The impact of political conflict on social work

Running head : The Impact of Political Conflict on Social Work

The Impact of Political Conflict on Social Work

[The name of the writer appears here]

[The name of institution appears here]

Introduction

Social work is deeply rooted in a fundamental set of values that ultimately shapes the profession 's mission and its practitioners priorities . As the social worker one would be concerned about several key values , including a person 's right to self-determination the obligation to protect from harm the obligation to obey the law and the right to self-protection

p Ideally , the social worker would act in accord with all these values simultaneously . What social worker would not want to respect clients right to self-determination , protect clients from harm , obey the law and protect her or himself ? The problem , however , is that situations sometimes arise in social work in which core values in the profession conflict , and this leads to political dilemmas

In to explore fully the nature of contemporary values , political issues , conflicts and ethics in social work , it is important to understand the historical evolution of thinking in the field with respect to the profession 's value base , political dilemmas in practice political decision making in social work , and practitioner malpractice and misconduct . The social work profession 's grasp of key values and political issues has matured considerably in recent years . In fact , most of the profession 's scholarship on this subject has been published since the early 1980s . theless , the general s of values and ethics have been central to social work since its formal inception . Historical accounts of the profession 's development routinely focus on the compelling importance of social work 's value base and principles . Over the years , beliefs about social work 's values and ethics have served as the foundation for the profession 's mission

Social work is , after all , a normative profession , perhaps the most normative of the so-called helping professions . In contrast to professions such as psychiatry , psychology , and counseling , social work 's historical roots are firmly grounded in concepts such as justice and fairness . Throughout its history , social work 's mission has been anchored primarily , although not exclusively , by conceptions of what is just and unjust and by a collective belief about what individuals in a society have a right to and owe to one another

Although the theme of values and ethics has endured in the profession social workers ' conceptions of what these terms mean and of their influence on practice have changed over time . The evolution of social work values and ethics has had several key stages (Reamer , 1998 . The first stage began in the late nineteenth century , when social work was formally inaugurated as a profession . During this period social work was much more concerned about the morality of the client than about the morality or ethics of the profession or its practitioners . Organizing relief and responding to the curse of pauperism ' were the profession 's principal missions . This preoccupation often took the form of paternalistic attempts...