Personal Values In The Human Services Industry

All of the choices we make are influenced by our socialisation which helped shape our values and beliefs. In order to work effectively with clients, it is important for workers in the human services industry to have a firm grasp of who they are, what their values and beliefs are, a vision of their ideal future, the values of their profession, and what to do in the event of a value clash. This aids in providing clients with a service that is free of prejudice and helps workers practice ethical decision making. This essay aims to explore my personal values, beliefs and visions, before examining how my values align with core social work values, and finally looking at managing value clashes.
In order to examine my philosophy and values, it is important

I value equality above all, I believe that everyone is entitled to the same benefits, opportunities and treatment. I believe this value has come from being raised in a single parent family and witnessing first had some of the struggles my mother had in raising us and getting access to services. I can only begin to imagine how difficult things must be for families from lower socio-economic backgrounds and for people in isolated communities and nations. Coming from such a tightknit family, love is my second core value. When referring to love, I mean not only mature love with a partner, but love for family, friends and the entire human race. Respect is another of my core values, McAuliffe (2014, p.3) suggests that respect encompasses a variety of aspects such as treating someone well, allowing them to have autonomy, taking note of things affecting them, and acknowledging that they may hold different views to our own. This I something that I have learned mostly from my father who has demonstrated that every person is deserving of respect, he opened my eyes to so much more of the world and allowed me to realise that it is ok for people to have different views and that that does not make them any less of a person. I also place great value on being selfless, not completely selfless as we need to care for ourselves, but a significant amount of selflessness and caring for others. This is a value that I have seen in many members of my family, again, mostly from my father and the time and effort he has put into helping not only me, but friends, family, colleagues, and people he barely knows. Closely linked with selflessness, my final core value is compassion. My father not only showed selflessness with a range of people, but also compassion. Whitebrook suggests “compassion not only requires emotional engagement with someone who is vulnerable but also acting on that emotion” (as cited