HIGHER DIPLOMA IN SOCIAL WORK

HSW 113
SOCIAL WORK SKILLS
LABORATORY
Lecturer
2
 LECTURE 2
Professional values and code of ethics for social
workers in case work settings
One hopes that we all aspire to provide
high-quality services that are RESPECTFUL
OF THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE with whom
we work.

But how do we know what the standards

are?
 Mental health professionals have been very concerned
with issues of ethics because of the potential for harm.
 Thus, most helping professions (e.g., counseling,
medicine, nursing, psychology, social work) have
developed ethical codes that are intended to protect both
the practitioners and the clients.
 These codes describe the underlying ethical principles to
which professionals aspire in making their decisions,
especially in terms of acting in a responsible manner,
ensuring quality client care, and contributing to society
through their work.
Ethics are ...

 principles and standards that ensure that

professionals
 provide quality services
 Be respectful of the rights of the people with whom
they work
 Acting in an ethical manner also
 Involves following the laws and rules governing one’s
profession
General Ethical Principles
Beneficenc Non-
Autonomy -
right to make e - intent "to do maleficence
choices and take good" by helping
非惡意 - "Above
actions and promoting
growth all, do no harm"

Justice - Fidelity 忠誠 -
fairness or keeping Veracity 真實性
ensuring promises and - telling the
equality of being truth
opportunities trustworthy
Ethical Issues for Beginning Helpers

 Confidentiality  Be aware of your values

 Recognizing limits  Ethical behavior related
 Educating clients about to culture
the helping process  Act in a virtuous 合乎道德
 Developing appropriate manner
boundaries  Take care of yourself to
 Focusing on the needs of ensure that you can care
the client for others
 Avoid harmful dual
relationships
 CONFIDENTIALITY

It is important that helpers the success of the

respect a client’s confidentiality helping relationship
by not divulging 洩露 information depends on the client’s
shared in the helping session, ability to trust that
except in limited circumstances
information shared with
the helper will be kept
confidential
There are a few limits to confidentiality
 you need to be able to talk about your clients with
supervisors so that you can learn from your errors and
grow as a helper
 if the client reveals to you plans to harm self or others,
you may be legally obligated to report this threat to the
appropriate authorities
 if the client reveals the occurrence of abuse of children,
elderly persons, or disabled persons, you may be
legally obligated to report such abuse to the
appropriate authorities
強制舉報虐兒條例三讀通過 16 個月後生效（ 2024 年 9 月）
RECOGNIZING LIMITS
 It is critical that helpers recognize and practice only within
the areas for which they have been trained and are
competent
 In a related vein, as a helper, you need to be honest
about your qualifications
 Furthermore, beginning helpers should consult with
supervisors to enable them to best serve their clients
 When one’s own issues threaten to interfere with the
helping process, helpers need to consult supervisors
EDUCATING CLIENTS ABOUT THE HELPING PROCESS

 Clients have a right to understand the nature of the helping

relationship
 If helpers explain their theoretical orientation in simple, clear
terms, clients can make an informed decision about whether or
not to participate in the process.
 Beginning helpers must also inform clients about the limits of
confidentiality and their status as helpers
 Furthermore, clients have the right to understand what
outcomes can be expected. Here it is important not to promise
anything that you cannot necessarily deliver.
DEVELOPING APPROPRIATE BOUNDARIES
 Helpers need to think about boundaries, or the
ground rules and limits of the helping relationship
 Boundaries can be about the structure of helping or
about the interpersonal nature of the interaction.
 Helpers need to clarify the rules about confidentiality,
the length of helping, and any fees involved.
 Helpers typically choose to avoid involvement in
social activities with clients outside of sessions.
FOCUSING ON THE NEEDS OF THE CLIENT
 At times, the needs of the helper may conflict with the needs
of the client
 For example, Peter (the helper) may be preoccupied during a
session because he needs to study for an exam. Peter may have a
difficult time focusing on the client (e.g., listening, giving eye
contact) and may even hope to end the session (early to study)
 An interesting situation results when the client’s unresolved
issues result in behaviors that benefit the helper
 It might be in the best interest of the client to assist her in
viewing herself as valuable in relationships, independent of the
gifts she presents to others.
AVOID HARMFUL DUAL RELATIONSHIPS

 A potentially harmful dual relationship occurs when

someone in power (e.g., a helper, professor,
supervisor) adds another role to his or her interaction
with a less powerful individual (e.g., a client, student,
supervisee) because the dual relationship may lead to
the harm or exploitation of the less powerful person.
 Helpers also should avoid getting into the role of being
a therapist with friends or family members.
BE AWARE OF YOUR VALUES

 Empirical literature has shown that helpers’ values

influence clients (e.g., Beutler & Bergan, 1991), so
helpers need to be aware of this influence of values and
beliefs in their interactions with clients
 The influence of values in helping can be subtle 微妙的 .
Helpers can influence the direction of sessions and
clients’ selection of actions through nonverbal behavior
of which they are unaware, such as smiling or nodding
their heads at particular moments.
ETHICAL BEHAVIOR RELATED TO CULTURE

 Ethical behavior mandates 授權 that helpers be

mindful of differences among individuals and use
basic helping skills that reflect an understanding of
the people with whom they are working
ACT IN A VIRTUOUS MANNER

 Professionals concerned with ethical behaviors have begun

to move from a focus on behaving in an ethical manner (i.e.,
following the guidelines delineated in an ethical code) to
behaving in a virtuous manner
 Virtues 美德 are not as concerned with laws and rules as much
as with striving to be a person of positive moral character
 Helpers need to behave with clients in a caring and
respectful manner that is consistent with acting in a virtuous
manner
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF TO ENSURE THAT YOU CAN
CARE FOR OTHERS

 Helping can be an exhausting enterprise that

requires helpers to give much of themselves to
others.
 The fastest road to burnout involves taking care of
others without paying attention to relaxation and
caring for one’s own needs.
Working Through an Ethical Dilemma (ABCDE)

A: Assessment
B: Benefit
C: Consequences and Consultation
D: Duty and Documentation
E: Education
Case Example
 A client discloses to a helper that she was raped by an
acquaintance 熟人 the previous night.
 The helper in this case is a beginning helper who feels
outraged 憤怒 by the crime and wants to call the police
immediately.
 The client, however, is concerned about her boyfriend
finding out and definitely does not want the rape to be
reported.
 The helper realizes that this is not a situation in which
he is legally required to break confidentiality and report
the rape, but instead is an ethical dilemma between
reporting a crime against the client’s wishes and
maintaining confidentiality
ASSESSMENT

 The helper identifies

 the situation;
 the client’s status and resources;
 and the helper’s values, feelings, and reactions
to the situation.
 In this case, the helper notes that the client is a well-
adjusted, bright, and competent young woman who is
finishing her 4th year in college, majoring in business
administration.
 She reports having a good relationship with her boyfriend.
 Two close friends have promised to support her through
her recovery from the rape, and she has indicated an
interest in attending a rape survivors’ group.
 The helper, however, feels strongly that the rapist should
be punished for what he did to the client.
BENEFIT

 The helper evaluates what is most likely to benefit

the client, the helping relationship, and the client’s
significant others.
 As with many ethical dilemmas, different benefits
are present for several possible solutions
 In this case, the helper believes that disclosure of
the rape to the police and subsequent prosecution of
the rapist could benefit the client, her boyfriend, and
possible future victims.
 However, he also acknowledges that the client
believes that she would be helped most by
discussing the rape with her helper, her best friends,
and a rape survivors’ support group and would be
harmed by going to the police.
CONSEQUENCES AND CONSULTATION

 Moving on to the ethical, legal, emotional, and

therapeutic consequences that could result from
possible actions,
 the helper consults with a supervisor who provides
assistance in identifying and working through
salient issues.
 In this case, the supervisor helps the helper identify
that his disclosure of the rape to the police would
undermine 破壞 the trust that he had worked to develop
with the client.
 Moreover, the helper would be violating the client’s
wishes, confidentiality, and right to privacy.
 His reporting of the rape might reinforce feelings of
powerlessness that the client felt after being raped.
DUTY AND DOCUMENTATION

 The helper next considers to whom a duty exists

 Sometimes, the helper may have a duty to protect
someone other than the client (i.e., an identifiable
person whom the client is threatening to harm).
 In this case, the helper’s primary duty or responsibility is
to the client rather than to other people in her life (e.g.,
her boyfriend or other women that the rapist might harm).
 His job as a helper is to do no harm to his client and to
provide services that enhance her growth and potential.
 The helper is beginning to realize how important it is to
abide 遵守 by the client’s wish for nondisclosure, despite
his own desire to prosecute the rapist and protect others.
EDUCATION

 The helper reviews his education to determine

what he has learned about appropriate actions to
take in dealing with similar ethical dilemmas
 The helper speaks to his supervisor, and
determines that in this situation the best strategy
is to maintain the client’s confidence and assist in
her recovery from the rape.
 The helper also decides to go for therapy to
address his residual feelings about his sister’s
rape.
The Values that Drive the Helping Relationship

 One of the best ways to characterize a helping

relationship is through the values that permeate 滲
透 and drive it.
 The relationship is the vehicle through which
values come alive
Culture, Personal Culture and Values

 Values are central to culture, but culture is more

than values
 Culture: shared beliefs and assumptions interact
with shared values and produce shared norms that
drive shared patterns of behaviour.
 Over the course of life individuals develop assumptions and
beliefs about themselves, other people, and the world around
them.
 Values, what people prize, are picked up or inculcated 灌輸
along the path of life
 Assumptions and beliefs, interacting with values, generate
norms, the “dos and don’ts” we carry around inside ourselves.
 These norms drive patterns of behaviour and these patterns
of behaviour constitute, as it were, the bottom line of
personal or individual culture - “the way I live my life.”
The Pragmatics of value

 Values are not just ideas.

 They are also a set of practical criteria for making
decisions.
 They are drivers of behaviour
Respect as the foundation Value
 Respect for clients is the foundation on which all
helping interventions are built.
 Respect is such a fundamental concept that, like
most such concepts, it escapes definition.
 Respect cannot remain just an attitude or a way of
viewing others.
 The following are some norms that flow from the
interaction between a belief in the dignity of the
person and the value of respect
 Do no harm,
 The first rule of the physician and the first rule
of the helper
 It is important to emphasize a non-manipulative
and non-exploitative 非操縱性和非剝削性 approach to
clients
 Become competent and committed,
 Master whatever model of helping you use
 Get good at the basic problem-management
and opportunity-development framework and
the skills that make it work
 Make it clear that you are “for” the
client,
 The way you act with clients will tell them a
great deal about your attitude toward them.
 Your manner should indicate that you are “for”
the client, that you care for him or her in a
down-to-earth, non-sentimental 非感性的 way.
 Assume the client’s goodwill,
 Work on the assumption that clients want to
work at living more effectively, at least until
that assumption is proved false.
 Respect involves entering clients’ world to
understand their reluctance and a willingness to
help clients work through it.
 Do not rush to judgement
 You are not there to judge clients or to shove
your values down their throats.
 You are there to help them identify, explore, and
review and challenge the consequences of the
values they have adopted.
 Keep the client’s agenda in focus
 Helpers should pursue their clients’ agendas,
not their own.
 Never put too much interest on anything other
than the agendas, even those are important to
you at the time and moment
Empathy as a Primary Orientation Value

 Some see empathy as a personality trait, a disposition to feel

what other people feel or to understand others “from the
inside,” as it were. In this view, some people are by nature
more empathic than others.
 Others see empathy, not as a personality trait, but as a
situation specific state of feeling for and understanding of
another person’s experiences. The implication is that
helpers can learn how to bring about this state in themselves
because it is so useful in the counseling process.
 The Nature of Empathy
 Where the observed experiences of others come to
affect our own thoughts and feelings in a caring
fashion.
 Empathy entails the ability to step outside oneself
emotionally and to be able to suppress temporarily
one’s own perspective on events to take another’s.
 Empathy as a value is a radical commitment on the
part of helpers to understand clients as fully as
possible in three ways…
1.A commitment to work at understanding each client from
his or her point of view together with the feelings surrounding
this point of view and to communicate this understanding
whenever it is deemed helpful.
2.It is a commitment to understand individuals in and through
the context of their lives. The social settings, both large and
small, in which they have developed and currently “live and
move and have their being” provide routes to understanding.
3.Empathy is also a commitment to understand the
dissonance 不和諧 between the client’s point of view and reality.
Genuineness as a Professional Value

 Helper genuineness refers to both a set of

attitudes and a set of counselor behaviours.
 Some may say as “congruence”
 Being genuine has both positive and negative
implications; it means doing some things and not
doing others.
 Class Exercise 同理心練習
目標：
1. 體會被助者的心情 ( 講自己野俾 “陌生人” 聽 )
2. 學習聆聽及回應 ( 展現你嘅 “同理心” )
3. 鍛練觀察及分析力 ( 睇得出別人嘅 “技巧” )

a. ：「老師老愛盯我，真是氣死人」 ;
b. ：「老師對你太嚴格的作法，讓你感到不舒服」

a. ：「老師老愛罵我，我還是不舒服」 ;
b. ：「你感到不舒服，因為你不知道如何達到老師要求的標準」

生氣、熱情、焦慮、祥和、悲傷、樂趣、沮喪、壓力、失望、難過、害羞、安全感、羨慕、羞恥、恐懼、驚訝、感激、懷疑、罪
惡感、同情、希望、溫柔、無助、不安、憎恨、淡定、抓狂 47
 Class Exercise 同理心練習

分組：按你嚟緊做 gp 嘅分組 , 3-4 人

目標：傾偈，而途中展現你嘅 “同理心”
內容 ( 每節唔多於 5 分鐘 ) ：
A: 講吓自己最近發生嘅一件特別事件 ( 盡量唔講自己感受 )
B: 用心聆聽下，喺合適時候作出同理心嘅回應
C: 觀察及記錄 B 嘅表現，完成後話俾佢知你嘅觀察 ( 可以 2 人 )
做完後，轉換角色，直至每人都試過晒

48
 Do not overemphasize the helping role
 Genuine helpers do not take refuge 避難所 in the role
of counselor
 Ways of being “role-free”, in doing the following:
 Express directly to another whatever they are presently
experiencing
 Communicate without distorting their own message
 Listen to others without distorting the messages they hear
 Reveal their true motivation in the process of communicating
their messages
 Be spontaneous 自發的 and free in their communications with
others rather than use habitual and planned strategies
 Respond immediately to another’s need or state instead of
waiting for the “right” time or giving themselves enough time
to come up with the “right” response
 Manifest their vulnerabilities 暴露弱點 and, in general, the
“stuff” of their inner lives
 Live in and communicate about the here and now
 Strive for interdependence rather than dependence or
counter dependence in their relationships with their clients
 Learn how to enjoy psychological closeness
 Be concrete in their communications
 Be willing to commit themselves to others
 Be spontaneous
 Effective helpers, although being tactful as part of their
respect for others, do not constantly weigh 稱重 what they
say to clients.
 They do not put a number of filters between their inner
lives and what they express to others.
 Avoid defensiveness
 Genuine helpers know their own strengths and deficits
and are presumably trying to live mature, meaningful
lives.
 When clients express negative attitudes toward them,
they examine the behaviour that might cause the client
to think negatively, try to understand the clients’ points
of view, and continue to work with them.
Client empowerment as a Responsibility-Focused Value

 Helping clients identify, develop, and use

resources that will make them more effective
agents of change both within the helping sessions
themselves and in their everyday lives.
*******
Norms for empowerment and self-responsibility

 Start with the premise 前提 that clients can change if

they choose
 Clients have more resources for managing problems in
living and developing opportunities than they assume.
 Clients have the resources both to participate
collaboratively in the helping process and to manage their
lives more effectively.
 Helper’s job is to help clients identify, free, and cultivate
these resources.
 Do not see clients as victims
 Even when clients have been victimized by institutions or
individuals, don’t see them as helpless victims
 The cult of victimhood 崇拜受害者 is already growing too fast
in the society
 Don’t be fooled by appearances
 People may not be well ready in their participation at the
very first moment, but that may not be failure at the end
of the helping process
 Share the helping process with clients
 Helping should not be a “black box” for them
 Clients have a right to know what they are getting into
 Helpers can simply explain what helping is all about
 Help clients see counseling sessions as a
work sessions
 Counseling sessions deal with exploring the need for
changes, determining the kind of change needed,
creating program of constructive change, engaging in
change “pilot projects,” an finding ways of dealing with
obstacles to change
 Become a consultant to clients
 Consulting, is a social-influence process, but it is a
collaborative one that does not rob managers of the
responsibilities that belong to them.
 The best clients, like the best managers, learn how to use
their consultants to add value in managing problems and
developing opportunities
 Accept helping as a natural, two-way
influence process
 Either client or helper can approach the other to originate
the helping process.
 The two have equal status in defining the terms of the
relationship, in originating actions within it, and in
evaluating both outcomes and the relationship itself.
 Focus on learning instead of helping
 Effective counseling helps clients get on a learning track
 In the helping process, learning takes place when options
that add value to life are opened up, seized, and acted
on.
Class Exercise – Paraphrasing 簡述語意 , summarizing

3-4 人一組

A. 輪流講述一件假日發生的事件

B,C. 將事件以簡述 / 綜合方式覆述出來

A,B,C 交換角色練習

試觀察誰做得比較理想？有甚麼細節？