Malpractice and negligence suits are among the challenges that social workers should be wary of. There are various issues that could expose social workers to these challenges. They include allegations of sexual relationships with clients and patients suffering adverse outcomes as a result of interactions with the social worker (Reamer, 2015). I would expect these issues to lead to malpractice and negligence suits against the social workers at my agency. For example, if a patient commits suicide, I would not be surprised when their family files a negligence suit against the social worker who was attending to the patient. Currently, I am part of an initiative that my practice has developed through which we attend to minority communities. While the risk of malpractice and negligence in this initiative is low, I still feel the need to initiate some precautions. Among these precautions include requiring all the social work practitioners participating in the initiative to comply fully with the code of ethics. Additionally, I think that we need to establish a system of accountability through which the encounters among practitioners and patients are monitored.
I find that the concepts of social work effectiveness and negligence are related closely to human rights and social justice. The relationship among these lies in the fact that in order to become effective and to prevent negligence, social workers need to be passionate defenders of human rights and social justice. For example, we need to give special focus to vulnerable populations. As we do this, we will be enhancing the effectiveness of social work practice while eliminating incidents that could cause patients to suffer harm.
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I think that diverse clients are better placed to have a proper understanding of the legal issues that surround interventions. However, I also acknowledge that there are some patients who are simply unable to regard the same legal issues in the same light. Diverse clients are uniquely placed to develop a complex and inclusive perspective that reflect their diverse experiences. For example, a client from a diverse background could demand interventions that account for their diverse background. On the other hand, a client who has not encountered diversity issues is likely to adopt a rather basic perspective. Despite the difference in the perspective of diverse and non-diverse clients, I believe that social workers need to possess the skills required to adequately attend to the needs of both types of clients.
When a social worker pursues actions that are inconsistent with the code of ethics developed by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) or the policy that their agency has adopted, they expose themselves to the risk of legal consequences. These consequences include being referred to the professional board that issues and reviews licenses (Barsky, 2013). The board may proceed to revoke the social worker’s license and this would essentially render the social worker jobless. It is unlikely that the social worker will face criminal action. Given the legal consequences that they face, social workers should endeavor to comply with their agency’s policies and the NASW code of ethics.
References
Barsky, A. (2013). Ethics alive! The NASW code of ethics and other social work obligations. The New Social Worker. Retrieved May 25, 2019 from https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/ethics-articles/Ethics_Alive%21_The_NASW_Code_of_Ethics_and_Other_Social_Work_Obligations/
Reamer, F. G. (2013). Ethical misconduct and negligence in social work. Social Work Today, 15 (5), 20.
