Welcome to the NASW Code of Ethics step by step details of each portion of the code of ethics. This will be the first post and will be about the Ethical Principles, more specifically, the service value.
Before diving into service, I want to bring up the reason why we have the Code of Ethics. It says right in the “Purpose of the NASW Code of Ethics” why we have it, and there are six purposes that are serviced. You’ll be able to read more about that in the future, but just to summarize for this section, “The Code identifies core values on which social work’s mission is based.” This is something that comes up in the next section of the code of ethics, the Ethical Principles section.
The first value is Service, and the Ethical Principle behind this is “Social Workers’ primary goal is to help people in need and to address social problems”. They do give a short example of what this means, but I want to go into a bit more detail.
Service means that we, as social workers, will put our own needs and interests off to the side and put other people above those interests/needs. I think this is really the a huge part of why we are social workers, we aren’t here to fulfill our own desires, we have a heart to help. Depending on where you work, let’s say as a school social worker for example, you put the kids above yourself, you probably would do anything to make sure they are taken care of. The school social worker at my kids school always has the best interest of the kids in mind, and it’s obvious.
So what do social workers use to help people and social problems? We gain knowledge from coursework and continuing education, we have a set of values that are a part of the ethical principles, and we learn the skills needed to help. Before starting classes for social work, I knew where I wanted to end up. My goal is to work with Child Protective Services. This is where my heart is, and I want to gain the skills to be able to learn how to properly handle certain situations. I’ll have an internship next year, and hopefully that is with CPS, where I will be able to learn the skills in the field and take those with me. So, it’s not just about learning what is taught in the classroom, but getting out and doing the service work and learning from experience.
One thing we always hear, at least I do, is “We aren’t social workers for the money” and boy, if that ain’t the truth. Does that mean that we aren’t paid well? I don’t think so, I think it’s great, but under the service value, the Code of Ethics mentions that social workers are encouraged to volunteer a portion of their professional skills without “significant” financial gain. I think this is fair, we should. We aren’t doing this for our own selfishness, we are doing this to make a difference and help people, we should use our skills that we gain to help out in other areas, and volunteering is amazing thing to do anyways!