Exam 5: Client Rights and Professional Expertise

According to Hartman, true self-determination requires access to all of the following EXCEPT:

Adult protective social workers have to deal with the ethical dilemma which results from the elderly person's right to refuse services and the worker's duty to protect.

The social worker has no mandate to interfere, as long as the client can make informed decisions, UNLESS:

Discuss the ethical dilemma that arises out of the two sometimes contradictory professional principles: 1) the principle to provide professional help when needed in order to assure that person's welfare, and 2) the principle not to interfere with a person's freedom. Discussion Topics:

Have the class read exemplars 5.1 and 5.2 on page 92 and discuss who the client is.

Have the class create a list of what they feel should constitute client rights.Then see where they fit in the Ethical Principles Screen, Figure 4.4 on page 80.

Which of the following is NOT a reason why ambiguity may be a more critical problem for social workers than for many other professionals?

Participants in the social work process include the client, the target, the beneficiary and the applicant.

The "client" is always the person/agency who is paying for the social worker's services.

What issue does NOT interfere with a client's ability to be self-determining?

Self-determination is a fundamental right that is protected by the U.S.Constitution.

Is it ethical as a social worker to implement the more effective strategy when the client prefers another approach which you know is going to be less effective?

Ethical dilemmas abound in child welfare because there are few or no clear definitions of acceptable or unacceptable risk.

A pregnant woman receives positive indications of a genetically defective fetus.She and her partner have no desire to terminate the pregnancy, despite the doctor's expectation that they should.As the social worker expected to persuade the mother to abort, how would your decision be affected by your own values and religious beliefs?

The more essential and valuable the services received, the greater the client's feelings of dependency on the worker and the less likely it is that he will choose an option that he believes his social worker will disapprove of.

Ethical dilemmas have become more frequent because:

Describe the three different types of ambiguity and uncertainty and how they increase the possibility of ethical dilemmas occurring in social work practice.

Three types of ambiguity and uncertainty make for ethical problems in social work practice.Which of the following is not an ambiguity/uncertainty?

Sally Jones was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder six years ago.When she is not hospitalized, she does not take her medicine the way she is supposed to.Since she was diagnosed, Sally has made three serious suicide attempts while in the depressive phase of her illness.She is currently off her medication and is showing signs of depression.Her social worker has talked to Sally about readmission to the hospital but Sally refuses to go.The worker must abide by Sally's decision, as she has the right to self-determination.

When the same intervention is used in seemingly identical or very similar problem situations, the outcome is always the same.