A professional boundary means always knowing how to stay in your professional role. Never tell clients personal things about you, never give out your personal contact to clients, never follow clients on any kind of social media, maintain confidentiality, never engage in a relationship with clients or past clients, and establish clear physical boundaries with clients. Telling clients personal things about you can confuse the client and make the client believe that you’re their friend and they won’t take you seriously professionally. Giving out personal information like your cellphone number will make clients think it is okay to call you at all hours of the day and about stuff not pertaining to business. Social media is something else that clients should not be able to …show more content…
Engaging in a relationship with a client or past client is definitely inappropriate and it breaks professional boundaries. It doesn’t matter why you had the client, it is still inappropriate. Establishing clear physical boundaries with clients is always a must to avoid hugs or any kind of touch that may be deemed inappropriate or uncomfortable for you or the client. While some of these can be seen to be not such a big deal, boundaries do matter and are important to set in order to be a successful and appropriate professionally. One of the Code of Ethics standards is conflict of interest which goes into detail about many ways that there could be a conflict of interest within social work. The Code of Ethics states, “Social workers should avoid communication with clients using technology (such as social networking sites, online chat, e-mail, text messages, telephone, and video) for personal or non-work-related purposes”. This statement is the reason why boundaries do matter because using technology like text messaging can break professional boundaries in many
Handon, R. M. (2014, December). Client Relationships and Ethical Boundaries for Social Workers in Child Welfare. The New Social Worker, (winter), 1-6.
As a student new to social work, The Code of Ethics written by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is in the forefront of my mind whenever practicing my freshly learned skills. According to the Code, these rules were written as the “values, principles, and standards to guide social workers’ conduct” (Code of Ethics - NASW, n.d.). Within my most-recent session, certain aspects of this code were relevant, including informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, a commitment to the client, the dignity and worth of a person, the importance of human relationships, integrity and competency of the worker, and social diversity.
Standard 1.09 of the NASW code of ethics says that social workers should not engage in sexual relationships with current clients. The difference between this standard and the question is current and former clients. However, if standard 1.09 is saying social worker as a general term, then I also believe that the same ethical standards regarding sexual relationships with formal clients should be applicable to all social workers. In situations like this, I do not see a difference between a social worker and a clinician. They are still people who work with clients and should not engage in sexual relationships. In order to determine if a social worker is a clinician, it would depend on the type of work that is being done. If a social worker has a therapeutic relationship with a client, I would consider this to be a clinician. If a social worker is solely providing information and linking resources to the client, this would not be considered a therapeutic relationship. Regardless of whatever job the social worker does, it is never appropriate to engage in sexual activity with a
Professional boundaries refer to the limits that guard against patient’s vulnerable state and the professional conduct displayed by the health care provider. It is essential for the health care provider to maintain a balance as this would ensure that any act is done for the betterment and in the best interest of the patients. Boundaries in a patient setting refers to mutually unspoken and spoken words, gestures, emotional and physical acts between a trusting patient and his health care provider. According to Avis et al (1983), limits, lines, or borders are included in the term of boundary.
It provides guidelines on the standards and explains that social workers must be aware of their limits and not attempt to create any dual relationships with clients. Standard 1.06 (a) requires that client’s rights and interests be protected at all times. It informs that to ensure this, social workers must terminate their professional relationships with clients and engage in the creation of proper referral procedures (Reamer, 2003). Standard 1.06 (b) dictates that social workers must never take unfair advantage of colleagues and should also not exploit them for personal gains in a professional relationship. Standard 1.06 (c) entails no engagement in multiple relationships with clients, especially in situations where potential harm or exploitation may arise (Reamer,
There are many attributes that contribute to being professional. The many that stick out in my mind are responsibility and accountability, leadership, honor and integrity, respect, and caring compassion and communication. All of these attributes pertain to the professional work environment in the own important way. When you are a professional you need to have responsibility and accountability. This means you have to demonstrate awareness of your own limitations, and identify developmental needs and approaches for improvements. You care for yourself appropriately and you present yourself in an appropriate manner (demeanor, dress, and hygiene). You recognize and report errors and poor behavior in peers. You have to take responsibility for appropriate share o...
Professionalism is defined as one's conduct at work. The quality of professionalism is not restricted to those in occupations with high level of education or high earnings. Any worker regardless of their level of education or occupation should demonstrate a high level of this trait (About.com, 2013). Acting professionally at workplace makes others think of you as reliable, respectful, and competent.
One of the ethical dilemma that could arise from the use of social media is when a client searches and sends a friend request or adds a worker on Facebook. Another ethical dilemma could be when a client follows his or her worker on twitter/Instagram. This could potentially take the workers privacy away because the client might get to know more than they should such as personal information, family photos etc. on the other hand, it could get in the way of the helping process or therapeutic relationship, especially if the worker do not explain to the client why they cannot be friends on social media.
In some cultures having a multiple relationship with a client can be consider respectful rather than exploitation. The reason I was interested in this code of ethics to critique is based on my cultural background and the norms. Coming from a Persian culture it is very disrespectful to come across someone we know in a public and not say greetings. As a future therapist working with Persian population, I will run across this problem at some point in my career. Looking at this issue from an ethical point of view, it is understandable why having a dual relationship can be more harmful for a client.
Reamer, F. G. (2013). Social work in a digital age: Ethical and risk management challenges. Social Work, 58(2), 163-172.
The factors that influence me may not be the same as any other social worker. It is understandable then that my concept of morality and ethics may be different from other social work practitioners. Ray Bradbury once said, "There is more than one way to burn a book, and the world is full of people running around with lit matches," (Goodreads, 2014). I feel this quote is apropos when discussing the validity of social workers ' values that conflict with my personal beliefs and ethics. Simply put, there is more than one way to do a job and everyone has ideas and thoughts about how it should be done. My way is not the only way. However, if I truly believed the social worker was acting unethically and in danger of harming a client then I would follow the necessary steps to bring my concerns to