with you that because the original poster was �off the clock� so to speak, that this exempts her from maintaining high standards and not placing the profession in a poor light.
Framing her behavior at her own house as an ethical issue is simply incorrect.
I don't agree, because she has a responsibility to broader society, according to the NASW ethics. My opinions as to how social workers should behave were formed by NASW codes of ethics.
4.02 Discrimination
Social workers should not practice, condone, facilitate, or collaborate with any form of discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, political belief, religion, or mental or physical disability.
Again the term client is never mentioned here.
If you agree that social workers are average professionals when they are off the clock, that�s fine. We agree to disagree. I personally believe that social workers, and psychologists, psychiatrists, etc. should be held to higher standards than the average factory worker. On or off the clock. If they don�t want to be held to these higher standards, then they should find a profession where this is not required. ANd from what I read in NASW code of ethics, the people in Washington DC believe this as well.
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