Running head: VALUES PAPER

Values Paper
SW 3010
October 14th 2013
Amanda Cummings
FJ4309

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Values Paper
Professional ethics are at the core of social work. The
profession has an obligation to articulate its basic values, ethical
principles and standards. The NASW Code of Ethics sets forth these
values, principles, and standards to guide the social worker with
decision-making and conduct when ethical issues arise throughout
their career. The Code is relevant to all social workers and social
work students, regardless of their professional functions, the
settings in which they work, or the populations they serve
(Socialworkers.org, 2013). In this paper I will describe my values as
they relate to the NASW Code of Ethics.
I believe the NASW Code of Ethics is a wonderful source and
many of my values relate to it. Growing up in the church with a
religious family has definitely played a big part in helping shape my
values which supports my belief in the social work values described
in the texts and the NASW Code of Ethics. What the church taught
about the way you treat people relates to what the text and NASW
Code of Ethics says about how you should treat clients. We worked
with integrity and helped in soup kitchens and provided resources to
help those in need that were not only in our community but also in
other countries. A few values I hold dear to include respect, the
importance of my relationships with others, serving others to make

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a difference, and making sure that everything I do is done with
integrity. These important values of mine are congruent with some
of the core values embraced in the NASW Code of Ethics. The core
values expressed in the NASW include service, social justice, dignity
and worth of the person, importance of human relationships,
integrity and competence.
One value that I dont have a lot of experience with is ethnical
responsibility to the client in the area of cultural competence and
social diversity. I have not had a lot of experience with different
cultures and diversities thus far. Although I respect all people from
different ethnic cultures, I havent thought of it enough to be much
of a value of mine in the past. According to the NASW Code of
Ethics it is an important value to have because many clients you
serve are from all different cultures and you should value that in
order to best service them. I believe I will develop this value
through my schooling because I will learn more about different
cultures and begin to value that. One value that I see as helpful as I
practice social work is serving others to make a difference. I believe
this is especially helpful in this practice because a social workers
primary goal is to help people in need and to address their problems
to promote social justice and social change on behalf of the clients.
Respect would also be another good one as I practice social work
because when you have respect for a person it shows you truly

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want to help them and that person feels important no matter what
situation they find themselves in.
At this point I believe I would have the most difficult time
serving the juvenile population. This would be the most difficult for
me to serve right now because I feel that a lot of the characteristics
of juveniles would be difficult for me to come against. My
experience talking to my cousin, who was in a juvenile home for a
short time, really helped me come to this conclusion. Not being
able to relate to these individuals makes it a lot harder to connect
with them and this is a huge factor in the reasoning of why I would
have a hard time serving this population. From what I know about
this population I feel this is an important part in helping juveniles
because they have a very hard attitude and think that you will not
even begin to know how to help them if you do not know the kind of
life they live.
Positive regard is a key ingredient for promoting change in
any client, particularly with challenging youth. I would display this
by showing acceptance and support of the individual in the juvenile
population regardless of what they say or do. It may help them
accept and take responsibility for themselves by showing them this
and staying positive. I feel that this population does not get much
positivity so the change may be refreshing for them and help them

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be more willing to be corporative. I can only think of positive ways
my spiritual belief would help rather than be a barrier in serving this
population. My spiritual belief is simply just to love people and not
cast judgments on any individual so I would say that helps serve
any population. In order to be non-judgmental when assisting this
population the main thing I would do is show that I was sympathetic
to how they were feeling. I would show sympathy by asking
questions to try to get an idea of the individuals pain and respond
with comforting and positive comments. I would also make it a
point to not jump to conclusions with what they are being accused
of but instead really listen to where they are coming from and how
they feel about the situation.
If I believed that I was not making reasonable progress with a
client and felt they needed additional service I would refer them to
another professional who had the knowledge and expertise to fully
serve this individual. I would seek the referral of other services in
relation to the clients needs and preferences. I would then notify
the client promptly to explain that I would like what is best for them
and inform them on what another social worker can help them with
better than what I am able to do. Two ethical codes as stated in the
NASW Code of Ethics that could better help me serve this
population would be self-determination and competence. I would
demonstrate self-determination by assisting my client in their

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efforts to identify and clarify their goals. Talking to the client about
their interests and developing those interests into goals helps them
identify what their goals may be. You can help clarify them by
writing out a goal chart so they have a visual of what they want to
accomplish. I would demonstrate competence by doing all my
research and representing myself as competent in my professional
experience. Showing a client that you are well qualified can have a
great affect on their attitude and their trust towards you. I would
like to show these clients that I did my research and found the best
resources and ways to best serve them.
This assignment has affected my decision to be a social
worker in a positive way because it made me even more positive
that this is the field I want to go into. The most important values
that I have relate to what a social worker should value and that
motivates me to want to be the best one I can be. I realize there
are definitely some areas that I need to work on and other areas I
should go in more dept to research and think about. I need to go
more in depth about cultures and do my research for those
differences the other cultures may have and their values. I also
need to work on dealing with people who have a very hard juvenile
attitude and try to develop strategies on how to go about working
with them. For the future I plan to embrace the NASW Code of

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Ethics because it is a great tool to go back to for remembering the
values and ethical codes of social work.
In conclusion, professional ethics play a very important part in
social work and as a professional you need to show your ability of
basic values, principles, and standards. A key factor in doing this is
to follow the NASW Code of Ethics throughout your career. In this
paper I described my values and how they related to the NASW
Code of Ethics and details of why it is important to me.

References
Cummings, A. (2013). Values Paper. Unpublished manuscript,
Wayne State

University.

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Socialworkers.org. 2013. Code of Ethics (English and Spanish).
[online] Available

at:

http://www.socialworkers.org/pubs/code/code.asp [Accessed: 9 Oct

2013].