Hey, hey, Social Work Tribe, welcome back. This is the NASW Code of Ethics Breakdown Part 10, so stay tuned. Okay, we're going to be diving into Section 3 of Social Workers'Ethical Responsibilities and Practice Settings.
3.01 Supervision and Consultation. A. Social workers who provide supervision or consultation, whether in person or remotely, should have the necessary knowledge and skills to supervise or consult a person. appropriately and should do so only within their areas of knowledge and competence.
So making sure the supervisor providing supervision is knowledgeable and competent in whatever area of expertise that may be in. B, social workers who provide supervision or consultation are responsible for setting clear, appropriate, and culturally sensitive boundaries. So just like with anything, you know, we're still professionals at the end of the day. Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. See?
Social workers should not engage in any dual or multiple relationships with supervisees in which there is a risk of exploitation of or potential harm to the supervisee, including dual relationships that may arise while using social networking sites or other electronic media. So dual relationships, it just leads for exploitation. Again, power dynamic.
There's a supervisor and a supervisee. So just boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. D.
Social workers who provide supervision should evaluate supervisees'performance in a manner that is fair and respectful. So just making sure that, again, when we're giving feedback and, you know, reviewing how they're doing and evaluating, make sure that we're being, you know, fair, ethical, all that great stuff. 3.02 Education and Training. A. Social workers who function as educators, field instructors for students or trainees should provide instruction.
Only within areas of knowledge and competence and should provide instruction based on the most current information and knowledge available in the profession. So, again, making sure that if we're providing any knowledge, any supervision, whatever it may be, make sure that we're knowledgeable in that area that we're providing this information. Right. So, again, keep it clients in the loop like, hey, this is a student. This is part of the learning process and making sure that they're aware.
saying like, hey, this is a student. They could be shadowing during internship or whatever the case may be. So it's just making sure that the clients are aware of that. D, social workers who function as educators or field instructors for students should not engage in any dual or multiple relationships with students in which there's a risk of exploitation or potential harm to the student, including dual relationships that may arise while using social networking sites or other electronic media. Social work educators and field instructors are responsible for setting clear, appropriate, and culturally sensitive boundaries.
So again, boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. Whenever there's a power dynamic, we want to be very mindful of that. No exploitation because again, there's that power dynamic and we always want to be mindful of that.
3.03, performance evaluation. Social workers who have responsibility for evaluating the performance of others should fulfill such responsibility in a fair and considerate manner and on the basis of clearly stated criteria. So again, being fair, not being mindful of our own bias of like, oh, we don't like this person, so I'm going to mark their grades lower or whatever it may be.
Fair. We want to remain fair and professional. 3.04, client records.
A, social workers should take reasonable steps to ensure that documentation in electronic and paper records is accurate and reflects the services provided. So just again, make sure that they're accurate. B, Social workers should include sufficient and timely documentation and records to facilitate the delivery of services and to ensure continuity of services provided to clients in the future.
So not not wait in a month before we document our records or anything like that. See, social workers documentation should protect clients privacy to the extent that is possible and appropriate and should include only information that is directly relevant to the delivery of services. So when we're documenting. You know, we want to be mindful of how we're documenting.
We're not putting everything under the sun in there, like a lot of the fluff, the stuff that doesn't really matter. Like, oh, the client came in with a blue coat and, you know, is the information in our notes relevant to the session, the service provided? So we just want to be mindful of that. And when it's talking about protecting the client's privacy, we don't have to write like their home address, like oh the client mentioned that they went home to their home address located on this street and it's like you know we don't we don't have to put that level of detail in the notes d Social workers should store records following the termination of services to ensure reasonable future access.
Records should be maintained for the number of years required by relevant laws, agency policies and contracts. So if we get a question of how long should you keep a client's records for? Refer to state guidelines, refer to, you know, your state relevant laws, agency policies, contracts, because it will vary state by state. Tip.
Whenever the answer to the question can vary depending on what state location you're in, you always want to refer to state guidelines, state jurisdiction, agency policies, etc. 3.05 Billing. Social workers should establish and maintain billing practices that accurately reflect the nature and extent of services provided and that identify who provided the service in the practice setting. We want to bill accurately. We want to make sure that, you know, we're putting the right codes and everything like that. So just bill accurately.
3.06 Client Transfer. A. When an individual who is receiving services from another agency or colleague contacts a social worker for services, the social worker should carefully consider the client's needs before agreeing to provide services to minimize possible confusion and conflicts. Social workers should discuss with potential clients the nature of the client's current relationship with other service providers and the implications, including possible benefits or risk of entering into a relationship with a new service provider.
So in short, this could be one of those situations where it's like too many cooks in the kitchen. Right. And we don't want to overstep another social workers like toes or boundaries or anything like that, because, again, if the client is already receiving services.
from another professional, we want to discuss with the client of, you know, what type of services are you receiving? Because it could be two completely separate things. But let's say if they're already meeting with a therapist per se, we don't want to also be providing therapy services because we don't know what they're working on over there and all of that. So again, we just want to make sure that we discuss that with the client.
B, if a new client has been served by another agency or colleague, social workers should discuss with the client whether a consultation with the previous service provider is in the client's best interest. Because again, if they're already been meeting with somebody, another professional, especially if it's the same type of service, we want to discuss with the client like, hey, do you think it'd be beneficial if we discuss it with that other provider just so that we're all on the same page and we have a real understanding? So again, it's all to better serve the client. 3.07, administration, A.
Social work administrators should advocate within and outside their agencies for adequate resources to meet clients'needs. So advocate. Client's best interest is always at the top, and we want to advocate for what the clients need. B.
Social workers should advocate for resource allocation procedures that are open and fair. When not all clients'needs can be met, an allocation procedure should be developed that is non-discriminatory and based on appropriate and consistently applied principles. So essentially saying, you know, limitation on resources and everything. If that is the case, we want to come up with a way where we can fulfill the needs and provide those resources to the clients that need it most in a fair, appropriate way.
That's not discriminating against a group of clients for this reason and that reason. We just want to make sure the process is fair. See? Social workers who are administrators. should take reasonable steps to ensure that adequate agency or organizational resources are available to provide appropriate staff supervision.
So making sure that we have what we need to provide a certain level of service. D, social work administrators should take reasonable steps to ensure that the working environment for which they are responsible is consistent with and encourages compliance with the NASW code of ethics. Social work administrators should take reasonable steps to eliminate any conditions and their organizations that violate, interfere with, or discourage compliance with the code. So again, just because we're working with an agency or organization, we still adhere to the NASW Code of Ethics.
This is our blueprint, our guidebook to the profession as a whole. So whatever agency or organization we're a part of, we want to make sure that The social workers are adhering to the NASW code of ethics. 3.08, continuing education and staff development.
Social work administrators and supervisors should take reasonable steps to provide or arrange for continuing education and staff development for all staff for whom they are responsible. Continuing education and staff development should address current knowledge and emerging developments related to social work practice and ethics. So this is kind of going along with our CEUs, right, that we're required to maintain.
And also just any additional education where we want to continue to learn and grow. and stay current within the field of social work so that we can provide the best services possible to our clients. 3.09, commitments to employers.
A, social workers generally should adhere to commitments made to employers and employing organizations. B, social workers should work to improve employing agency policies and procedures and this efficiency and effectiveness of their services. So again, just always striving to improve.
growth. C, social workers should take reasonable steps to ensure that employers are aware of social workers'ethical obligations as set forth in the NASW Code of Ethics and of the implications of those obligations to social work practice. So we may find ourselves as social workers working in a settings where, let's say, they're not social workers and they may potentially have us want to do something that goes against. you know, the code of ethics in some area.
And we want to bring that to their attention to say like, hey, we're social workers. This is our ethical responsibility. This is the code of ethics that we adhere to.
D, social workers should not allow an employing organization's policies, procedures, regulations, or administrative orders to interfere with their ethical practice of social work. Social workers should take reasonable steps to ensure that their employing organizations practices are consistent with the NASW code of ethics. So again, not everywhere we're going to work at, you know, all of them are social workers, so they're all adhering to the NASW code of ethics. We want to be able to bring it to their attention, especially if any ethical dilemmas or anything that comes up that would go against the NASW code of ethics, which is again, our playbook, our guidebook to the profession as a whole.
E, social workers should act to prevent and eliminate discrimination and the employing. organization's work assignments and in its employment policies and practices. So again, the fairness across the board, if we notice something, we want to do our role and advocate for that change so that it's all fair and there's no discrimination or unfair treatment or anything like that going on. F, social workers should accept employment or arrange student field placements only in organizations that exercise fair personnel practices.
So again, we don't want to. subject any students or anything like that to a place that's not conducive to their learning and growth as a whole. G, social workers should be diligent stewards of the resources of their employing organizations, wisely conserving funds where appropriate, and never misappropriating funds or using them for unintended purposes. So, you know, we want to make sure that we're being ethical with the funds, making sure that, you know, we're promoting growth and not abusing or misusing any funds or anything like that for personal gain.
We want to make sure that everything that's being used is for the betterment of the organization and ultimately the clients. 3.10, labor management disputes. A, social workers may engage in organized action, including the formation of and participation in labor unions to improve services to clients and working conditions. So you Clients above all, right? They're saying like, yes, we can participate in these things, especially if it's for the benefit of the clients.
B, the actions of social workers who are involved in labor management disputes, job actions or labor strikes should be guided by the profession's values, ethical principles and ethical standards. Reasonable differences of opinion exist among social workers concerning their primary obligation as professionals during an actual or threatened labor strike. or job action, social workers should carefully examine relevant issues and their possible impact on clients before deciding on a course of action. So it's not perfect, right? There's the context matters.
There's so many different type of scenarios that could come up where if a group of social workers in an organization said like, we're going on strike because of X, Y, and Z reason. And think about how that can impact the clients. And again, this isn't saying right here, 3.10 labor management disputes. This isn't saying you absolutely can't do that or nothing like that. This is saying, just be mindful, take that how it's impacting the clients into account, keep the NASW code of ethics, our role, our responsibilities in account before we do any moves like that, which could impact the clients due to our actions.
Okay, tribe, that was it for today's video. Thank you for watching. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, and tell a social work friend because we don't want to be licensed by ourselves.
Okay tribe, I'll see you next video.