2.1.

2 Apply social work ethical principles to guide professional

practice
Practice Behaviors:
Recognize and manage personal values in a way that allows professional
values to guide practice
Make ethical decisions by applying standards of the NASW Code of
Ethics; tolerate ambiguity in resolving conflicts; apply concepts of ethical
reasoning to arrive at principled decisions
SW3010
Values
In practice methods I (SW3010), I wrote this paper about values. I reflected on my
personal values and those of the social work practice. I review the NASW code of ethics and
compare the ethical standards and values to that of the ones I possess and those that I wish to
gain through my journey in my social work education.
Some of my personal values that I discuss in this paper are that of my honestly and
empathy. I discuss how these values can be helpful and important for a social worker to possess.
These are also important qualitys for a social worker to have in order to build rapport with their
clients. I also discuss my ability to be open and accepting of others in many walks of life. This is
extremely important for a social worker as our devotion is to helping others. I explain these
values in depth when I reflect back on a story about a student that I worked with and I grew as I
taught her. The student and I had obvious barriers when we met and, as I worked closely with
this student I learned various techniques and knowledge. I was able to help the student excel by
understanding her barriers, capabilities and needs.
In this paper I also explain a population that I believe I would have a particularly difficult
time working with. This population was those who are in jail or involved in the justice system.
This is due to unethical standards that are portrayed on the justice system population, and my
lack of knowledge of this system. My values and my beliefs about this population however
make my interested in expanding my knowledge about this aspect of social work. This paper was
great for helping me grow in my knowledge of the NSAW code of ethics as well as helping me to
reflect on the knowledge I already had pertained.

Values
SW 3010
Kayli Sheehan
EK7956

Values Paper

As relating to the NASW Code of ethics I notice that some of my already

gained values are corresponding with that of the ethical principles and standards,
and there are others that I am yet to possess. I value the principals of the
importance of human relationships. Having strong healthy relationships is important
for each person. Having someone to support you, someone to talk to or someone
that you can service makes everyone better-rounded. I believe that it is crucial to a
persons mental stability and success, but it is also important to know how to
maintain these relationships. As a social worker I would like to learn and teach
others appropriate and effective ways of communication and maintain human

relationships.

An ethical responsibility that I have not fully learned yet is

competence, in my classes and in field experience I will be learning about the

techniques, and ways to assist my clients. It will be implementing these new skills
through practice. Learning to be competent in my job to better assist my clients and
my coworkers.

Some of my values that I see as especially helpful to me as I practice social

work is that I value honesty. For me to be able to help my clients and for them to be
able to trust is very important. This is also important for the worker client
relationship if they feel like Im being honest with them, they will be more honest
with me as well. Its important for me that my clients know that I am someone that
they can rely on, and I would show them this by being honest and open with them. I
also value the feelings of others, I practice empathy on a daily basis and I think this
is a tremendous characteristic of a social worker. I think that my ability to be
accepting of other people, no matter how different they may be from me is a great
value I possess. As a social worker it is important to not only accept but embarrass
the differences your client and you may have. To be open to learning new things
and for your client to know that so that they may feel comfortable with you it
important as well.
One experience that I have had was when I worked in a classroom with
students who were emotionally and cognitively impaired, I worked one on one with
a student who was deaf. She had severe cognitive and behavioral disabilities as
well. So working with her was sometimes a struggle. We would have trouble
communicating and that frustrated her. When she couldnt express her feelings,

need or wants she would become angry and would often become physical or
verbally aggressive. She and I would work together each day to learn appropriate
ways to communicate and express our feelings. We developed techniques and plans
in order to help her succeed not only as a student but as a young lady in her
growing body. For example I would think of new and creative ways to teach her, for
example when I taught her spelling this in return taught me sign language. I would
read her social stories to teach her how to socialize and what to expect from her
growing body. She enjoyed various physical sensory breaks, she loved to run this
would help release her anxiety in between school subjects As she grew and learned
so did I. working with her helped me grow as a social worker, as I learned to
communicate with her, I learned how to make her comfortable with me and how to
trust me. When I first started working with this student I was very uncomfortable
with the level of difficulty that I perceived it to be, but within a few days I was
excited for the new challenge and our progress was very rewarding . I like to think
that I made a difference in her life, even if it was only for one year.

I think that I would have a difficult time serving convicted felons especially
males. I think that this was be a challenge for me mostly because I have very
minimal knowledge of how to service this population. I do not have any experience
with this population, and I think that this would be very difficult based on an ethical
and personal values stand point. I think that maintaining a professional demeanor
and an open mind when knowing the choices that some of these men have made to
place them in this situation would be difficult. Although I think as a social worker it
would be extremely important to remember to maintain the same accepting
demeanor as I would with any client. I think that I would also feel uncomfortable

with Male convicts because I am a women and I feel sometimes that men with a
criminal background can tend to disrespect women. This is also a statistic that is not
true for each person in prison and it would be another struggle I would have to
overcome when working with this population.
I think a reason why I feel uncomfortable with this population is due to things
that I have heard, from people that work with these individuals. I have associates
that are police officers in both Oakland and Wayne County, and they have told me
stories that shocked me about the actions of some people they have come across in
their careers. I also believe a large part of my feelings toward this demographic are
in regards to the media, the news, TV shows and movies. Some of these are true
stories and others are situations that are exaggerated for entertainments sake. I
also had some experience working with young children who committed crimes,
when I worked in a day treatment program with behaviorally and cognitively
impaired students. Although these children were too young to actually be convicted
of any crimes, a few of them had actually committed serious crimes and displayed
aggressive, and inappropriate behaviors. I always would try and imagine how this
children might turn out if our efforts were not successful to teach them appropriate
behaviors and coping strategies.
When it comes to my spiritual beliefs I am a Christian and I believe that it is
important to respect and love others. I also value my morals and, feel that in certain
situations it would be difficult to relate to a person who committed crimes that
would jeopardize my own beliefs. I also know that as a social worker it is important
to keep our person judgments to ourselves. I know that even though I would be able
to put my thoughts aside to service those of my clients that it would be a struggle
and something to learn through.

Working with this population would raise mya knowledge of this population
and I would learn about my client in order to connect with them and their situation.
In order to properly serve my client through my adversity I would remain respectful
and open minded. One of the values from the NASW Code of Ethics that would help
me with this would be dignity and worth of a person. This would help me to resolves
my clients issues being mindful of societys norms and my professional ethics but
also to remember my clients values and respect for them. An ethical responsibility
from the code of ethics that would assist me in working with this population would
be conflicts of interest. If I had a client whose choices conflicted with my personal
beliefs this would be an important Code to remember, to not treat my client unfairly
in any situation, regardless of my cultural, personal or religious beliefs. I could also
you the Code of Social welfare, to remind me of my goal. To advocate for my client
no matter the circumstance and ultimately achieve social justice for them. Using
these Values, codes and more will help me better assist any type of population that I
work with as well as those that I may feel uncomfortable with.
If I was working with this population or a client that I felt could be better
serviced by another social worker, I could respectfully suggest that this other worker
may be better equipped to help them. The other worker may have more experience
with their situation or have more skills to better assist what the client is going
through. The new social worker may have more time to spend with them or may
have a more flexible schedule for this client. I would remind the client that I would
be more than happy to help them and that this would only be in their best interest
because I want to see them succeed.
After reading through the NASW code of ethics more thorough and really
examining some of my strengths and weaknesses with these codes and my values, I

has be made clear to me that becoming a social worker really is my passion. I love
the experiences Ive had and the things that I have learned this far in my life and
career as a social worker. Im excited to make me memories and to learn so many
new things as I continue. My passion is to help people and to achieve social justice
for others. My empathetic, open minded and desire to learn will help me as I grow in
the social worker that I want to be.