Caritas Institute of Higher Education
Higher Diploma in Social Work 2022-2023
Social Work Theory and Practice I (SWK102)
LECTURE 1
Social Case Work, Social Work Values, Principles and Ethics
Lecture Outlines:
1. Definition
2. Purpose
3. Social Work as a Profession
4. Values
5. Code of Ethics
6. Working Methods - Social casework as a social work method
7. Practice Principles - Seven principles in worker-client relationship
8. Becoming an effective social worker
1. WHAT IS “SOCIAL WORK”?
According to National Association of Social Workers (NASW) 1973:
“A professional activity of helping individuals, groups and communities to enhance or restore
their capacity for social functioning and to create societal conditions that are favorable to
their goals.”
2. PURPOSE
2.1 International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW)
a. The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human
relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being.
b. Utilizing theories of human behavior and social systems, social work intervenes at the
points where people interact with their environments.
c. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.
2.2 The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE)
a. The promotion of restoration, maintenance and enhancement of the social functioning of
individuals, groups, organizations and communities by helping them to accomplish tasks,
prevent and alleviate distress, and use resources;
b. The planning, formulation and implementation of social policies, services, resources and
programmes to meet basic human needs and support the development of human
capacities
c. The pursuit of policies, services, resources and programs through organizational or
administrative advocacy and social or political action, to empower groups at risk and to
promote social and economic justice
d. The development and testing of professional knowledge and skills related to these purpose
to extend the knowledge base
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2.3 Taiwan Association of Social Workers 臺灣社會工作專業人員協會
To improve the qualities of social work services and to develop the social work profession
in Taiwan. 以人性尊嚴為核心價值，努力促使案主免於貧窮、恐懼、不安，維護案主
基本生存保障，享有尊嚴的生活。
2.4 中国社会工作协会
在政府的指导下，推动社会工作的专业化、职业化建设；整合社会资源，开展以社会
福利服务及社会公益活动为主体的专业性的社会服务，加速社会工作社会化进程；加
强理论研究与实践创新，开展社会工作教育，不断优化社会工作效能；倡导社会工作
理念，维护社会公平，促进社会和谐，推动社会进步。根据协会的宗旨和任务，我们
提出了中国社会工作协会的行动口号：助人自助、专业服务；社会责任、共建和谐。
2.5 Social Workers Registration Board 社工工作者註冊局
a) Social workers' primary mission is to help people in need and to strive to address
social problems.
b) Social workers respect the unique value and dignity of every human being irrespective
of one's ethnicity, colour, family/social/national origin, nationality, culture, birth, sex,
age, language, beliefs, political and other opinion, family/social/economic status,
disability, educational attainment, contribution to society, or sexual orientation.
c) Social workers believe that individuals have the potential to develop and thus accepts
a responsibility to encourage and facilitate the self-realization of individuals with due
regard to the interest of others.
d) Social workers accept responsibility to advance social justice and to safeguard the
cause of human rights.
e) Social workers believe that each society, regardless of its form, should provide
maximum benefits to its members.
f) Social workers accept responsibility to update, upgrade and devote their professional
knowledge and skills to the betterment of individuals and society, with the aim to
empower people to act on their own behalves as far as possible.
g) Social workers recognise the central importance of human relationships and seek to
strengthen relationships among people in a purposeful effort to promote, maintain
and enhance the well-being of individuals, families, social groups, organizations and
communities for the prevention and relief of hardship and suffering.
3. SOCIAL WORK AS A PROFESSION
3.1 General Criteria of a Profession
a. Mission
b. Values, Beliefs and Principles
c. Specialized knowledge base (Theories and Skills)
d. Code of ethics and values
e. Professional Training
f. Authority
g. Professional Self-regulation Body
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3.2 Social Work
a) Service commitment
Mission to serve the public rather than selfish pursuits
b) Systematic theory
• Specialized knowledge base and related skills
• An internally consistent system of knowledge
• The use of theory and its relationship to skills
4. VALUES
4.1 Definition of Values
• Values are the implicit and explicit ideas about what we cherish as ideal or preferable.
• Values determine which goals and actions we evaluate as “good”.
• Our values shape our beliefs and attitudes and vice versa.
• Values define norms or guidelines for behavior.
4.2 Common values of social work
• The mission of social work professional is rooted in a set of core values
• Values are strong beliefs which serve as an ethical guide for social workers in their
daily practices
4.3 Types of social work values
4.3.1 Values as preferred conception of people (views of Human Being)
• Man is unique 獨特& different from others
• Each person has an inherent worth 與生俱來的價值 & dignity 尊嚴
• Each person has an inherent capacity 能力 & drive 本能需要 toward change which
make life more fulfilling
• Each person has a responsibility for himself & for his fellow human beings –
including society
4.3.2 Values as preferred outcome for people (Views about how society should be
organized)
• Social justice
• Society must provide resources to meet basic needs, opportunities for growth &
opportunities for participation → freedom, human right
4.3.3 Values as Ethical Responsibilities to the people social workers serve
• Practice principles 實務守則
• Codes of ethics
5. SOCIAL WORK CODE OF ETHICS 社會工作專業操守守則
5.1 Ethics Defined
• While values are the implicit or explicit beliefs about what people consider good,
ethics relates to what people consider correct or right.
• Ethics generates standards that direct one’s conduct.
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5.2 Social Work Code of Ethics
• The Code identifies core values on which social work’s mission is based
• The code is designed to help social workers identify relevant considerations when
professional obligations conflict 專業責任衝突 or ethical uncertainties arise
• The code provides ethical standards to which the general public can hold the social
work profession accountability 透明度
• Articulating standards that the social work profession itself can use to assess whether
social workers have engaged in unethical conduct.
5.3 A review on the Code of Ethics of Social Work
5.3.1 National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics
全美社會工作專業協會倫理守則
Six Core values and Ethical Principles:
a. Service: the provision of help, resources and benefits so that people may
achieve their maximum potential
b. Social justice: “An ideal condition in which all members of a society have the
same basic right, protection, opportunities, obligations and social benefits”
c. Dignity and worth of the person: Social Workers respect the inherent dignity
and worth of the person.
d. Importance of human relationships: “The mutual emotional exchange;
dynamic interaction; and affective, cognitive, and behavioral connections that
exist between the social worker and the client to create the working and
helping atmosphere”
e. Integrity: Trustworthiness and sound adherence to moral ideals.
f. Competence: Having the necessary skills and abilities to perform work with
clients effectively.
Ethical Standard:
a. Social Workers’ Ethical Responsibilities to Clients
b. Social Workers’ Ethical Responsibilities to Colleagues
c. Social Workers’ Ethical Responsibilities in Practice Settings
d. Social Workers’ Ethical Responsibilities as Professionals
e. Social Workers’ Ethical Responsibilities to the Social Work Profession
f. Social Workers’ Ethical Responsibilities to the Broader Society
5.3.2 Canadian Association of Social Workers’ Code of Ethics
加拿大社會工作者協會倫理守則
Principle Ethical Right-People Have the Right to:
1 E Exist with their Basic Needs met
2 T Treatment that is fair and equal
3 H Have free choice and freedom
4 I Injury that is minimal or nonexistent
5 C Cultivate a good quality of life
6 S Secure their privacy and confidentiality
FOR
7 U Understand the truth and all available information
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5.3.3 Social Workers Registration Board of Hong Kong 社會工作者註冊局
Principles and Practices ([Link]
a) Related to Clients
b) Related to Colleagues
c) Related to Agency
d) Related to Profession
e) Related to Society
6. SOCIAL WORK METHODS
6.1 Working with the communities
6.2 Working with groups
6.3 Working with individuals and families
6.4 What is “Social Casework”?
a. Social casework is a method of helping people solves problems. It is individualized,
scientific, and artistic.
b. Social casework is one of the main parts of a generalist approach to social work
practice. Main focus is to help individuals help themselves.
c. It helps individuals with personal as well as external and environmental matters.
d. It is a method of helping through a relationship that taps personal and other
resources for coping with problems.
e. Interviewing and assessment are major tools of casework. Not problem-solving?
6.5 Overview of Family Casework
6.5.1 Objective of Casework
Social workers focus on person-and-environment in interaction. The objective of
Casework is to empower and support individuals and families enabling them to:
a. cope effectively with personal and family problems when they arise so they can
maximize their potential and function as independently as possible within the
community
b. prevent personal and family problems
6.5.2 Nature of service
a. Family Casework Service will provide a range of services from counseling to practical
advice and assistance. In addition, social worker will make referrals to other services
when client needs cannot be met by the service itself.
b. Family Casework Service is largely centre-based but will include home visits where
appropriate. The Service may reach out to potential new cases of which it becomes
aware
6.5.3 Target group
a. The target group is individuals, couples and families who are experiencing a range of
family or personal difficulties which cannot be resolved within the family or the
community without assistance.
b. As a priority, particular attention will be given to individuals or families at risk of
abuse, suicide, family breakdown, emotional or mental breakdown.
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6.6 Empowerment and Advocacy
6.6.1 Definitions of Empowerment
Empowerment is “the means by which individuals, groups and/or communities
become able to take control of their circumstances and achieve their own goals,
thereby being able to work towards helping themselves and others to maximize the
quality of their lives.” (Adams, 2003, p.8)
6.6.2 Implications on practice
Empowerment-based practice (Miley, O’Melia & DuBois, 2004, pp.91-92)
a. social workers apply an ecosystems perspective and a strengths orientation in
practice, so as to search for client strengths and environmental resources, and
to describe needs in terms of transitory challenges rather than fixed problems;
b. social workers put emphasis on resiliencies (抗逆力);
c. social workers join with clients as partners and rely on clients’ expertise and
participation in change processes.
6.6.3 Ways of Case Advocacy
??????? a. Social worker “speaks, argues, manipulates, bargains, and negotiates on behalf
of the client” (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2002, p. 474).
b. Social workers advocate to change agency policies, and to use agency appeal
procedures
c. Social workers can also advocate changes in the environment for opportunities,
resources, and supports to the powerlessness.
d. Social workers have an active and directive role.
7. PRACTICE PRINCIPLES
7.1 Summary
a. Respect for the worth and dignity of every human being
b. The worker’s primary responsibility is to the client’s well being, not the worker’s
interests
c. Confidentiality, without which there can be no effective helping relationship
d. Responsibility for self-awareness
e. Controlled emotional involvement
f. Acceptance
g. The non-judgmental attitude
h. Individualization
i. The active involvement of the client in the helping process
j. Purposeful expression of feelings
k. Client’s self-determination
l. Empowerment
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7.1 Principles of Casework Relationship (Biestek, 1957)
7.1.1 INDIVIDUALIZATION 個別化
a) It is the recognition & understanding of each client’s unique 獨特 qualities & the
differential use of principles & methods in assisting each toward a better
adjustment.
b) Individualization is based upon the right and a need of the client. The clients’ feel
understood because of the worker’s respect for him.
7.1.2 PURPOSEFUL EXPRESSION OF FEELINGS 有目的的情感表白
a) The recognition of the client’s need to express his feelings freely, especially his
negative feelings. The caseworker listens purposefully, neither discouraging nor
condemning the expression of these feelings.
b) Requirements in Caseworker
• The caseworker should be relaxed in order to help the client feel fairly
comfortable
• Free one’s mind so that social worker will be free to observe, to listen & to
think, see & feel with the client
• Creating a permissive attitude 寬容的態度
• Encourage the client to express his feelings
• Awareness of the client’s motivation to work on his problem
7.1.3 CONTROLLED EMOTIONAL INVOLVEMENT 有控制的情緒涉入
The “Controlled Emotional Involvement” is the caseworker’s sensitivity to the client’s
feelings, an understanding of their meanings, & a purposeful, appropriate response to
the client’s feelings. It is an element of the casework relationship. There are three
components in the caseworker’s controlled emotional involvement: sensitivity,
understanding, & response.
7.1.4 ACCEPTANCE 接納
a) “Acceptance” is a principle of action. The caseworker perceives & deals with the
client as he really is, including his strengths & weaknesses, his positive & negative
feelings, his constructive & destructive attitudes and behavior, maintaining a sense of
the client’s innate dignity & personal worth.
b) Purpose
• Acceptance is therapeutic
• Aid caseworker in understanding the client as her really is
• Help client free himself from undesirable defenses
• Deal with his problem & himself in a more realistic way
c) Obstacles to Acceptance
• Insufficient knowledge of patterns of human behaviors
• Non-acceptance of something in self, e.g. personal value
• Biases 偏見
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7.1.5 NON-JUDGMENTAL ATTITUDE 非批判的態度
Non-judgmental Attitude is a quality of the casework relationship. It is based on a
conviction 定罪 that the casework function not determining clients’ guilt or innocence,
or degree of client responsibility for causation of the problems.
b) Purpose
• To understand rather than to judge the client
• Help client free himself from undesirable defenses
c) Requirements in caseworker
• Worker objectively evaluates the attitude, tone & manner of interviewing
• Worker needs to recognize & control these biases within himself and to
develop his capacity to see people objectively.
7.1.6 SELF-DETERMINATION 案主自我決定
a) Self-determination is the practical recognition of the right & need of clients to freedom
in making their own choices & decisions in the casework process.
b) Caseworker have a corresponding duty to respect that right, recognize the need,
stimulate & help to activate that potential for self-direction by helping the client to see
& use the available resources of the community & of his own personality.
c) The client’s right to self-determination is limited by the client’s capacity for positive &
constructive decision making, by the framework of civil & moral law & by the function
of the agency.
d) Limitations to self-determination
• Limitation arising from civil law – to prevent the individual from abusing or
misusing his liberty and to protect society from such abuse
• Limitation arising from the moral law
• Limitation arising from the agency function
• the client’s capacity for positive and constructive decision
7.1.7 CONFIDENTIALITY 保密
a) Confidentiality is the preservation of secret information concerning the client
which is disclosed in the professional relationship.
b) It is based on a basic right of the client
c) It is an ethical obligation
d) Requirements in caseworker
• Provide privacy in interviewing room
• Ensure that files & records are only used by those who actually handled the
case
• Obtain client’s consent before referral or collateral contacts
8. BECOMING AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL WORKER
8.1 Becoming a social worker is a process of socialization into the social work profession:
8.1.1 Worker
8.1.2 Client
8.1.3 Professional Relationship
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8.2 Worker
8.2.1 Understand Self and develop professional identity
8.2.2 Learn and enact social work values, principles and code of ethics
8.2.3 Learning theories and skills
8.2.4 Learn evidence-based practice
8.2.5 Pursuing social work mission
8.2.7 Definition of workers’ role
Alleviating 緩和 the client’s anxiety
Establish rapport & build up a trusting relationship with clients
建立和諧及信任的關係
Explore issues in verbal & non-verbal communication 語言及非語言的溝通
Suggest effective ways to initiate the interviewing process, conduct
interviews & terminate them
Assessing & following pace of clients, ‘starting where the client is’
Making up mutually agreed working goals, planned intervention & evaluate,
consolidate changes & terminate relationship
Keep professional disciplines 堅守專業守則 such as purposeful intervention,
confidentiality 保密& empowerment of clients 充權
8.2.8 General roles of Social Worker/Caseworker
[Link] 輔導者 One who provides guidance to clients and assists them in a planned
change or problem solving process.
[Link] 教育者 One who gives information and teaches skills to other systems.
[Link] 中間聯繫者 One who links client systems to needed resources.
[Link] Manager A practitioner who, on the behalf of a specific client, coordinates needed
個案經理 services provided by any number of agencies, organizations, or facilities.
[Link] 調解者 One who resolves arguments or disagreements among micro, mezzo, or
macro systems in conflict.
[Link] 促進者 One who guides certain experience.
[Link] 使能者 One who empowers clients to resolve problems.
[Link] changer One who provides activities aimed at specific behavior change.
行為改變者
[Link] 倡導者 One who helps clients obtain services in situations in which they may be
rejected; helping expand services to persons having a particular need.
10. Mobiliser 動員者 One who identifies and convenes community members and resources to
identify “unmet community needs” and “effect changes for the better in
their community”
8.3 Client
8.3.1 Understand client
8.3.2 Definition of clients’ role
One needing assistance
Being honest in revealing self & the situation
Commit in treatment plan as mutually agreed 共同協定 including commit to
appointment & making effort for change
Be responsible for making decisions & responsible for consequences of decision
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8.4 Professional relationship
For professional relationship, the purpose is to meet the clients’ need 滿足案主的需要,
not the worker’s needs
A worker-client relationship is not a friendship. It exists for the purpose of solving a
problem or attaining a goal. 解決困難或達到目標
Certain distance (personal space) with clients promote a position with “limited emotional
involvement” & “more objective view to clients” situation
To create a trustful relationship between the worker and client by building up:
1. nurture interpersonal relationships, put clients at ease & make them feel important &
cared about
2. make clients feel comfortable & safe with workers
3. communicate with clients with empathy 同理心 & genuineness 真誠
4. regards clients as partners in problem solving. Work out together with clients on
realistic plans for change
5. make sure that you are totally devoted to the clients in the interviewing room.
References
Biestek, F. (1957). The casework relationship. Loyola University Press.
Hepworth D. H., Rooney, R. H., Rooney, G. D., Strom-Gottfried, K. (2013). Direct social work
practice: theory and skills. 9th ed. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
Kirst-Ashman, K. K., Hull, G. H. Jr. (2017). Understanding generalist practice. (8th ed.) Stamford,
CT: Cengage Learning.
Pillari, V. (2002). Social Work Practice, theories and Skills. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. pp.3-8.
Zastrow, C. (2014). Introduction to social work and social welfare: empowering people. (11th ed.)
Belmont, CA: Brooks Cole, Cengage Learning.
包承恩，王永慈。(2009)。社會工作價值與倫理。第三版。台北：洪業文化。
曾華源，胡慧嫈，李仰慈，郭世豐。(2011)。社會工作專業價值與倫理概論。第二版。壹
北市：洪葉文化。
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