Ethics and the Social Worker*

Abstract

Social workers occupy an uncomfortable but potentially creative position where social science and psychology meet and bear on the practical situations of human life. The situations in which social workers have to reach decisions are often baffling, but they can hope that their training in social science and psychology gives them an intelligent skill in understanding people and helping them to live in a real world. Social workers, then, need to have an expert function, carried out with a sympathy which enables them to receive confidences when required. Some of the elements in medical professional ethics, for instance ‘affective neutrality’ and the respecting of confidential information, would no doubt be ingredients in any code of professional behaviour, including that of social workers. In a profession such as medicine, the professional code is designed so that the doctor can properly carry out a generally accepted and recognized purpose.

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