Ethical Dilemmas in Health and social care
Shoall is a 19 years old woman who suffers from depression and has a history of binge drinking. She has now increasing thoughts of suicide. She does not want that her parents find out that she has these suicidal thoughts and therefore tells the social worker not to inform her parents. When the social worker finds out that Jenny was admitted into the hospital by taking an overdoses, she asks herself why she did not informed Jenny’s mother earlier about her suicidal thoughts. In this essay I’m going to analyse the ethical justification of the question whether the social worker should have informed the parents about Jenny’s suicidal thoughts.
In social work it is very important to have respect for the clients right to self-determination. This means that service users should have the right to make their own decisions and solve their problems, whether the social workers agrees with his course of his actions. According to the codes of practice, article 1.3, social workers must support service users right to control their lives and make informed choices about the services they receive. So a social worker might help the client to choose an option, but she is not allowed to influence the client’s decision by using her personal bias and opinions.
The right to confidentiality versus the right to self-determination is also an ethical dilemma, which social care workers experience. This plays an important role in suicidal cases. According to the codes of practice, article 1.4 , social workers must respect and maintain the dignity and privacy of service users. They are not allowed to reveal information about a service user without his consent. As I mentioned earlier social workers must also respect the client’s right to self-determination, but if the service user is suicidal or wants to harm others, a social worker must break