Human services professionals can be challenged by the sheer complexity of ethical decisions when working with social workers, counselors, caregivers, and administrative employees. By now, it should be clear that ethics and morals tend to be challenging.
The question remains, “Given all that I know about moral rules, and given the unique demands of this situation, what is the most selfless, compassionate, loving act possible” (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2015, p. 35). When it is seemingly impossible to answer this honorable approach, what can a supervisor or service provider do?
Consider options you might think most appropriate as you seek to resolve ethical quandaries, giving your attention to the National Organization of Human Services’ ethical code, “Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals” (linked in the Resources). Also, Chapter 1, page 8 of the Becoming an Ethical Helping Professional text prioritizes the seven resources to which a human services professional may turn in an attempt to resolve a quandary or dilemma.
Suppose an employee service provider has decided to help her elderly client determine whether to sign a life insurance agreement that could benefit the client’s neighbor (the neighbor has encouraged the client to sign the agreement). Post how you would handle the situation.
Your initial post must:
Respond to the post of at least one of your peers, highlighting points about the different options for consulting others about difficult ethical decisions that are helpful to you to consider in this or future situations. Ask questions that will help you better understand the post and contribute to expanding the discussion. Make substantive suggestions that will provide food for thought.
Please reply to classmate below
Susan Harding
Unit 5 Discussion 1 – Susan Harding
This week’s ethical dilemma presents a complex situation. When working with an employee whose client seeks help signing life insurance paperwork to change beneficiaries, the supervisor must make sure the employee is aware of the possibility of elder abuse. A critical first step has been made in that the employee has reached out to the supervisor for guidance. Consulting with a colleague or supervisor is one of the recommendations given to professionals when they face ethical dilemmas for which they are struggling to make decisions (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, ).
In this situation, the service provider needs to give consideration to the presence of elder abuse. Financial abuse is the third most common type of elder abuse (NCOA, n.d. as cited by Fitzwater, 2010). Financial exploitation is a form of elder abuse that could involve coercing an older person into signing a document (Fitzwater, 2010). A supervisor whose employee presents this situation first needs to make sure the employee has considered elder abuse as a possibility. The supervisor should provide guidance to the employee to help them make a judgment about whether elder abuse is a factor or not. Fitzwater (2010) says that this assessment needs to include an analysis of multiple dimensions of both the older person and the potential abuser. For the older client, the employee needs to determine the patient’s capacity (Wang et al., 2015). The fact that the client is still able to sign life insurance paperwork may indicate the client is still capable of making their own legal decisions however the supervisor should also encourage the employee to consider if there is a recent decline that could cause the older client to be more vulnerable to financial elder abuse. If the client is found to be capable, the employee should attempt to gather additional background about the relationship to determine the risk of the neighbor. This assessment should seek to determine if the neighbor has any financial, or substance issues (Fitzwater, 2010).
The employee should also consider the relationship between the older client and the neighbor. Perhaps this is an individual the service provider has heard the client mention before and the neighbor may have always provided a lot of support to the client. The client may have no other relatives and as a result, the neighbor may be the closest fictive kin the client has. Just because the neighbor is encouraging the client to sign, does not necessarily mean the neighbor is coercing the client. The employee and the supervisor need to give consideration to this in their assessment as well so they do not cause harm to the relationship that could put the client in a worse situation.
Essentially, the service provider will need to rely on their relationship with the client to gain additional information to make a judgment. In the end, the employee, with the support of the supervisor, will need to make a decision about how to proceed. Once their assessment is complete, they will have to make a judgment as to whether this represents elder abuse. If I were the supervisor, I would encourage the employee to always err on the side of the older adult client. If there is even a small part of them that believes it is indeed elder abuse, the employee should report it to adult protective services for a thorough investigation. Finally, the National Center on Elder Abuse and the National Council on Aging are great resources on the topic of elder abuse awareness.
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