SOCIAL WORK THEORY 120

Chapter 7- Professional Integrity and E-Professionalism

Mayuri Ranchhod
The Personal and Professional: Are They Inseparable
• Psychiatrists shall maintain appropriate ethical standards in their professional lives,
and also in their personal lives in so far as this may reflect on the integrity of the
medical profession.

Overlap Between the Professional and Personal: Caution Required

• Historically, schools of thought, particularly in the psychodynamic and
psychotherapeutic tradition, advised that therapists or counsellors should observe
strict and rigid boundaries to guard against transference and counter-transference
• Transference refers to misplaced feelings from a client to a therapist, while counter-
transference is described as the distortion of a therapist’s reactions and responses to
a client that can result in overprotectiveness, rejection, or development of
sexualised or romantic feelings
• In professional relationships, the worker is paid for their time and must be prepared
and competent, the relationship is time-limited and contracted, and there is a
degree of structure where the worker has more responsibility and actual or
perceived power, as well as responsibilities to multiple stakeholders. In personal
relationships, the association is voluntary, spontaneous, and not limited by time or
contract
• Personal relationships do not involve unequal power, do not require preparation or
training, and rely on mutual responsibility

Managing Relationships: Establishing Clear Boundaries in Practice

• Boundary crossings are those situations that are departures from commonly
accepted practice but which may actually benefit a client, such as giving or receiving
a gift, hugging a bereaved client, attending a special occasion, or engaging in a
closure ritual
• Boundary violations are serious breaches of acceptable behaviour, and in some cases
law, that result in harm to another, such as sexual boundary violations, or financial
entanglements
• Sexual and intimate relationships may in fact be clearer in many ways because of the
accepted position that it is never appropriate for a professional worker to engage in
sexual activity or sexualised conduct with a person who is in treatment, therapy or
any other role where there is room for exploitation and there is a power dynamic at
play (such as teachers or police officers)
• The whole issue of ‘when a client is no longer a client’, and when it might be
acceptable for the relationship between two people to move from a therapeutic one
to a social or more intimate one has been given much consideration
 • The only discipline to take a definitive position on both current and former patients
is psychiatry
o sexual relationships between psychiatrists and their current and former
patients are always unethical
• Social work, similarly to psychology, takes the position that ‘Social workers will not
provide clinical services to individuals with whom they have had a prior sexual
relationship, as there is potential for the individual to be harmed, and it is unlikely
appropriate professional boundaries will be maintained’

Dual Relationships: Harmful or Helpful?

• some dual and multiple relationships can be mutually beneficial, constructive and
empowering
o Mentoring relationships, for example, involve a blending of many roles,
which may include guidance, supervision, teacher and friend
o The problem arises when the understanding of the potential for harm (an
inherent part of a relationship that has its foundations in an unequal power
dynamic) becomes obscured
• Research into strategies that professional workers employ when they live and work
in small rural communities indicates that dual relationships can be managed quite
effectively when there is open discussion about competing roles and clients are
explicitly asked to respect a worker’s privacy and place in the community
• Communities are not only geographic, and professional workers also face conflicts
when they are a member of a community of interest (such as a member of a faith
community, member of the GLBT community), and take on a role within that
community that exposes them to conflict

• Becoming entangled in ethical dilemmas that result from dual or multiple

relationships can be very stressful and can lead us to develop personal moral codes
that may well be self-protective but not necessarily good for sustainable practice
Personal Self-Disclosure: To Tell or Not to Tell?
• When we consider the way in which the personal and professional move towards
each other, and invariably intersect at some level and at some time during the
course of a relationship, we can see that much relies on personal self-disclosure
• It is quite common for clients to want to know something of our lives, as a trade for
letting us know almost everything about them
• One side of the argument is that the personal life and experiences of the worker
have no place in the therapeutic relationship, as this takes the focus off the client
and is simply irrelevant and distracting
• The counterargument is that, for an authentic relationship to develop, there needs
to be some mutuality of sharing, as the barriers that distancing raises do not help
build good rapport
• From a feminist perspective, it would be most acceptable for a worker who had been
a survivor of domestic violence or sexual assault to share this with other women as a
way of raising consciousness about the issues of power
• The social work Code of Ethics, which is one of the few codes to mention this issue,
states that:
o Social workers will use self-disclosure with circumspection, and only when it
is reasonably believed that it will benefit the client
o If unsure, social workers will seek professional consultation or supervision to
review their intention to use self-disclosure

What Do We Tell?
• Armstrong urges a degree of caution in self-disclosure and encourages counsellors to
think about the following points:
o Why do you feel that self-disclosure is needed at this time?
o Why do you need to get closer to your client?
 o What is it you hope to achieve through your self-disclosure?
o Will this disclosure detract from the client’s issues?
o Will the self-disclosure disempower the client?
o Is there the possibility the self-disclosure will raise or lower the client’s
perceptions of the counsellor?
o Will the self-disclosure give the client information that may be used against
the counsellor at a later date?
o Is the self-disclosure more about you than the client?
o Is the client emotionally stable enough to appreciate the disclosure in the way
it is intended?
o What will happen if you do not disclose?
• Disclosure can be intentional and deliberate, or unintentional and accidental

Competence: Understanding Scope of Practice

• Education for professional practice at the undergraduate level prepares us with
generic skills to provide a baseline for moving into the workforce
• Once we are employed in a social, health or human service agency, we can specialise
and pursue postgraduate study in more explicit areas of interest
• A social worker or a psychology graduate who has completed a university degree
does not immediately become a competent family therapist
• A nurse who has worked in an acute-care paediatric unit will not necessarily have
skills in working with drug and alcohol dependence
• We have an ethical responsibility to ensure that we do not claim expertise that we
do not (yet) have, and if called on to move into an area where we do not yet have
competence, we have a responsibility to ensure adequate professional supervision
and training.
• We see the development of competence as an ongoing process, not a goal that
counsellors ever finally attain
o This process involves a willingness to continually question whether you are
doing your work as well as you might and to search for ways of becoming a
more effective person and therapist
• Social workers who are voluntarily members of the AASW are required to obtain
Accredited Member status, or to become an Accredited Mental Health Social
Worker, in addition to meeting obligations for ongoing continuing professional
development (CPD) and supervision
• Most ethical codes require practitioners to make all reasonable efforts to engage in
supervision and further education and training, and also to share knowledge gained
from practice and contribute to research and the building up of evidence for practice
effectiveness
• The contemporary employment environment is highly competitive in some sectors,
which means that there is risk of employees padding out their résumés in the hope
of gaining an edge in selection processes
The Imposition of Personal Views
• When we talk about professional integrity, we are referring to the way in which a
practitioner maintains a moral congruence with their own values and beliefs and is
able to show respect to others by allowing them to express themselves as
authentically as possible without judgement
• most codes of ethics incorporate a section on ‘conscientious objection’ that
essentially gives a practitioner in this position a way of retreating from a situation
that they find morally reprehensible
• Decisions not to engage or act on this basis cannot be taken lightly, and we are
expected to be accountable for such decisions
• Some practitioners choose to work in the social, health and human services from a
vocational position, bringing with them a genuine belief in divine interventions and
the power of a higher being
• They use prayer and ritual as interventions, and consider it appropriate to explore
the meaning of life from a particular perspective
• People who seek to convert others to a particular religion or who impress beliefs and
moral judgements on others are not acting from a position of respect and can do a
great deal of harm
• It is critical that practitioners whose lives are governed by religious or spiritual
convictions keep these convictions from overshadowing the decisions of others
• If they are unable to do so, their motivations for engaging in helping work become
suspect and can inhibit trust
• People who actively use spiritually influenced interventions in their work must do so
within an ethical framework of practice, acting in ways that are transparent and
accountable
• It is important to note that the issue here is value imposition, not the respectful
sharing of spiritual beliefs and discussion about spiritual matters
Spiritual Dimensions in Practice
• As cultural issues and identifications are so entwined with spiritual expressions,
being culturally respectful demands attention to the spiritual domain
• It is not possible to work in areas that involve grief, trauma, bereavement, or chronic
illness without being attuned to the need for a spiritual dimension in conversations
about life and death
• the AASW Code of Ethics makes the following statement:
o Social workers will be aware of and reflect on their personal beliefs and
history, values, views, prejudices and preferences and refrain from imposing
these on clients
o Social workers will recognise and acknowledge the religious, spiritual and
secular world views of colleagues, within a framework of social justice and
human rights
• The RANZCP Code of Ethics simply states that psychiatrists ‘shall not impose their
own values on their patients or their families’

• One of the aims of good ethics education at the tertiary level is to give you, the
student, ample opportunity to explore personal values and worldviews and to make
decisions about whether you are capable of working within a profession that holds a
value position on respect for diversity, autonomy, human rights and social justice

E-Professionalism: Professional Integrity in Online Communications

• defined as an extension of professionalism to all things electronic

Risks on the Rise

• The advantages of the technological age are undisputed, as the global world has
opened up and awareness grown about the many critical issues different countries
face
• The unprecedented rise in use of sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Instagram,
Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn has led academics to include curriculum content
about how to preserve privacy, how to engage in a professional way with requests
 from clients to ‘friend’ them on Facebook, and how to ensure that online
communications are respectful and not discriminatory
• Watling and Rogers discuss the impacts of ‘permanent digital footprints’ and the
need for practitioners to develop what they call ‘digital literacy’, a broad term that
covers a range of knowledge and skills including:
o ‘computer literacies’: the ability to use technology
o ‘information literacies’: how to find and evaluate content
o ‘media literacies’: audio and visual skills
o ‘communication literacies’: the effective management of networks
o ‘digital scholarship’: understanding licencing and copyright issues.
• ‘cyber-ethics’ to define ‘ethical standards and considerations which apply to
information and interactions that take place on computers or computer networks’

Constructing a Professional Online Persona, or Managing Digital Dirt

• Sign up for ‘Google Alerts’ so that you will be aware of what comes up on the
internet about you
• Don’t use your work computer or work time for personal engagement with social
media
• Ensure that the images you choose to represent yourself online portray you in a
professional way
• Don’t accept ‘friend’ requests from clients where this will invite a client to view
material of a personal nature
• Be aware of the privacy settings and keep very good control over who can access
your sites

Engaging in Online Practice: Further Considerations

• developments and advances in technology have undisputed advantages in
connecting people who need information, who may be isolated because of where
they live or their social circumstances, or have a preference for online engagement
• As professionals in the social, health and human services, we must also now interact
daily with electronic data collection and storage systems, case recording and
electronic record-keeping
• Interprofessional practice will require that we not only meet with other professionals
in case conferences to discuss plans for clients and patients, but also to share
information in written form through medical records and psychological and
vocational assessments
• Advances in technology now also allow professionals not only from different
disciplines but also in different locations to discuss their cases and work through
videoconferencing and Skype
• Digital literacy, mentioned earlier, becomes important when we are called on to use
technology in our communications with colleagues and clients