58 ● Kate van Heugten and Anita Gibbs
conflicts emerge, and to seek assistance when problems are not easily solved
using their own skills.
Critical reflection can occur at any time when practitioners are helping
others, and it can be enhanced by careful use of supervision. Supervision pro-
vides practitioners the opportunity to reflect on their decisions and actions; to
raise questions about their agency’s practice protocols; to consider the appro-
priate use of values and ethics; and to evaluate which particular decisions, with
hindsight, achieved the best outcomes for service users. Effective supervisors
assist practitioners in rethinking their helping skills and interventions; these
supervisors also remind the practitioners of core social work purposes and
values and help practitioners consider the application of codes of conduct
and ethical decision models in the particular situations in which practitioners
find themselves (Davys and Beddoe 2010).
The core skills of building and maintaining meaningful relationships
require the practitioner to possess a number of personal qualities, including
a concern for others, empathy, acceptance, commitment to the client, under-
standing and using power and authority, being capable of explaining the limits
of confidentiality, and positive role modeling (O’Connor et al. 2008). Achiev-
ing these qualities takes years of practice, experience, reflective learning, and
determination. If a human service professional is not able to be empathic, for
example, the service users with whom the professional works will be unlikely
to believe that the professional is acting in the users’ best interests. Human
service professionals work with service users to build trust; these professionals
also model the kinds of behavior and attitudes that they are asking the service
user to consider when a formal or mandated relationship has been established
(Trotter 2004).
This chapter has focused on the skills relevant to ethical practice.
Subsequent chapters consider core social work skills used in specific situa-
tions or contexts: chapter 4 explores the skills needed to work with children
and families; chapter 5, the skills needed to work with groups; chapter 6, the
bicultural skills needed to work with indigenous groups; and chapter 7, the
skills needed for solving social problems. Chapter 8 covers workplace stress,
and chapter 9 discusses research mindedness.
Resolving Ethical DilemmasEthical dilemmas occur when human service professionals are confronted by
a difficult choice between actions, such as whether to promote vulnerable
people’s independence over their safety (Shardlow 2013, 81). These dilemmas
can arise from differences between personal and professional or organizational
values or from a clash between generic human rights and local cultural practices.