Boundary Issue in Social Work free essay sample

Boundary Issues in Social Work: Its implication for Social Workers Florida Atlantic University Boundary issues in social Work: It implication for social workers Reamer’s article entitled. â€Å"Boundary issues in social work: Managing dual relationships. † provides an overview of boundary issues in social work, and also stresses the fact that social work literature clearly demonstrates that ethical issues related to boundaries are among the most problematic and challenging (2003,p. 121). Consequently, for Social Workers, establishing a solid professional, ethical and consistent relationship with their clients must be their ultimate goal. Unfortunately, many find themselves in situations where their ethical and professional careers come into question, because of boundary issues. As defined by Reamer in his article, boundary issues occur when social workers face possible conflicts of interest in the form of what has become know as dual or multiple relationships (121). Social workers should not enter into dual relationship with their clients, because of the negative implications it can generate. This paper will discuss ethical issues that violate boundaries. Be it may social, emotion or professional relationship, for both social worker and clients when a social worker form a dual relationship with his/her clients, and create boundary issues. This relationship as stated by Reamer occurs when professionals engage with clients or social groups in more than one relationship, assumes a second role with a client, becoming social worker and friend, employer, teacher, and family member. The NASW Code of Ethics identifies core values (service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity and competence) on which social workers should base their professional relationships with their clients, and should be followed to ensure professionalism. As stated by Reamer, â€Å"Social Workers-be they clinical, community organizers, policy makers, supervisors, researchers, administrators, or educators, oftentimes come across circumstances that pose actual or potential boundary issues† (2003,p. 121). However, as a social worker, one has to be cognizant of the fact that in many cases he/she is highly esteemed by their clients and often privileged to confidential and personal information, which is sometimes not privilege to family members or even close friends. Therefore extra precaution should be taken to avoid using this information to exploit their clients. Social relationship The case study entitle â€Å"Ethics Case Study: Juan S,† gives a prime example of social relationship that violates boundaries. This case study gives details of a family who immigrated to America illegally from El Salvador. Unable to get assistance from the government because of their illegal status, Juan’s mother and brother worked menial jobs to try and make ends meet and there were times when Juan mother was not paid for her services. After noticing Juan’s behavior in class his teacher recommended him to a social worker. After visiting with Juan and his family, the social worker was privileged to other information about the family, including the fact that his mother was having a hard time with her present employer and needed better employment in order to make ends meet. Ultimately, the social worker acted upon information given by Juan’s family and decided that it would work in her benefit, as well as Juan and his family, if she hired Juan’s mother to take care of her own children. In addition she also states â€Å"the arrangement would also be beneficial because he would be spending time in an English-speaking environment, thus improving his ability to communicate in school, and her children would be learning Spanish in the home. Employing Juan’s mother, to work in his/her home is a clean violation of the code. This is so because the social worker not only takes on the role of employer, but also friend. Relationship like these can easily be exploited and render the social worker ineffective and clients, psychologically scared. The reason for this is Juan’s Mother, Sylvia, might not feel comfortable talking to her â€Å"boss†/social worker about issue that could be helpful to her son, for fear of losing her job and not receiving help, which is their only mode of financial support. In addition, the social worker might loose credibility with Juan and Sylvia because of situations observed while in the social workers home. On the other hand some might find this night not see anything wrong with helping out a family in need but Social Workers in general need to learn from this occurrence and endeavor to be always cognizant of the fact that their ability to show genuine compassion and acceptance may be misconstrued by others. Consequently, Social Workers should understand culture and its function in human behavior and society, because this could have played a part in this client’s decision. In many cultures rewarding hard work and dedication is seen as honorable. Since a social worker has the grueling and sometimes daunting task of addressing clients’ many problems, the client may perceive that the Social Worker should be compensated. Conversely, some gestures made by clients may be inadvertently encouraged by the Social Worker therefore engendering a boundary issue. NASW therefore cautions Social Workers to be alert and avoid conflicts of interest that interfere with the exercise of professional discretion and impartial judgment (1999). Social workers should inform clients when an issues or potential conflict arises and make reasonable effort to resolve the issue, even if it means referring a client to another social worker. For many clients and non Social Workers, termination of the professional relationship with clients and referring then to another Social Worker might seem uncaring. However, Social Workers are well aware of the fact that this practice is endorsed by the NASW (1999) as an effective way to avoid potential boundary and dual relationship issues from occurring. In reiterating points made earlier in this paper, clients develop a level of trust when conversing with Social Workers and thus are able to speak freely, and develop friendships with that someone who they may perceive as the only person who shows genuine understanding of their situation and display unconditional positive regard toward them. The above mentioned qualities serve to assist clients to connect with their social workers and divulge more information than they would to a family member or friend. The drawback or negative impact of this occurs when Social Workers take advantage of a client by allowing the professional relationship to progress to a personal level. This is interpreted by the NASW as misconduct and should be frowned on as unprofessional by all Social Workers. Unfortunately, sexual misconduct continues to afflict the field of Social work, and in my opinion continues to be another boundary issue of high importance. The NASW clearly states that Social Workers should not engage in sexual activities or sexual contact with clients, relatives or other individuals with whom clients maintain a close personal relationship, since there is a risk of exploitation or potential harm to the client (1999). Sexual activity or sexual contact as stated above has the potential to be harmful to the client and may make it difficult for the social worker and client to maintain appropriate professional boundaries, and should be avoided at all cost. Unfortunately, some might argue that we do not live in a perfect world, and feelings of a sexual nature can culminate eventually between worker and client. However, this does not alleviate the ethical and professional responsibility placed upon a Social Worker to become and remain proficient in professional practices, when providing service to their clients. Despite the fact that Reamer’s article gives examples of some nonsexual and appropriate behavior in some circumstances, for example, â€Å"a brief hug at the termination of long-term treatment or placing one’s arm around a distraught client in a residential program who just receive bad news† (2003, p. 128) These behaviors, as stated by Reamer, are very brief and will not likely be harmful to the client. However, social workers should be in constant awareness of their ethical and professional boundaries as they relate to their clients, and try to avoid any situation that would compromise their relationship. As stated by Hutchinson â€Å"it may be assumed that for every exploitive Social Worker, there is at least one sexually exploited client† (2005). In addition, nearly half (46. 3%) of the 147 responding Social Workers surveyed by Hutchinson (2005) reported that 177 client had disclosed sexual involvement with a therapist which includes Social workers. Reamer cites the fact that during a 20-year period, nearly one in five lawsuits (18. %) against social workers, insured through the malpractice insurance program sponsored by the NASW Insurance Trust, alleged some form of sexual impropriety, and more than two-fifths (41. 3%) of insurance payments were the result of claims concerning sexual misconduct (2003, p. 124). Unfortunately, sexual misconduct in service oriented professions continues to be a significant problem. Olarte (as cited in Reamer, 2003) reported a national data that suggest between 8. 0 percent and 12. 0 percent of males and 1. 7 percent and 3. percent of females in these professions, which include social workers, admit having had sexual relationships with current or former clients. (p. 124). In my opinion social workers should abide by the NASW’s (1999). ). This contains standards that prohibit benefiting from clients, financially, physically or socially, and doesn’t take into consideration issues that some might assume as â€Å"not as severe as others†. Social relationship as stated by Reamer in his article is not as exploitive in nature, as social workers’ sexual involvement with clients. Reamer (2003) cites a recent empirical survey of a statewide sample of clinical social workers that uncovered substantial disagreement concerning the suitability of their behavior when dealing with clients, such as developing friendships with their clients; participating in social activities with clients; serving on community boards with clients; providing clients with one’s home telephone number; accepting goods and services from clients instead of money (p. 128). However, some social relationships that are not kept at a professional and ethical level can easily lead to boundary issues. This is so because social workers in their effort to communicate with their clients on these levels may inadvertently disclose a personal problem, which in turn can hinder their professional opinion and disregard the interest of their clients. As stated by Reamer, â€Å"this can be both helpful and harmful to the same client. Helpful in that the client feels more connected to the social worker and harmful in that the self-disclosure undermines the client’s confidence in the social worker† (2003, p. 123). The above ethics case shows how social relationship, no matter how well intended can create boundary issues and eventually leads to Dual relationship. This is so because she was not only seeing Juan on a professional level, for which she is being paid, but she was benefiting from service rendered by Juan and his mother. In other words, despite the fact that social relationships might not be consider as severe as the other boundary issues, such as financial gain and sexual misconduct, one should not minimized the potential implication that can arise from these relationships. In conclusion, it is observed that issues of boundaries and Dual relationships continue to be problematic and challenging for many social workers. Consequently, social worker must be cognizant of the fact that the NASW code of ethics, which identifies core values on which social worker should base their professional relationships, should be of utmost importance in their every day communication with their clients. As identified, some boundary issues can have serious implication for social workers as well as clients and should not be violated. The NASW demonstrates the ethical and professional expectations of social workers, and guide their relationships, as tempting as these relationships can be, social workers should always keep in mind their ethical and professional responsibility to their client.