21st Century Ethics: Identifying and Resolving Ethical Challenges in a Time of Pandemic, Extreme Political Polarization, and Technological Change

21st Century Ethics: Identifying and Resolving Ethical Challenges in a Time of Pandemic, Extreme Political Polarization, and Technological Change

Jacob Stone, LSW, ACSW, (Ret.)

3 CEs in Ethics approved by NASW VT #1105

NASW Vermont Chapter is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0683.

Register Here: 21st Century Ethics: Identifying and Resolving Ethical Challenges in a Time Tickets, Tue, Jun 6, 2023 at 8:45 AM | Eventbrite

In the second decade of the 21st Century social workers have encountered new challenges to ethical practice.

Pandemic-informed practice requires, for example, ethical discernment regarding informed consent, duty to warn, duty to protect, and duty of self-care, and social workers have had to make sometimes agonizing decisions about their practice posture

The extreme political polarization that exists today has had huge impact on social work practice. These issues relate to client self-determination, cultural sensitivity and the need to respect client world views, the role of advocacy and client education, the ways that SW’s respond to cult-related impairment, and the ever-present issues of duty to protect and duty to warn. The current climate also challenges social workers to consider their ethical obligations for political action and advocacy.

Ever-changing technology also leads to ethical challenges. Social networking, online social work education, remote counseling, and the use of Zoom and similar services all mandate that social workers consider the ethics of their use of these technologies.

This workshop will provide a review of the ethical mandates in the NASW Code of Ethics, and a generic algorithm for resolving ethical dilemmas. Beyond that, we will use case studies to illustrate the ethical challenges of the pandemic, the current political ferment, and ever-changing technologies. We will particularly consider the ways that the pandemic has impacted on the use of these new technologies.

As is true of any training in ethics, this program’s purpose is to raise awareness of new ethical challenges and offer some methodologies for ethical decision-making in this high-stakes era.

About the Presenter

Jacob Stone, formerly on the faculty at the Marywood University School of Social Work in Pennsylvania and the social work program of the University of Alaska (Fairbanks), is retired after a half-century of practice as a direct service provider, nonprofit executive, consultant, field instructor, and teacher and trainer. He served for many years as chair of the ethics committee of NASW-PA, and during the past twenty years he has focused his work and study on professional ethics, providing training and consultation on ethics through NASW and diverse other settings. Jacob moved from Pennsylvania to Vermont six years ago, and in retirement has continued to provide training and ethics round table discussions through NASW-VT.

Register Here: 21st Century Ethics: Identifying and Resolving Ethical Challenges in a Time Tickets, Tue, Jun 6, 2023 at 8:45 AM | Eventbrite