hey hey welcome back Social Work tribe in today's video we're going to be breaking down the nasw code of ethics 1.06 conflicts of interest this is part four of the breakdown Series so stay tuned okay so let's dive into it a conflict of interest occurs when a social worker services to a client is compromised or might be uh compromised because of decisions or actions and relation to another client colleague the actual client you're working with or some other person a conflict of interest occurs when a social worker's relationship with a client this is talking about your professional relationship that is um is compromised or might be compromised because of decisions or actions in relation to another client colleague the actual client you're working with or some other person in short when you are working with a client you have a professional relationship with them as a professional you're providing your Professional Services to them a conflict of interest can be viewed as anything that could impact or influence how you treat and or provide services to the client due to another person as social workers we always want to avoid conflict of interest or any potential conflict of interest a conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest can occur in many different ways so as a social worker you always want to be mindful of a potential conflict of interest because a conflict of interest can come in many different forms ask yourself this simple question will I the social worker feel some type of way providing services to a client because of this other person or will the client I'm working with possibly feel some type of way because of my or the social workers's connection with this other person if the answer is not a clear no then there's a good chance it's a conflict of interest so remember this could happen in so many different forms right where we talk about you know another person and their relationship to the client um and some way shape or form we always want to be mindful of any potential conflict of interest and a being able to ask ourselves this question well we the social worker as a professional feel some type of way uh providing services to them or will the client feel some type of way um providing services to them um when we have this other relationship or will have another relationship uh with that other person example so we're going to take it away from the social work element for a minute um think of a high school teacher that teaches math and her son will start attending that high school as a freshman ethically speaking the teacher the mother uh would inform the school prior to her son starting school because there is a potential uh conflict of interest and the school May Place her son in her class if her son is in her class it will impact or influence how she will treat that client which is her son or the student um and or provide services to the client or her son wait R uh uh if she's aware why wouldn't she just treat him the same everyone has a natural bias towards life as a whole which includes how we treat others and we want to avoid uh that by not even being in that position in the first place um let's say her son is struggling at math and she decides to give him just an extra bit of attention in class to help uh to help him get it like really Gras the material that's not fair um How about if she sees he's working really hard but still not grasping the material um if fully or he's a single point away from an A or any grade for that matter uh so she decides to bump up his grade just just a bit that's not fair How about if she's extra hard on him in class and when she's grading his homework quizzes and test uh because she's uh wants to make sure she's not giving him any special treatment that's still not fair because now he has it harder in class when the other students don't so we see how in many different ways a conflict of interest can occur even if the person us the social worker the professional is trying not to do that right so across the board we want to avoid just even being in a situation um at all if possible wait right what happens if we didn't know and we find out after the fact right because life happens how about if we just really didn't know um so we couldn't really avoid a potential conflict of interest now we're in this situation CU it's like oh I we didn't see it coming there's no way we could have known given the context of uh this uh specific scenario what do we do great question uh the nasw code of ethics will know uh what we should do so let's dive into it okay so 1.06 conflicts of interest a social workers should be alert to and avoid conflicts of interest that interfere with the exercise of professional discretion and impartial judgment social workers should inform clients when a real or potential conflict of interest arises and take reasonable steps to resolve the issue in a manner that makes the client's interest primary and protects client's interest to the greatest extent possible so keeping the client's interest at at at the top at the Forefront above all and in some cases protecting client's interest may require termination of the professional relationship with proper referral of the client so there are going to be some situations where because of the context of the situation termination may be required and we don't want to abandon the client and say all right well can't work with you anymore because of this reason we want to be able to of course talk with the client and uh proceed with appropriate referral so the client has a continuation of services so again if the client has an issue with um the relationship because of let's say you know you're dating someone that you didn't know was related to to the client because they have different last names or whatever the case may be and you find out you know months and months later or something like that and let's say the client has an issue with it or you have an issue with it as a social work professional and you know you guys might be in the same environment because let's say that person moved and now they're in all of all of this could happen right and your professional judgment or if it's impacting the client in some way a termination may be the best route to go with um of course appropriate make sure we're referring them for continuation of services and uh looking at a again uh social workers should be alert to and avoid conflicts of interest again if we see it coming we want to be able to avoid it as much as possible because this is a challenging situation we don't want to be in this situation um but again those are there are situations that we just don't see coming just because of the nature of it and from there we want to be able to address it appropriately while keeping in mind our clients's interest is at the top and we want to protect them and and help them as much as possible but there are situations where it's just unavoidable because we simply didn't know and from there we want to have a discussion with the client and proceed appropriately um taking everything into account don't manipulate don't exploit right this one is kind of um directly like to the point um any interest that it can serve you we we want to make remember our primary interest is to the client the the well-being of the client they're at the top right we want to make sure that we're providing Professional Services to them and making sure that they're getting the most benefit out of the services being provided for them we shouldn't be getting any uh business benefit um or professional benefit political any of those other factors outside of the reasons why we're meeting with the client which is again to provide that Professional Services to them C social workers should not engage in dual or multiple relationships with clients or former clients in which there is a risk of exploitation or potential harm to the client in instances when a dual or multiple relationships are unavoidable kind of like what we were talking about earlier um social workers should take steps to protect clients and are responsible for setting clear appropriate and culturally sensitive boundaries dual or multiple relationships uh when social workers relate to clients and more than one relationship whether professional social or business dual or multiple relationships can occur simultaneously or cons uh consecutively so remember there could be situations where let's say you know you're friends with someone you're dating someone right and you don't know that they're related or have any type of relationship uh with a client that you've been seeing right and let's say you go to a a cookout and uh-oh you you made a good friend you go to the cookout and uhoh the the client that you've been seeing for the last couple months is there it's like what do we do are we suddenly not friends with this person we've been friends with them uh building Rapport relationship with them for like months now or dating someone for months now we suddenly have to just like stop everything type of thing no but we also are responsible for setting clear appropriate boundaries and we're not necessarily going to tell the the friend or the person we're dating like oh that's a client I have like absolutely not but we we would want to talk with the client see how they feel about it and everything and let's just say they said oh yeah I'm fine with it I'm cool like it's it's no big deal like it's it really isn't a big deal type of thing right we are responsible for setting clear appropriate boundaries meaning we're not exactly going to be hanging out with that client and like oh yeah they're you know part of the family and part of the part of the the friend group now and everything like that no no no clear appropriate boundaries D when social workers provide services to two or more people who have a relationship with each other for example uh couples family members social workers should clarify with all parties which individuals will be considered clients and the nature of the social workers professional obligations to the various individuals who are receiving Services why because remember as professionals we have a certain obligation to the client so we want to clarify who is the client who is the client who is the client because how we interact with our client versus other people is going to be different social workers who anticipate a conflict of interest among the individuals receiving services or who anticipate having to perform and potentially conflicting roles for example uh when a social worker is asked to testify in a child custody dispute or divorce proceeding involving clients uh should clarify their role with the parties involved and take appropriate action to minimize any conflict of interest so essentially as social workers we want to let them know like hey you know our role is to help you like let's say we're doing couples's counseling right our role is to help you achieve whatever the reason why you guys uh sought services for right we're not going to be you know trying to get caught in the middle of trying to hear for your side or their side of why they're quote unquote bad and you know they have all these issues going on or anything like that we you know want to clarify hey we're out of it we're here to help you with your goals and everything like that right now let's say we get um subpoena by like a judge or uh to appear in court um as a result or something like that right like say it really escalates and everything what should the social worker do seek legal counsel that is the answer if us the social worker are subpoena by like a judge to come in and testify and things of that nature what we would want to do as a social worker as a professional seek legal counsil again that's on like those high levels where you know we're getting subpoena from a court judge to come in and testify and all of that um but if you know someone wants us to testify like they say in a divorce proceeding or anything like that we're like Hey we're clarifying our role this isn't our role to testify against this person or that person we're here to help you you guys achieve your goal for whatever reason you sought you know uh services for um but we're not getting trying to get caught up in the middle of uh any of that e social workers should avoid communication with clients using technology such as social networking sites online chat email text messages telephone and video for personal or nonwork related purposes uh yeah we're not going to be calling up the client like oh uh did you see the game last night yeah yeah like we know that they're a basketball fan or a football fan it was a really good game we like oh did you see that that was a great play and boundaries if we're contacting the client it's for uh professional reasons right we're not we're not doing it just to just see how their day is going just to just to tell her about this funny meme or something like that professional boundaries F social workers should be aware that posting personal information on professional websites or other media might cause boundary confusion uh inappropriate dual relationships or harms to the clients so be mindful of what's called your digital footprint everything we Post online uh can be accessed by you know someone some eyeballs are going to see it and you know it could be a small world at time right so we always want to present ourselves in the best light and being mindful of what we Post online because depending on the type of content we're posting online and how we're being viewed by that content we're posting online it can be viewed in the not not the greatest light by client or others right so even though yes even uh what they're saying our professional website even our personal right being mindful of what we're kind of putting out there in the world G social workers should be aware that personal affiliations may increase the likelihood that clients may discover the social workers's presence on websites social media and other forms of technology social workers should be aware that involvement in electronic communication with groups based on race ethnicity language sexual orientation gender identity or expression mental or physical ability religion immigration status and other personal affiliations may affect their ability to work effectively with particular clients so this is really uh bringing into account our natural bias right and we always want to be able to do that self-reflection with ourselves to make sure that we're providing services in an ethically responsible way where our bias isn't impacting um how we're providing Services because we don't want to decrease the quality of services that we're providing we want to treat every client as a equal uh regarding the type of services that we provide to them at the highest ability that we're capable of and you know again how we say small world the internet can make the world seem even smaller at times because the depending on what platforms we're on like let's say you're on Tik Tok it goes viral or something like that or you're affiliated with you know this other uh this other entity on social media that has a pretty good Following being mindful of you know what does what do they stand for you know what do what is that reflective of you you know do you stand for that and how you're viewed so again being mindful of your digital footprint and H social workers should avoid accepting requests from from or engaging in personal relationships with clients on social networking sites or other Electronic media to prevent boundary confusion uh inappropriate do of relationships or harm to clients so we may say like wait a second what happens if a client follows me on my business uh Instagram Facebook or you know business professional page that's fine but you know especially if it's like public right you know we're not going to be engaging in uh uh direct messaging dming them back and forth oh yeah how's it going it's going fine and stuff boundary confusion it could be appropriate as far as like like hey just like if they were to DM you and say like hey just want to uh I see you're doing well just want to give you well wishes you know and it's like okay cool but don't reply cuz we don't want to create boundary confusion because now they have access to you if they're dming you and everything so avoid it and especially if they s if a current or a previous client were to send you a friend request again on Facebook uh Instagram whatever it may be right don't accept it don't don't don't don't don't accept it you don't want to create that uh boundary confusion um or anything like that because again it's opening the door for the possibility of that happening especially if it's your personal uh media because now and and especially if you had it private because now they're seeing a glimpse into you know your world and creting a boundary confusion and all that and then how about they start commenting on your picture and all it's just avoid it if it's your professional social media right and it's open it's not private cuz you know it's your professional it's public for you know to grow your audience and everything like that and they follow you cool but we're not deeming them absolutely we're not announcing like hey that's a a former client followed me or anything like that so just uh being mindful of that okay tribe that's it for today's video like always don't forget to like comment and subscribe and tell a social work friend cuz we don't want to be licensed by ourselves and as always you got this breathe we're going to tune into the videos get the information learn and be able to apply it so that we're prepared for the exam okay guys I'll see you next video bye