Ethical Codes –vs- The Worker’s Perception
Latricia Cunningham
Upper Iowa University

Ethical Codes –vs- The Worker’s Perception

As a student in the field of Social Services I can understand why there is a need to have a professional code of ethics. In class discussions I get to hear other students’ responses to various topics, and some of these responses can be quite biased and opinionated. We all have our own viewpoints, when it comes to issues of life, we have believed these ideas throughout our individual lives they shape and form our opinions and thoughts. We hold these ideas and values as truths and in turn live our lives based of them. Our inability to see things from someone else’s perspective can create turmoil and cause us to operate and function constantly imposing our beliefs on another person and in the case of working in the field we can easily do this to a client. As the Cliché goes,” Our perception is our reality”, with this being the case it is very important for helpers to a general code of ethics to go by when servicing clients, in order to avoid the risk of coercing clients to do things that they are not capable of doing.

We can become overly critical, which can lead to a demeaning attitude towards others and in the context of working in the profession a client can be put in harms way. Operating like this can cause conflict, and can lead to us judging people, feeling as though they are inferior to us based on the way they see things. I have witnessed this so many times not only in the learning environment where class discussions take place about various issues, but at work, church, and many times at home.

The problem in our daily conversations is we tend to infuse ourselves into them, ethical codes are important in order to prevent those in the helping profession from doing this. Having the commitment to clients, indicated in code says, clients’ interests are primary. The idea of having a commitment to a client should be on the forefront of every helper’s agenda. A worker in practice operating within the scope of this code should not have a problem with imposing their beliefs, values, or opinions on a client, but it happens. The code of ethics is there for workers as a constant reminder of what is acceptable and a way for them to make the appropriate decisions when dealing with clients. In following ethical code, the worker will be able to assist the client without biases, judgments, and becoming frustrated due to the client’s freedom to choose what is best for them with the guided assistance of the worker as opposed to a worker’s direct instruction on how to handle issues. A client will benefit from the empowering effects of having self-determination. The concept of self-determination as indicated in the code of ethics, as allowing the clients to