1(a)Discussion: Sharing Personal Information

Humans naturally create a lifetime of stories—stories of childhood, educational experiences, traumas, and current relationships. In fact, you can probably point to many details about your life thus far, on each of these topics.

Social workers carry these personal stories with them in their interactions with clients. Sometimes these stories arise verbally during a session, and other times they are divulged indirectly through clothing or office artwork. For instance, a diploma on the wall reveals the social worker’s school and credentials. Because of the potentially negative effect of self-disclosure, social workers need to be aware of how they may be sharing personal details of their life with a client.

In this Discussion, you analyze a social worker-client conversation for signs of self-disclosure, as well as the effect that disclosure had on the interview.

To prepare, watch the video listed in this week’s Learning Resources.

Post:

• Identify and describe the moment the social worker self-disclosed to the client.
• Explain how the self-disclosure affected the interview process.
  • Did it create a tense environment or one of comfortableness?
• Describe the positive and negative aspects of the self-disclosure with this client.
  • Would you have self-disclosed with this client? Why, or why not?

• identify one other way the social worker has self-disclosed in this interview. Explain whether this type of self-disclosure is positive or negative.

1 (b)Discussion: Ethical Practice in Health Care

Medical settings require interdisciplinary collaboration to treat the health of an individual. Even the best medical care can be fruitless if the patient does not have the resources or social support outside the medical environment to follow treatment recommendations. These are situations where a social worker may be called upon to connect patients with needed resources and services in order to effectively treat their medical problems. While all professionals within health care settings have the primary goal to positively impact patient well-being, they have different roles and value emphases that can create unique ethical dilemmas. As a future social worker, your role will be to advocate for the values and principles outlined in the NASW Code of Ethics as they pertain to client services.

In this Discussion, you consider the different types of health care agencies that employ social workers and the ethical issues related to serving populations within the health care setting.

Post:

• Identify a health care setting in which a social worker might work.
• Explain the role of a social worker in that setting.
• Identify the types of populations and the problems that the social worker might see in that setting.

• Identify an ethical issue or specific ethical standard related to the population and/or problem that you identify.
• Explain how a social worker might address the ethical issues within a health care setting.