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My personal and as well professional values I believe arecongruent to social work and the NASW Code of Ethics as a whole. One thing I valueis my self-determination to embolden social justice and social change on behalfof the clients. I would like to highlight how significant this value is to mebecause this was one of the reasons that motivated me to pursue this collegepath in social work, little by little.
I was working as a peer mentor for6months as part of an internship for high school students that recently arrivedin the US and did a bit of volunteering at the Council of Peoples Organization,which further developed my interest for social justice. During my first week dayof volunteering Council of Peoples organization in Brooklyn, I felt an epiphanyas I was overhearing the health insurance agents whom assisted local communitymembers find low to free health insurance and majority were immigrants withlimited English ability. I realized that social work is something I can seemyself doing. I was able to see myself doing something related to this. Whichwould test my current skillset. I saw the need of sincere, straightforwardand passionate people like myself in this type of setting in where recentimmigrants aren’t aware or receiving services they are entitled or evenavailable to them. Lack of knowledge about available government services oreven lack has always bothered me in the back of my mind because I find itunfair that recent immigrants are not treated with dignity and respect as theyshould instead have access to such government services. Another example of myself-determination as previously mentioned, I used to tutor and peer mentoringhigh school student whom recently arrived in the US if the student neededextensive tutoring or sessions than the time allotted student needed furtherhelp with his/her homework or in nearly any high school subject.
I saw this asa minor influence on a social change towards education within the immigrantcommunity. I found it fulfilling to contributing to a child’s education despitenot being an education major. Anotherimportant personal value that is related to social work and the NASW Code ofEthics is integrity. On a personal level integrity is one of the qualities thatI seek in friendships. From my experience relationships based on upright integrityare being trustworthy, I have the confidence that my friend is going to respectmy confidentiality and will not disclose it to a random stranger or gossip.
Integrityrelates to social work because as a social worker this value will make me morecapable to establish a good rapport with my client. The client would be able totrust me and be more likely to divulge information that can be helpful towardstheir assessment. Also, it will enable the process of correctly following andimplementing privacy and discretion in the NSAW Code of Ethics.
The way I deal with personal values that might conflict with social workvalues is by well contemplating the following social work values:self-determination, integrity, competence, and human relationships. I would beable to take into consideration these values as well as refer to the NASW Codeof Ethics and gauge my feelings confidently. I would like to use these valuesas guidelines that I need to accept that I must avoid my personal values to inhibitwith difficult social work cases that can hinder my potential career andpatients.
