Ethical Principles and Responsibilities

1.Legal and ethical issues related to the practice of social work, including responsibility to clients/client systems, colleagues, the profession, and society

• The NASW Code of Ethics (2021) is organized by responsibility: section 1 to clients, 2 to colleagues, 3 in practice settings, 4 as professionals, 5 to the profession, 6 to the broader society. The CASW Code of Ethics (2024) plays the same role in Canada, alongside each province’s regulatory code.
• Primary responsibility is to the client (NASW 1.01), but it is limited by legal obligations and by duties to society, such as reporting child abuse or acting on a serious, foreseeable threat to others.
• Law sets the minimum; ethics often asks more. When a law, policy or employer order conflicts with the code, you make a responsible effort to resolve it in line with the code’s values and seek consultation, rather than simply complying or simply refusing.
• Duties to colleagues include respect, collaboration on interdisciplinary teams, and acting on a colleague’s impairment, incompetence or unethical conduct: first discuss it with the colleague when feasible and safe, then use formal channels such as the employer, the board or the regulatory college.
• Your licence is regulated by your state board or provincial regulator (for example, the Ordre des travailleurs sociaux et des thérapeutes conjugaux et familiaux du Québec); their rules bind you even where an association code is only aspirational.
• Duties to society (NASW section 6) include promoting social welfare, public participation in policy, help during public emergencies, and social and political action against injustice.

In practice: A supervisor tells a worker to close the files of clients who missed two appointments to shorten the waitlist. The worker raises the conflict with the supervisor, points to the agency’s own termination policy and the duty not to abandon clients, and proposes outreach letters before closure, documenting the discussion.

Bachelors items stress following policy and consulting a supervisor; Masters, Advanced Generalist and Clinical items expect you to weigh competing duties and act on them yourself.

2.Principles and processes of obtaining informed consent

• Valid consent has three parts: the person has capacity, the decision is voluntary, and the person has been given and understands the relevant information.
• Inform clients in clear language of the purpose of services, risks, limits imposed by third-party payers, costs, reasonable alternatives, the right to refuse or withdraw, the time frame, and the limits of confidentiality (NASW 1.03).
• Consent is a process, not a form: revisit it when the plan, the modality, the people involved or the risks change.
• When a client has limited literacy or a different first language, provide a qualified interpreter or translator and check understanding; a signature without understanding is not informed consent.
• When a client lacks capacity, obtain permission from an appropriate third party (guardian, substitute decision-maker) and still explain things to the client at their level and seek their assent.
• Involuntary clients (court-ordered, mandated) are told what the service involves, what will be reported to the referral source, and their right to refuse with its consequences.
• Minors’ consent depends on jurisdiction: many US states let minors consent to some outpatient mental health or substance use care from ages roughly 12 to 16, Quebec sets 14 for most care, and Ontario uses capacity rather than a fixed age. Know your local rule and always involve the minor in the decision.

In practice: At intake, a client who reads little English is handed a consent form. The worker stops, arranges a professional interpreter, explains services, fees, limits of confidentiality and the right to withdraw, asks the client to explain the arrangement back, and documents the process.

Clinical items add consent for recording, supervision review of sessions, telehealth and specific treatments; Bachelors items focus on explaining services and rights at intake.

3.Legal and ethical issues regarding confidentiality, including limitations of confidentiality (e.g., HIPAA, PHI, privacy)

• Confidentiality is the worker’s ethical duty not to disclose; privilege is the client’s legal right to keep communications out of court. In the US, Jaffee v. Redmond (1996) recognized psychotherapist-patient privilege for licensed clinical social workers in federal courts.
• Disclose without consent only for compelling professional reasons, such as preventing serious, foreseeable and imminent harm, or when the law requires it (abuse reporting, court order), and then disclose only the minimum necessary (NASW 1.07).
• A subpoena is not a court order. Contact the client, seek legal advice, and ask the court to withhold records or issue a protective order; release records only with valid client consent or an order from a judge.
• In the US, HIPAA protects protected health information (PHI): notice of privacy practices, minimum necessary use, client right of access, and extra protection for psychotherapy notes kept separately. 42 CFR Part 2 adds stricter rules for substance use disorder treatment records.
• In Canada, privacy law is federal (PIPEDA, private sector) and provincial (for example, Ontario’s PHIPA, Alberta’s Health Information Act, Quebec’s 2023 act on health and social services information). The principle is the same: consent, purpose limitation, minimum necessary, safeguards.
• Tell clients the limits of confidentiality at the start and when they change; in family and group work, explain that you cannot guarantee what other members will keep private.
• Confidentiality continues after the client dies and after services end; protect records, devices and conversations in hallways, elevators and on social media.

In practice: A worker receives a lawyer’s subpoena for a client’s file. The worker does not send the file; they notify the client, consult the agency’s counsel, and, absent the client’s written authorization, assert privilege and wait for a judge’s ruling.

Clinical items test privilege, psychotherapy notes and subpoenas in depth; Bachelors items test the basic limits explained at intake.

4.Identifying and resolving ethical dilemmas

• An ethical dilemma is a choice between two or more ethical duties that cannot all be honored (for example, self-determination versus protection from harm), not a choice between right and wrong.
• Common steps: identify the issues and the values in conflict; identify the people affected; consult the code, law and policy; consider options with their benefits and risks; consult colleagues or a supervisor; act; document; evaluate.
• Dolgoff, Harrington and Loewenberg’s Ethical Principles Screen ranks: protection of life first, then equality and fairness, autonomy and freedom, least harm, quality of life, privacy and confidentiality, and truthfulness and full disclosure.
• Consultation and documentation are part of the answer on the exam, but they are rarely the FIRST step when a life is at risk; protect safety first.
• When the code itself is silent or values conflict, the NASW Code says to use informed judgment consistent with its values and principles, and to weigh the consequences for all involved.
• Choose the least intrusive option that resolves the conflict and keeps the client as involved in the decision as possible.

In practice: An older adult with capacity refuses home care despite falls. The worker assesses capacity and risk, explores what the client values, offers less intrusive supports such as a medical alert device, consults a supervisor, and respects the informed refusal while documenting the plan.

Masters and Clinical items present layered dilemmas with competing legal and ethical duties; Bachelors items ask you to recognize the dilemma and consult.

5.Professional values and principles (e.g., competence, social justice, integrity, dignity and worth of the person)

• NASW’s six core values: service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence; each has a matching ethical principle.
• The CASW Code (2024) likewise centers respect for the inherent dignity and worth of persons, the pursuit of social justice, service, integrity, confidentiality and competence, with explicit attention to Indigenous peoples and reconciliation in Canada.
• Competence means practicing only within your education, training, licensure and supervised experience, and getting training, supervision or a referral before using a new approach (NASW 1.04, 4.01).
• Integrity means honesty and trustworthiness: no misrepresentation of credentials, no fraud, no exploiting relationships.
• Dignity and worth lead to respect for difference, self-determination and the client’s capacity for change; social justice leads to advocacy against discrimination and for access to resources.
• The 2021 NASW revision strengthened cultural competence with self-awareness and cultural humility (1.05) and named self-care as essential to ethical practice.

In practice: A worker is asked to run a trauma-focused group, a method they have never been trained in. Valuing competence, they tell the supervisor, arrange training and supervision first, and co-facilitate with a trained colleague until competent.

6.Burnout, secondary trauma, and compassion fatigue

• Burnout (Maslach) has three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization or cynicism toward clients, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. It builds slowly from workload and organizational conditions.
• Secondary traumatic stress is a reaction to hearing about clients’ trauma and resembles PTSD (intrusions, avoidance, arousal); it can begin suddenly after one case.
• Vicarious trauma is a cumulative change in the worker’s beliefs about safety, trust and meaning, from repeated empathic engagement with trauma.
• Compassion fatigue (Figley) combines secondary traumatic stress and burnout; compassion satisfaction is the protective sense of meaning from helping. The Professional Quality of Life scale (ProQOL) measures both.
• Warning signs include irritability, dread of sessions, numbness, boundary slips, cynical jokes about clients, absenteeism and more errors.
• Organizations share responsibility: manageable caseloads, trauma-informed supervision, debriefing, peer support and access to an employee assistance program.

In practice: A child protection worker notices they avoid reading new referrals and snap at families. They raise it in supervision, review their caseload mix with the supervisor, use the employee assistance program, and plan regular debriefs after severe cases.

7.Social worker self-care principles

• The NASW Code’s 2021 Purpose states that professional self-care is paramount for competent and ethical practice; it is a professional duty, not an indulgence.
• Self-care covers the body (sleep, activity, health care), the mind and emotions (reflection, therapy, limits on exposure), relationships and community, and the workplace (breaks, workload, supervision).
• When personal problems, mental health issues or substance use interfere with your judgment or performance, you must seek help, adjust your workload, or stop practicing until fit (NASW 4.05).
• Planning matters: a written self-care plan, scheduled supervision, and boundaries around after-hours availability are more reliable than good intentions.
• On the exam, the worker’s own distress is addressed by the worker (supervision, consultation, personal therapy), never by sharing it with or relying on clients.

In practice: After a client’s suicide, a worker returns to a full caseload and cannot concentrate. The ethical step is to tell the supervisor, take time off as needed, seek counselling, and return gradually, rather than pushing through while impaired.

8.Importance of professional development activities to improve practice and maintain current professional knowledge (e.g., in-service training, licensing requirements, reviews of literature, workshops, on-going supervision, consultation)

• Social workers must keep current with emerging knowledge and practice (NASW 4.01) and employers should provide or arrange continuing education (NASW 3.08).
• Licensing boards and provincial regulators require continuing education hours, often with set content such as ethics, cultural competence or suicide prevention; the amounts and cycles vary by jurisdiction.
• Ways to grow include in-service training, workshops, reviews of the research literature, ongoing supervision, peer consultation and formal certification in a model.
• Use evidence to choose methods: read current research, practice guidelines and systematic reviews, and combine them with client values and your expertise.
• When a case is outside your expertise, the right move is consultation, supervision or referral, not learning on the client without support.

In practice: A worker begins seeing more clients with gambling problems. They take a recognized training course, read current treatment research, and arrange consultation with an experienced colleague for the first cases.

Bachelors items emphasize supervision and in-service training; Clinical items add training and supervision before using specialized treatment models.