Faith Integration and Social Work
There has long been a debate as to whether Christianity can be integrated into Social Work practice. As social workers, we are taught that faith is a topic that should not be discussed in treatment with clients and that we need to keep our values, biases and religion away from our work. The code of ethics that was established helps to keep us accountable for our actions and assists in making decisions. I do believe that it is possible to have both faith and a good social work practice successfully. In order to be successful at integrating the two, the social worker must make sure to maintain the values and ethics of the profession and always keep the clients best interest in mind. The social worker must …show more content…
The first category that the author brings to the reader’s attention is privileging knowledge over values. According to Furman 2009, if outcome research becomes the most important factor guiding social work service provision, a focus on client empowerment and autonomy may become at risk (p. 82). One of the integral social work ethics that we strive for clients to achieve is their right to self-determination. The client must have a say in the matter of their goals and desires for treatment and if we are focusing on research and outcomes and not letting the client have a choice in the matter we are not giving them the right to self-determination. With evidence-based practice being so prevalent, there are multiple studies showing that certain combinations of medications, treatments and interventions work together. For many clients, being told by your therapist or social worker that in order to have a successful outcome, you need a combination of medication and treatment they realize that you are a professional and they will be better at complying. However, when you are working with clients of various cultural backgrounds that do not believe in traditional medicine, it may be harder as they may want to seek alternative methods to solving their problems or may not believe or trust what you are saying. Knowing this, it is important to be culturally competent and recognize that certain populations have opinions on how they want treatment to happen. Coming from a family that is Hispanic, I see that therapy and medication are not always accepted as forms of treatment. I know that when working with clients that are of a different culture, I need to provide them with all of the options that I believe will help, and let them decide what they feel is best for them. I cannot push my values on these
There has long been a debate as to whether Christianity can be integrated into Social Work practice. As social workers, we are taught that faith is a topic that should not be discussed in treatment with clients and that we need to keep our values, biases and religion away from our work. The code of ethics that was established helps to keep us accountable for our actions and assists in making decisions. I do believe that it is possible to have both faith and a good social work practice successfully. In order to be successful at integrating the two, the social worker must make sure to maintain the values and ethics of the profession and always keep the clients best interest in mind. The social worker must …show more content…
The first category that the author brings to the reader’s attention is privileging knowledge over values. According to Furman 2009, if outcome research becomes the most important factor guiding social work service provision, a focus on client empowerment and autonomy may become at risk (p. 82). One of the integral social work ethics that we strive for clients to achieve is their right to self-determination. The client must have a say in the matter of their goals and desires for treatment and if we are focusing on research and outcomes and not letting the client have a choice in the matter we are not giving them the right to self-determination. With evidence-based practice being so prevalent, there are multiple studies showing that certain combinations of medications, treatments and interventions work together. For many clients, being told by your therapist or social worker that in order to have a successful outcome, you need a combination of medication and treatment they realize that you are a professional and they will be better at complying. However, when you are working with clients of various cultural backgrounds that do not believe in traditional medicine, it may be harder as they may want to seek alternative methods to solving their problems or may not believe or trust what you are saying. Knowing this, it is important to be culturally competent and recognize that certain populations have opinions on how they want treatment to happen. Coming from a family that is Hispanic, I see that therapy and medication are not always accepted as forms of treatment. I know that when working with clients that are of a different culture, I need to provide them with all of the options that I believe will help, and let them decide what they feel is best for them. I cannot push my values on these