SW 100 - Week 4: Social Work Ethics

Practice vocabulary flashcards covering key periods in social work ethics history, ethical theories, CASW core values, and supporting ethical practice from the SW 100 lecture.

The Morality Period

The historical era in the early 20th century when social work was first considered a profession, individual issues were viewed as moral failings, and workers evaluated clients' decision-making rather than examining their own ethics.

The Values Period

The historical era beginning in the early 1950s when social workers began examining professional identity, reflecting on personal values and their impact on practice, and drafting initial ethical guidelines.

The Ethical Theory and Decision-Making Period

The historical era in the 1970s prompted by controversial medical advances, rights-based language, and increased focus on social justice and power inequity, leading to the adoption of utilitarian and deontological theories.

Utilitarian theories

Ethical frameworks asserting that actions are judged as right or wrong based on their outcome.

Deontological theories

Ethical frameworks asserting that actions are inherently right or wrong, regardless of their outcome.

The Ethical Standards and Risk Management Period

The present era starting in the 1990s, characterized by formalized ethical standards, clinician accountability, and an understanding that ethical rules must continuously evolve with social and cultural shifts.

Social Justice in Social Work

A central value that sets social work apart from other professions by identifying social and political action as an integral component of professional responsibility.

CASW Code of Ethics (2024)

The guiding document established by the Canadian Association of Social Workers that serves as the foundation for ethical social work practice across Canada, where all values, principles, and guidelines hold equal importance.

Seven Core Values of the CASW Code of Ethics

The 2024 CASW foundational principles: respecting dignity and worth, promoting social justice, pursuing truth and reconciliation, valuing human relationships, preserving integrity, maintaining privacy and confidentiality, and providing competent professional services.

Code of Ethics

A professional roadmap and set of shared priorities that clinicians consult for guidance and sound judgment when confronting biases, judgments, and personal value conflicts.

Ethical Practice Supports

Strategies used to resolve ethical dilemmas and mitigate risk, including defining the problem, recognizing biases, seeking supervision or consultation, practicing self-care, and monitoring moral distress and burnout.

Tensions and Criticisms in Social Work Ethics

Structural challenges in social work practice, such as upholding social justice within systems that inflict institutional harm, navigating emerging technologies, and interpreting vague, non-prescriptive ethical standards.