Transcript Ethics_Chapter_13

Ethical Issues in Community
Work
Chapter Thirteen
Introduction
 What occurs in one part of the system
affects all parts of the system to some
degree.
 The community mental health movement
took the family systems perspective a step
further and holds that the entire
community is the best focus of treatment.
 Feminist therapy also addresses the need
to consider the social and cultural context.
Introduction continued
 There is an ethical concern if community
workers ignore community needs.
 The traditional approach to understanding
and treating human problems focuses on
resolution of internal conflicts as a pathway
to individual change.
 The community approach focuses on ways
of changing the environmental factors
causing individual problems.
Introduction continued
 The community mental health perspective
is relevant to all communities, but it is
particularly relevant to underserved
communities.
 If practitioners are limited in their ability to
adapt their roles to the needs of the
community, they are not likely to be
effective in reaching those who most need
assistance.
Ethical Practice in Community
Work
 It is left to community workers to identify
strategies for becoming more responsive to
the community.
 According to Hardina (2004), the ethical
principles for social workers outlined in the
code of ethics do not begin to cover many
of the practical situations community
workers encounter.
 One of the primary objectives of community
practice is constituency self-determination.
The Community Mental Health
Orientation
 The focus is on preventing rather than
curing problems in community work.
 Community counseling is a “a
comprehensive helping framework of
intervention strategies and services that
promotes the personal development and
well-being of all individuals and
communities” (Lewis, Lewis, Daniels, &
D’Andrea, 2003, p.6).
 They describe the activities that make up a
comprehensive community counseling model as
including: (1) direct client services, (2) indirect client
services, (3) direct community services, and (4)
indirect community services.
The Community Mental Health
Orientation continued
 Direct client services focus on
outreach activities to a population
that might be at risk for developing
mental health problems.
 Indirect client services consist of
client advocacy and consultation,
which involves active intervention for
and with an individual or a group.
The Community Mental Health
Orientation continued
 Direct community services in the form of
preventive education are geared to the
population at large and include life planning
workshops, value clarification seminars,
interpersonal skills training, marriage
education, and teaching parents about their
legal rights and responsibilities.
 The focus of preventive programs is on teaching
effective living and problem-solving
competencies.
The Community Mental Health
Orientation continued
 Indirect community services are
attempts to change the social
environment to meet the needs of the
population as a whole and are carried
out by influencing public policy.
Alternative Counselor Roles
 Some writers have criticized conventional
approaches to therapy because they place
undue responsibility on the client for his or
her plight.
 Community-oriented counseling emphasizes
the necessity for recognizing and dealing
with environmental conditions that often
create problems for ethnically diverse client
groups.
Alternative Counselor Roles
continued
 Mental health practitioners especially need
to function as advocates for clients who
are low in acculturation and who need
remediation of a problem that results from
discrimination and oppression.
 Counselors in the role of change agents
assist clients in recognizing oppressive
forces in the community as a source of
their problem and they also teach clients
strategies for dealing with these
environmental problems.
Alternative Counselor Roles
continued
 Counselors operating as consultants
encourage ethnic minority clients to
learn skills they can use to interact
successfully with various forces within
their community.
 The counselor as advisor initiates
discussions with clients about ways to
deal with environmental problems
that contribute to their personal
problems.
Alternative Counselor Roles
continued
 A counselor operating as a facilitator of
indigenous support systems encourages
ethnically diverse clients to turn to social
support systems within their own
communities.
 A counselor operating as a facilitator of
indigenous healing systems learns what
kinds of healing resources exist within a
client’s culture, especially with clients from
cultures that may mistrust Western mental
health approaches.
Some Tasks of Community
Counseling
 Please see page 494 in our text for an
exhaustive list of duties for
community counseling practitioners.
Educating the Community
 One of the major barriers to clients not
making use of social and psychological
services is that access to these services is
confusing and sometimes humiliating.
 One goal of the community approach is to
educate the public and attempt to change
the attitudes of the community about
mental health and the attitudes of those
who deliver mental health services.
Influencing Policymakers
 One way community workers can
initiate change is by organizing within
an agency or even several agencies
and developing a collective voice.
 Practitioners can empower a
community to organize political action
to influence the state and national
government to fulfill their
responsibilities.
Culturally Competent Practice
Principles
 Be willing to examine your assumptions and
personal values.
 In an agency, bring together an ethnically
diverse staff and board.
 Develop and maintain positive relationships
with key people in the community.
 Ask community members about their
perceptions of what is needed in the
community.
 Bring community members and agency
staff together in genuine dialogue.
Culturally Competent Practice
Principles continued
 Design a program based on the
community’s definition of their needs.
 In implementing a program, be sensitive to
the pace of the community.
 Advocate for the needs of the community
and serve as a bridge between cultural
groups.
 Translate the progress of the community in
terms that the funders of the project will
understand.
Promoting Change in the
Community
 Some questions to ask yourself include:
 Does the project build skills of community
members?
 Does the project produce new leaders and new
teachers?
 What processes are in place to transfer
ownership to the members of the community?
 Does the project produce new community
resources that can exist apart from the project
or after the intended life of the project?
 Do the benefits or resources created by the
project in turn create new benefits or resources?
Are you ready to involve
yourself in the community?
 How would you go about learning
what it takes to become an effective
agent for change in the community?
 What skills do you already have that
can be applied to community change?
 What is the most essential skill you
need to acquire?
Are you ready to involve
yourself in the community?
(continued)
 What fears or concerns do you have
of working in the community?
 How would you translate your ideas
into a practical set of strategies
aimed at community change?
 How aware are you of your beliefs
and attitudes toward the people you
serve, and how might this affect the
way you work?
Working Within a System
 Working in a system can put an added
strain on the counselor due to several
factors:
 The amount of paperwork required to justify
continued funding,
 High caseloads, and
 A multitude of policy directives.
 Another source of strain is the counselor’s
relationships with those who administer the
agency or institution, who may have long
forgotten the practicalities involved in
providing direct services to clients.
Working Within a System
continued
 On the other hand, practitioners who
deal with clients directly may have
little appreciation for the intricacies
with which administrators must
contend in managing and funding
their programs.
Case Management in a
Community Setting
 Case management involves planning and
coordinating approaches to treatment.
 The overall goal of case management is to
promote, restore, or maintain the
independent functioning of clients in the
least-restrictive community environment.
 It is important that the case manager NOT
ignore client advocacy responsibilities in the
interest of time and job security.
Case Management in a
Community Setting continued
 A particularly challenging issue
involves the level of cooperation and
collaboration between human-service
agencies.
 Nowhere today is the application of
the case management system of
human-service delivery more
pronounced than in health
maintenance organizations (HMOs).
Maintaining Integrity in an
Agency Environment
 One’s ATTITIDE might be the first
place to examine.
 Blaming others does NOT effect
change.
 Focusing on the things that can be
changed fosters a sense of personal
power that may allow for progress.
Maintaining Integrity in an
Agency Environment continued
 Recognizing the need for action is the
first step toward responding to
unacceptable circumstances.
 Creating and participating in support
groups might help those working in
an agency to find ways to collectively
address problems in the system of
which they are a part.
Relationships between
Community Worker & Agency
 The ethical violations in a community
are more complex and difficult to
resolve than violations pertaining to
individual counseling.
 Correcting an abuse that may be
systemwide demands the willingness
of those involved in the system to
practice aspirational ethics and take
action.
Relationships between
Community Worker & Agency
 In addition to their degrees, training, and
professional competencies, human service
workers need to learn how to best deal with
the rules and regulations of their agency.
 You should study an agency’s philosophy
before you accept a position, and
determine whether the agency’s norms,
values, and expectations coincide with what
you expect from the position.