Ethics and Values

Through out our program we have learned the expectations that are required of Human
Services professionals and what their role is with clients, other professionals, to the community,
to their employer, and to educators. Standard 19: The curriculum shall incorporate human
services values and attitudes and promote understanding of human services ethics and their
application in practice. Our curriculum has shown us the values and attitudes of professionals in
the work environment. The biggest standard to remember is confidentiality is number one.
[Appendix GG] was a final assignment where the professor gave us four different scenarios with
different problems. With each problem we would state the ethics standard that that is violated
and how we would go about the issue. In each case it is important to stick to the standards but at
the same time take into consideration the best way to go about fulfilling the request of an
employer, colleague, educator, and client. Our client is always most important and to provide
them with the best services possible without violating the law or our contracts.
Standard 19 is addressed in this paper because the scenarios presented force us to look at
the case through the eyes of a professional. At that point we take all our skills and standards and
apply them to the case to make sure everything is addressed to help our client.
Standard 20: The program shall provide experiences and support to enable students to
develop awareness of their own values, personalities, reaction patterns, interpersonal styles, and
limitations. In Appendix GG I was able to look at each case and think of how to help the client.
In each case I also thought about how I would feel going though with each step. In [Appendix O]
my paper "Who Am I?" I was able to look at myself and see what my values were. Each
representation of me was show in a way on a scale of how important it was to me. Since my faith
is most important to me and it guides me through all my decisions; I made the sun represent that.
The sun is really important in our life without sun there would be no life and that is how my faith
is for me. Without my faith I would have a hard time going through life making decisions.
Into my self development goes my resume. During the entire program I was learning
skills through my classes and through my internship I was able to build up my resume (Appendix
HH). I was able to add CPR/ First Aid training as one of my skills. This is a very important skill
to have incase an accident occurs during work hours and someone need help. This skill is also
important in a personal sense where I can help my loved one when needed. I also got to intern in
a Human Resources (HR) office. Standard 21: The program shall provide field experience that is
integrated with the curriculum. This was really important because I would like my future career
to be in HR as a HR generalist or assistant to HR director. Learning the basic skills and getting
some experience in this department was great because my future employers can look at that and
see that I have the basics to start and if they choose to hire me they will not have to start from the
most basic things required.
My internships gave me the privilege to intern (standard 21) but my HR internship also
taught me more about what kind of this are considered confidential. While interning here I had
work with the contracts of all the staff and see how much they earn. This information is
confidential to share because the amount in the contract is for each specific person and the
background of the individual was taken into consideration.
The Human Service Professional's Responsibility to the Profession
STATEMENT 26 Human service professionals know the limit and scope of their
professional knowledge and offer services only within their knowledge and skill base.
STATEMENT 27 Human service professionals seek appropriate consultation and
supervision to assist in decision-making when there are legal, ethical or other dilemmas.
STATEMENT 28 Human service professionals act with integrity, honesty, genuineness,
and objectivity.(Appendix II)
Statements 26-28 of the standards were used throughout all my internships but most importantly
during my HR internship. During this internship I had to provide service based only on what I
knew; if I did not know the answer to something it meant that was outside my scope of practice
and I was able to direct it properly to my supervisor.
STATEMENT 25 All consultations between human service professionals are kept
confidential unless to do so would result in harm to clients or communities.(Appendix II)
With all my internships the work that I did was confidential as needed and only talked
about with the people that it involved. All the statements of the Human Services Standards of
ethics were always done with clients and followed to make sure that my credibility stayed and
that each person coming in through the door was treated properly without breaking any
professional barriers. Appendix DD takes us through our HSP 345 class and the cases that we
worked with to develop our professional sense of right and wrong. Here we looked at the right
way to go through each case keeping all the aspects of our education in mind.
Learning about the different privileges that people have based on their race, gender,
sexuality, and social class made me look at my chosen profession differently. I find it important
to keep in mind that no matter whom the person is and what they do it is our job to help them
when they reach out. As a professional it is not my job to judge someone based on their
appearance. It is my job to help them; the clothing that they might be in could be expensive but
that could be from when they were not in need of help. My job is to be the help they need no
matter what they need help with.
Throughout our time in the program we have gone from not understanding why we
needed to act a specific way in different issues to understanding the steps that they need to go
through to make sure that we give them the proper help. Learning about ourselves and given the
field experience we also learned how to properly be with our clients; this has given us the
appropriate start to a professional way of being. Understanding ourselves gives us the ability to
understand how we can or cannot help. Our limitations are in ourselves and if we can see our
own shortcomings we can start to take the steps to better ourselves. If we overcome our own
limitations we can better understand the position our client would be going through change and
how hard it can be. Our position on an issue can change once a loved one or we ourselves have
gone through the problem.
This program has given me the eyes to see things differently having to think about the
privileges that I have. Having the opportunity to go through different internships I have
discovered what my personal values are and how they can impact my decisions. The Human
Services program has a taught me a lot and going into the profession I feel confident that I will
be do what will be excepted of me in my new profession.