Values Conflict in Homelessness The National Association of Social Workers (NASW, 2009) Code of Ethics is a guide to social workers’ practice by offering standards, values, and principles. The Code of Ethics is useful in facilitating the social workers’ decision-making process when he is presented with complicate ethical issues. Ethical issues arise with conflicting values, principles, and standards. These conflicts may occur between the social worker and his clients, agency, or institutional policy, other social workers, professional in other disciplines, or the social worker’s personal values. The United States policy regarding the homeless has ebbed and flowed as a social issue. There is a myriad of reasons for homelessness economic, natural …show more content…
Section 1 of the NASW (1999) Code of Ethics outlines social workers’ responsibility to clients. The principle of “commitment to clients” explains that the client’s best interest is primary. Social workers have an obligation to promote the client’s well-being. The exception to this is a legal mandate to do otherwise, or in some instances when the well-being of another individual or greater society takes a higher importance. In those exceptional cases, the client needs to be aware of the limitations of the social workers’ commitment to him or her (Rothman, 2005). The principle of “self-determination” (section 1.02) depicts the idea that the client has the right to make personal choices. The social worker should encourage and assist …show more content…
The statement goes on to say that, the social worker is the clients advocate for the homeless. Working with the client’s continuity of care which will incorporate housing, income maintenance and support services (National Association of Social Workers, 2006-2009). People that are homeless do not have a voice heard by people in power, and can help. The social worker is the homeless people’s voice. Social workers have the knowledge to give the homeless a voice and to whom to advocate for their