University of Zimbabwe

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Studies

Department of Social Work

______________________________________________

PROGRAMME: Postgraduate Diploma in Social Work

(PGDSW)
COURSE: Introduction to Social Work (503)
STUDENT: Rubaya Tapiwa – R159588G
LECTURER: Mr. T.S. Chineka.

ASSIGNMENT:

Critique the importance of values and ethics in social work interventions.

Introduction

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The profession of social work has values and ethical preferences like any other profession as
these give the purpose and direction to the practitioner. There are many critical values and
ethics which social workers are obligated to uphold in order to guard against malpractice,
litigation and liability while guiding towards achieving the objective of the helping profession
of social work. Hepworth, et al. (2013), note that values reflect society held beliefs about
rights of people to free choice and opportunity while recognising the preferred conditions of
life that enhance people’s welfare, the ways members of the profession should view and treat
people, preferred goals for people, and ways in which those goals should be reached. The
core values of social work include; respect for individual worth and dignity, respect the
individual’s right to make independent decisions and participate in the helping process,
commitment to assist client system to obtain needed resources, strive to make social
institutions more humane and responsive to human needs and respect and acceptance of all
people (ibid). Turning these ethics into reality are ethical considerations that needs to be
respected during interventions such as confidentiality, unconditional positive regard, respect,
equity, self –determination, a non-judgemental approach and objectivity. This essay seeks to
examine the importance of values and ethics in social work interventions. On the other hand,
the essay also demonstrates the ethical dilemmas that comes to play during intervention and
aspects such as respect for humanity, country laws and policies that crop up. The essay would
also make use of the cognitive systems theory in its exploration of the importance of values
and ethics in intervention as interventions deal with clients in their social systems.

The values and ethics of social work are espoused in the global definition of social work
which is defined as; Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline
that promotes social change and development, social cohesion and the empowerment and
liberation of people. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and
respect for diversity are central to social work. Underpinned by theories of social work, social
sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledge, social work engages people and structures to
address life challenges and enhance well being (IFSW, 2014). Social work intervention can
take the form of social case work, social group work and community work, with variant
descriptions including any work of a welfare, recreational, and humanitarian nature
(Mupedziswa 1988). Such descriptions call for ethics and values to be imposed on social
work interventions. Values can be defined variously but in this paper values can be referred
as beliefs that delineate preferences about how one ought to behave (Toseland and Rivas,

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2012). Corey (2012) further points out that values shape thinking and direct the actions of
social workers through practice principles. Ethics are rules that define what types of behavior
are appropriate or not (Barsky, 2010). They include maintaining confidentiality of
information received from clients (ibid). Social work values reflect the profession’s guiding
philosophy of advancing human welfare, as well as its commitment to ensure that social
workers all over the globe are strongly united with common belief systems. Values in social
work are basically informed by pursuits of social justice, productive human relationships,
human rights, and best practice (International Federation of Social Work [IFSW], 2014).
Ethics allow social workers to determine how they intervene and how other professions deal
with same clients.

Social work promotes service to others above self-interest. A social worker has, a primary
goal of helping people in need and addressing societal problems. This entails, service to
others above personal interests, prioritising the needs offering service pro deo, especially in
times of natural calamity and all the time drawing on all acquired skills, knowledge and
values of the profession of social work (Social Workers Act, 2012). The value of service
above self is important in promoting the integrity of the profession and guiding professionals
to remain focused on helping the primary target of helping the client resolving the challenges
being faced. Adopting and integrating values such as acceptance, unconditional positive
regard, respect, equity, self –determination, a non-judgemental approach/attitude, as well as
the practice of concepts such as confidentiality and objectivity, are much more difficult
(Litvack, et al, 2010). Prinsloo (2014), While reflecting on and promoting the values of the
profession is of critical importance, this is not easy to achieve in everyday social work life.

A social worker must ensure that individual worth and dignity values are important in a
professional – client relationship in order to help people in need to address social problems.
Kanopka (1960), posits that social work as a total profession has developed a fundamental
philosophy and it is in common with the whole civilised world belief in the importance and
dignity of the individual. It developed out in the context of culture which has unfortunately
based its services to the poor and handicapped on the punitive philosophy of Elizabethan
Poor Laws. Social work has had to struggle against public opinion which did not accept the
dignity of individual in this area. If individuals facing problems are treated with dignity and
worthiness they would be able to revive their energies and coping mechanisms to solve their
challenges in a more sustainable way. Social workers’ professional relationships are built on
regard for individual worth and dignity and are advanced by mutual participation, acceptance,

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confidentiality, honesty and responsible handling of conflict (CSWE, 2008). Hepworth, et
al. (2013), point out that every person is unique and has inherent worth; therefore, social
workers interactions with people as they pursue and utilise resources should enhance their
dignity, enlarge their competence and increase their problem solving and coping abilities.
Strength perspective recognises that every individual has the capacity for growth and change
(Miey et al., 2009). That is a social worker should be able to revitalise the client’s energies
and coping mechanisms that the client already have in order to overcome those challenges.
For example in Zimbabwe there is high unemployment and a client may be suffering from
depression because of lack of means of survival, so for a social worker to enhance the coping
capacities of the client must uplift the spirit of the individual by expressing the worthiness
and dignity of the person and enable the person to rediscover ways of coming out of the
problem.

To fully empower clients, social workers must respect the individual’s right to make
independent decisions and participate in the helping process. If a social worker makes all the
decisions for the client including determining the helping process it is likely that the solution
will not be sustainable and the problem would resurface quickly as the clients would
dissociate with the intervention solution and their input is necessary because it would be
familiar with the clients and mostly fit to social system of the client. Mupedziswa (1995)
identified some of the personal social services as services provided to people living with
disabilities, the older people, youth and children by government, local authorities, companies
and nongovernmental organisations. Forms of social control in personal social work services
in Zimbabwe include the means tested public assistance, probation work and counselling
offered in situations of marital conflict, deviance and drug addiction. Although social
workers are not supposed to decide for participants social workers can guide clients to make
better decisions for example when dealing with suicidal case a social worker cannot let a
client decide to die the best interest is to save life. It should also be noted that while offering
these services a social worker must seek consent of all the members and confidentiality
including in family and group work. Congress (2000), however notes that; because other
group members are not professional social workers, the social worker cannot have the
expectation that they would maintain confidentiality. A Social worker must advise members
of the importance of confidentiality to all the members to ensure that participation continues
and that the desired results would be achieved.

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When intervening, social workers must be committed to assist client systems to obtain needed
resources in order to empower clients to fully function on their own. That is when dealing
with disadvantaged members in society there is need to facilitate clients to access resources to
meet life challenges as well as access to opportunities to make them realise their potential in
life (Hepworth, et al. 2013). A social worker must therefore be able to refer disadvantaged
members to access resources that a social worker might not be able to directly offer such as
health, legal services, child welfare, food and water if the situation requires. While the
intervention unfolds a social worker must be able to uphold confidentiality, non-
discriminatory and respect in order for the helping process to be quick and effective, as
failure to uphold these ethical considerations might infuriate the client to opt out or loose self
esteem needed to empower the client. Refugees are some of the clients that may require to be
referred to other systems in order to access needed recourses. Mhlanga and Zengeya (2016)
note that in Zimbabwe the elderly refugees at Tongogara Refugee Camp face a myriad of
challenges as cohesive community ties, social support and other relational resources are
largely absent. That is more often than not the elderly refugees cannot provide for
themselves shelter, food, clean water and health related issues as individual refugees will be
preoccupied by their own survival struggles as the monthly food rations they receive are
regarded by many refugees as inadequate. In the context of the absent of community
structures that offer safety nets, the elderly refugees are left to deal with the problems of old
age alone. Mhlanga and Zengeya (2016) further pointed out that it is the social worker that
should assist refugees to empower the refugees to cope with the new lives and engage other
stake holders in order to meet basic needs of the elderly refugees. Although there may be
other resources that a social worker might not have control or influence over the important
part is that a social worker strives to ensure that after the intervention process the client is
capacitated to socially function for a prolonged period of time.

To fully empower clients, social workers must strive to make social institutions more humane
and responsive to human needs. When professional social workers assist clients to restore
their social functioning it does not mean that they should end there but must go on to work
towards improving the client’s life by lobbing for policies and legislation that enhance
physical and social environment. Mupedziswa (1995) argues that Social workers must
advocate for non-discriminatory policies so that the client can be fully assisted. Social work
is committed to the promotion of social justice in relation to its service users and to all
members of society. Social justice encompasses fair access to resources and treatment

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without prejudice and discrimination. It challenges the abuse of power and unjust practices.
However it should be noted that because of some contextual issues it may be difficult to
uphold social work values. Furthermore, the interpretations of values and ethics may differ
from society to society which result in implementing these values differently by social work
professionals in different contexts. Hepworth, et al. (2013), posit that Interpretations of
values and rights, however, are not always uniform. Consider, for example national debates
over the right of women to have abortions, controversy over the rights of gays and bisexuals
to enjoy the benefits of marriage. non-discriminatory in Zimbabwe especially on the case of
gays, lesbians as same sex marriages are illegal as enshrined in the constitution of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe Constitution (2013) Article 78(13), states that Persons of the same sex are
prohibited from marrying each other. That is while a social worker may have the intentions
of making social institutions more human values of the society or those who are dominant in
society may inhibit the society. For example the majority of Zimbabweans shun gays and
lesbians including the legislations that discriminate against these groups such that they may
find it difficult health and other necessary resources. Under what circumstances may be social
workers must continue to lobby to make social institutions more human by continuously
engage with various stakeholders including the government as improvement in social
institution is beneficial to all members of the society.

Respect and acceptance is very important for the intervention process to succeed as social
workers deal with people from various backgrounds. Social workers deal with people from
diverse backgrounds, race, ethnicity, class, women, children, the elderly, those in conflict
with the law and children in the streets but personal values must not affect the social worker
in order to fully assess the client’s problem so that proper and sufficient interventions can be
made there by resolving or ameliorating the client’s challenges. A social worker must be able
recognise differences and be respectful for the intervention to be successful. Congress (2000)
posits that social workers are advised to develop a knowledge base of their clients’ culture
and demonstrate competence and social diversity. While respect social workers must respect
differences it is important to take note of those cultural differences or aspects that are abusive
and trample upon other people’s rights. There are some religious sectors in Zimbabwe which
promote early chid marriages which is an infringement on the child’s rights and under these
circumstances values of respect and acceptance would be less important than humanity.
There might be the need to involve other arms of government or children’s rights and do
away with confidentiality so as to serve the best interests of the client. Respect and

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acceptance is important in social work intervention as this makes assessment more accurate
which would intern facilitate the intervention process to be more successful. Furthermore
respect and acceptance comes when a social worker is non-judgemental.

A professional social worker must be competent to ensure that whatever intervention is

required is successful. Competence includes being able to assess, devise an appropriate
strategy to intervene while observing values and ethics of the profession and this includes
cultural competence. Miley et al. (2009) encapsulate the ecosystems perspective as coherent
with the value base of social work in that it allows social workers to not judge themselves as
lacking or deficient but to see the situation within the context of a challenging fit of a person
and a situation. The ecosystem perspective discovers how human behaviour and interaction
respond to different environmental forces and develop accordingly (Santrock, 2006). If a
social worker is able to understand the context of the client including the culture of the client
the social worker would be able to assist the client revive the coping mechanisms of the client
in the client’s environment.

One can conclude that values and ethics are important in social work as they guide the
professional social worker in dealing with the clients while protecting the client, the social
worker and also the profession’s integrity. While issues of confidentiality cannot be
guaranteed in some circumstances the limitations of these values are so minor that it is more
beneficial to uphold the values and ethics of social work. If adhered to the values and ethics
of social work would ensure that the mission of social work to help disadvantaged members
of the society have their social functioning restored, social justice, empowerment and liberties
are achieved in a long lasting way. Ethics and values are also relative hence the need to
contextualise them but they should not be overly altered as that may promote some aspects of
abuse under the guise of cultural tolerance.

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REFERENCES

Barsky, A.E. 2010. Ethics and Values in Social Work: An Integrated Approach for a
Comprehensive Curriculum, Oxford University Press.

Congress E.What is Social Workers Should Know About Ethics: Understanding and
Resolving Ethical Dilemas, Advances in Social Work, Vol (1)

Corey, G. (2012). Theory and Practice of Group Counselling. International Edition. 8th ed.
Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning, Belmont, CA.

Council for Social Work Education, 2008. Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards.
Alexandria.
Hepworth, D., H., Rooney, R., H., Rooney, G., D. and Gottfried, K., S. 2013. Direct social
work practice. Belmont, Brooks/Cole

Kanopka G. (1960), Social Group Work Method, Oxford Journals, Oxford University Press

Litvack , A., Bogo M., and Mishna F. (2010), Emotional reactions of students in the field
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Mhlanga, J. And Zengeya, R. M. (2016), Social Work with Refugees in Zimbabwe, African
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Miley K. K. O’ Melia, M. And Dubois, B. (2009), Generalist Social Work Practice. An

Empowering Approach 6th ed. Pearson Education, Boston.
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its Development

Prinsloo R. C.E. (2014) Social Work Values and Experiences: Student’s Experiences in
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Prinsloo, R, (2012), The “Rainbow nation” way of teaching sensitivity to diversity, Group
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Richmond M (1917), Social Diagnosis . New York: Rusell Sage Foundation.

Constitution of Zimbabwe, 2013.

International Federation of Social Work [IFSW], 2014

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