A reflection on an ethical dilemma: A student writing example
The incident for analysis centres on an ethical dilemma I found myself in when
trying to reconcile conflicting professional roles. As a professional I must focus on
the rights and welfare of my client – while realising my duty of care towards his
grandchild and the wider community.
The focus of my work with Matthew is to attempt to change his thinking and
behaviour and to help him accept some personal responsibility for his drinking
and associated violence. Matthew has informal parenting responsibilities for his
young grandchild. The violent nature of recent incidents, coupled with his outright
denial of accountability, gave me cause for concern about the safety of the
grandchild.
I recognised that my child protection concerns had to be acted upon. What did
not sit well with me was formalising my concerns under the heading of a
‘parenting assessment’ as I felt that in some way I was breaching the trust and
confidentiality of my client. If I told him that I was doing a formal parenting
assessment, it would damage our trust relationship, if I didn’t I would be
dishonest which goes against my values and the spirit of our contract.
Trotter (1999) says that it is the relationship between worker and client that is the
main route to change. I felt that up until this point we enjoyed a very open,
transparent relationship and that the client was party to the information held
about him. My concerns stemmed from feelings that the parenting assessment
did not follow a similar pattern. Although I had discussed aspects of his situation
and advised him that I had a responsibility towards his grandchild, I was not
convinced that he fully realised the implications of me raising my concerns via an
assessment report. Carl Rodgers (1967) suggested that it was important in a
therapeutic relationship to work in an atmosphere of trust and confidentiality in
what he described ‘unconditional positive regard’. This would suggest that my
client’s offence should not be the main aspect of our interaction although the
Child Protection concerns seemed to override this theory.
I recognised that during this encounter, I had experienced the tension of the
social work role of care versus control. I had been simultaneously placed in the
position of being the agent for ‘policing’ the welfare of the child whilst also being
the agent responsible for the change in behaviour of my client.
I have learned through this encounter that although it is easy to read around
theoretical perspectives and reasoning regarding a course of action, it is much
more difficult to stay focused when you are involved directly with the individuals
concerned. On reflection, I felt that by passing a value judgement about an
individual’s ability to parent, this was in direct conflict with my Social Work values
of respecting an individual and a client’s right to confidentiality.
The experience has undoubtedly increased my awareness that I have multiple
responsibilities as a SW which includes counselling and policing as well as
having a care management responsibility for clients. This does not always mean
simply for the client but can extent to include children & family responsibility also.
A failure to act on these responsibilities would not only impact my professionalism
and credibility as a worker but could also have far-reaching consequences for the
child and its family.
Moira Dunworth Sept 2009 with thanks to the student who wrote this.