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2: Ethics and Values in the Health Field

Additional resources for this chapter

instructor material

DOI:

10.1891/9780826141644.0002

Authors

  • Congress, Elaine P

Abstract

Social work values and ethics continually guide policy, practice, and research in the healthcare field. Using the lens of social work values, this chapter begins with examining social work policies and government policies on healthcare. Identifying ethical challenges and dilemmas and applying a model of ethical decision making for practitioners will also be addressed. The chapter ends with the need for continued research on ethics to enhance social workers’ understanding of this important area. Social workers in the health field in the United States are often impacted by health issues of those around the world, such as the increasing number of immigrants and refugees that access healthcare and the concern that deadly new viruses such as Ebola and swine flu are only a plane ride away. Thus social workers need to have a global perspective in addressing health concerns.