Our ethics are often put to the test

Phew, that was a tough one . . .

Tossed between two choices, our ethics are often put to the test

Ethical dilemmas face us all every day. Set against our own values, even small issues can sometimes present difficult choices.

Social and professional workers who are out and about in the community daily perhaps face more than most of us. How do they cope?

Here’s an example:

A client you are attending to as a social worker swears you into the utmost confidence, something your organisation prides itself on respecting, and then says, ‘after this interview I am going to shoot myself’.

And this?

A 40-year-old colleague comes to you and says she has just discovered she is pregnant. She has many health problems, and having a baby could complicate those and could possibly be fatal. However, she has been in a loving relationship with the same man for many years. He has no children, but has always wanted children. She is torn.

Preparing social and professional workers in Timaru with the skills they need to reach sound decisions and responses to such scenarios is Aoraki Polytechnic tutor in social and professional ethics Katie Wiseman.

She says that to reach good decisions, “we first need to understand ourselves and examine our own values”.

“We are always working, to some degree, on an ethical basis. We must be. Every minute of the day, it’s do I do this or do I do that?,” Ms Wiseman said.

“And sometimes we face very difficult ethical dilemmas where both options present uncomfortable choices.”

But she said social and professional workers were often placed in extremely difficult positions and an upcoming training module at the polytechnic, for the first time being offered in the evenings to provide wider community opportunities, would equip workers with the skills to make good decisions.

“There can be no black or white answer to any situation, each depends on individual circumstances. But there are clear processes and our 17-week course provides valuable tools for good outcomes and actions,” Ms Wiseman said.

Ms Wiseman is a tutor and co-ordinator for two polytechnic programmes, the Certificate in Mental Health Support Work and the Diploma in Social Services. She holds a Bachelor of Social Services degree, with a major in psychology, from Waikato University as well as an MA Applied in Social Work from Victoria University.

She said the next course, on which there were still vacancies, commences on July 23 and concludes on November 26. It would run each Thursday from 6pm until 8pm.

It was designed for social workers, community workers and support workers and was relevant for nurses as well.

We are all faced with ethical issues at times in our lives, she said.

“For instance, the issue of immunisation could trigger a really robust ethical debate because some people would say that every parent had an ethical responsibility to the community to vaccinate their children. But equally we could contest that and say parents had a responsibility first to their children and their beliefs.

“Is there an answer, well that’s the thing with ethics, there frequently is not.

“But there is always the opportunity for a lot of debate because we have to balance the notion of responsibility to the community with the notion that people have the right to make their own decisions,” Ms Wiseman said.

The right choice: Aoraki Polytechnic tutor in social and professional ethics Katie Wiseman . . . “To reach good decisions, we first need to understand ourselves and examine our own ethical values”.

ENDS

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