• ETHICAL COMPETENCIES IN HUMAN SERVICES

Advanced human services professional practitioners are often faced with ethical dilemmas as they balance service users’ needs with the rules and regulations of organizations and systems. To help maintain this delicate balance and guide practice decisions, practitioners must follow codes of ethical conduct.

In this Discussion, you consider how to use ethical standards to resolve common ethical conflicts that arise in human services practice.

RESOURCES

Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources. 

WEEKLY RESOURCES

TO PREPARE

• Review your Course Announcements for possible information related to this week’s Discussion and Assignment.
• Review the Learning Resources on ethical issues and standards.
• Bring to mind one ethical issue that you might encounter as an advanced human services professional practitioner in a leadership position.
• Identify at least one ethical standard that applies to the conflict, and consider how you would use it to resolve the conflict.

BY DAY 4

Post one ethical conflict you might encounter as an advanced human services professional practitioner in a leadership position. Then, describe at least one ethical standard that would apply to the conflict, and explain how the standard would guide your decision making to resolve the conflict.

Schram, B., Mandell, B.R., Dann, P.L., & Peterson, L. (2020). An introduction to human services: Policy and practice (9th ed.). Pearson.

• Chapter 5, “Values and Ethical Dilemmas” (pp. 101–125)
• Chapter 13, “Understanding Legal Issues” (pp. 323–348)
• National Organization for Human Services. (2015).Ethical standards for human services professionalsLinks to an external site.. https://www.nationalhumanservices.org/ethical-standards-for-hs-professionalsLinks to an external site.
• Sparkman-Key, N., Meade, N., & Borden, N. (2019). Advancing the field of human services: LGBT competenciesLinks to an external site.. Journal of Human Services, 39(1), 73–84. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1058&context=chs_