Moral principles dictate the mode of conduct that professional have to abide by while undertaking their day-to-day activities. The Human Services Profession is aligned to ethical principles that dictate what is wrong and right in practice. Provided that the Human Services are meant to respond to human problems and needs in the society, there is need to apply appropriate moral principles. Workers in the human services constantly face ethical dilemmas while dealing with individuals and the society at large especially with alcohol addicts.
Ethical standards
Diversity
While providing Human Services to alcohol addicts, professionals are called upon to uphold the diverse nature of humans. Working in the human services especially about substance abuse such as alcoholism further aggravates the dilemmas that workers face since the profession relates to personal values, judgments, and beliefs. Human diversity concerns the various social structures and psychological characteristics surrounding human behavior (Galanter, Kleber, & Brady, 2014). Diversity in human nature persists between people regarding their dressing, languages, and traditions. While providing human services, it is important that the services provider appreciate the diversity of human nature since it is arguably vital for humanity’s long-term survival. With the advancement of technology and globalization, integration of diversity has been made possible. Morally, a human services professional should aim at desisting from discriminatory practices of alcoholic individuals based on their political, religious and social structures to be able to offer the best assistance.
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Dignity
The fundamentals of providing human services require that respecting human dignity is given priority while providing services. The worth of respect and honor for an individual to whom human services are being provided is paramount and therefore should be inviolable. Dignity has a wide impact on the self-worth of individuals since every individual has been born with it. According to Becker (2012), the society views alcohol addicts with misconceptions, emotions, and biases which could affect the provision of much-needed services negatively to the addicts. In several cases, it looks normal to perceive alcohol addicts negatively and thus services providers should poses tools to resolve ethical dilemmas objectively.
Integrity
Scholars have indicated that accuracy of actions is guaranteed in the provision of human services commonly referred to as integrity (Galizio, & Maisto, 2013). Professionals in the human services fields given that they are constantly interacting with people at various levels ought to display wholeness in honesty and character consistency. It calls for professionals to act within the principles, values, and beliefs they claim to hold. While performing daily duties dealing with alcohol addicts, professionals act within the structural framework of principles constantly desisting from unwarranted exceptions among clients subsequently conforming to universal application principles. It is fundamental that human services professionals find a balance between what is right for them at an individual level and the professional standard. Studies have advocated for a reconciliation of professional codes and personal beliefs.
Impartiality and equality
Impartiality and equality in practice are essential in services provision requiring that the human services workers equally treat clients. Given the human nature’s tendency not to offer equal treatment, it is integral to understand how and when it affects the ability to treat fairly without bias given the society’s bias towards drug abusers and more significantly alcohol addicts. Although a provider may not treat all clients equally, there is need to institute safeguards to ensure equitability while dealing with clients.
Autonomy
In several cases, alcohol addicts affect the lives of family members and the general society. Ethically, a human services provider ought to provide for the autonomy principle where the client has a right to make decisions on how to live provided his actions are not interfering with other people’s welfare. Consequently, a provider should promote self-determination, self-rule, and self-governance (Edenberg, & Foroud, 2013). A human services provider will play an important role in determining if a client can make decisions while screening for information required in instituting personal choice. In many cases, drug users may suffer from poor decision making and thus the service provider ought to promote autonomy in decision making.
Social responsibilities
To client
A human services provider bears vast social responsibilities to clients, the society, colleagues and the public. It is integral a provider recognizes and builds on a client’s strengths while obtaining informed consent from clients to offer services at the initial stages of the helping involvement. A client should be adequately made aware of the requirements of the helping relationship as well as information that they can withdraw consent (Edenberg, & Foroud, 2013). Given the advancement in technology, human services professionals have a social responsibility to put in place precautions that ensure confidentiality of client records, information, and safety while complying with relevant laws.
In addition to the client social responsibilities that a human services provider bears is the promotion of client’s privacy unless otherwise provided by agency guidelines. Before the start of a helping relationship, human services professionals ought to fully inform clients of possible limits to privacy and confidentiality. Engaging in multiple relationships may affect the helping relationship posing possible exploitation and harm risks which may compromise a provider’s professional judgment and as such providers should avoid such relationships.
To the society and the public
Human services professionals have many compelling social responsibilities to the general public and the society at large. First, it is required of the professionals to indiscriminately offer services regardless of ethnicity, race, age, gender, ability and sexual orientation of clients. With indiscriminate service provision, human services providers are charged with a responsibility to respect individual beliefs and cultures given the fact that they operate in multicultural society setups. It falls on the shoulders of human services professionals to champion for changes in statutes and regulations that conflict with client rights and other ethical guidelines. In cases where regulations are harmful to clients, it is in the interest of the providers to find and initiate a social action.
According to scholars in the human services fields, service providers are constantly informed on issues affecting communities and their clients. As a result, the human services professionals share crucial information that is appropriate to their clients and the helping relationship. Additionally, political and social issues affect clients in different backgrounds which the professionals are aware of subsequently offering adequate advice and assistance (Orford et al., 2013). Human services professionals must build a mechanism through which they identify client needs consequently seeking attention while assisting in mobilizing and planning for the needs. There are constant efforts to push for social justice while eliminating possible oppressions for clients. To achieve social justice, human services providers raise awareness with legislative systems aiming at eliminating oppression.
Responsibility to colleagues
The process of offering human services to client’s means that human services providers desist from duplicating helping relationships and thus consulting with one another is integral. A client may be getting assistance from other professionals on various grounds, therefore, requiring human services professionals to collaborate with each other actively and coordinate when appropriate. In rare cases where the conflict comes up between colleagues, it is in their interest to reach out to one another to amicably resolve the conflict while seeking assistance from other professionals, consultants, and supervisors where conflict resolution efforts prove difficult.
Several cases of multiple relationships exist between human services providers and clients. Since such unethical relationships and problems may result to harm of clients, colleagues appropriately respond by directly talking to each other to find satisfactory resolutions (Orford et al., 2013). In adverse cases, satisfactory resolutions may not be easily reached at necessitating erratic reporting behavior to administrative or supervisory staff. Cases of problematic behavior and other unethical relationships are maintained private between colleagues unless when clients or the community is bent to suffer some harm.
References
Becker, H. C. (2012). Effects of alcohol dependence and withdrawal on stress responsiveness and alcohol consumption. Alcohol research: current reviews , 34 (4), 448.
Edenberg, H. J., & Foroud, T. (2013). Genetics and alcoholism. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology , 10 (8), 487.
Galanter, M., Kleber, H. D., & Brady, K. (Eds.). (2014). The American Psychiatric Publishing textbook of substance abuse treatment . American Psychiatric Pub.
Galizio, M., & Maisto, S. A. (Eds.). (2013). Determinants of substance abuse: Biological, psychological, and environmental factors . Springer Science & Business Media.
Orford, J., Natera, G., Copello, A., Atkinson, C., Mora, J., Velleman, R., ... & Walley, G. (2013). Coping with alcohol and drug problems: The experiences of family members in three contrasting cultures . Routledge.
