Section 3 History of the NASW Code PDF

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Notes about the history of the NASW Code of Ethics and where the concerns came from....

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Section 3: History of the NASW Code If this wide variety of sources of information on what is and is not ethical behavior weren’t enough cause for concern, consider this: codes of ethics are always changing. They are not static but dynamic. The best illustration of this point is a brief history of the Code of Ethics.pdf Preview the document. The NASW Code of Ethics set forth in this document is the current version, last revised in 2017 by the NASW Delegate Assembly. The first NASW code of ethics was adopted in 1960, five years after the NASW was formed. That version consisted of a general preamble setting forth social workers' responsibility to uphold humanitarian ideals and improve social work service, among other things, followed by 14 first-person statements such as “I give precedence to my professional responsibility over my personal interests” and “I respect the privacy of the people I serve.” History icon Unsurprisingly, many NASW members did not find this tremendously general and abstract code very useful in dealing with real life professional challenges. A new NASW Code of Ethics was adopted in 1979. It consisted of a preamble setting for the Code’s general purpose, followed by six brief principles related to social workers’ conduct and their responsibility to clients, colleagues, employers, the social work profession and broader society. The 1979 code was revised twice, with those six principles growing to eighty two principles (Reamer, 2006). What led to the expansion of the 1979 code and the adoption of the current version approved by the 1996 NASW Delegate Assembly, and revised by the 1999 NASW Delegate Assembly? There were a variety of factors. One was the development of professional ethics as a field of scholarship, particularly in areas such as health care. Another factor was the law’s increasing recognition of civil rights and individual rights in diverse areas, including patients’ right, prisoners’ right, and affirmative action, among others, and discussion of the ethical dimension of these issues. Speaking of the law, another development in law during the 1980s and 1990s helped spur various professions, social work included, to pay serious attention to the need for a comprehensive and well-articulated code of ethics. This development was the burgeoning of professional malpractice claims and lawsuits against social workers. These and other factors led social workers, social work agencies, organizations such as the NASW, and state licensing boards to pay closer attention to the ethical dimension of the profession of social work. The goal was a code of ethics that was not merely an abstract articulation of vague principles, but one that served as a reliable guide to the real-life, everyday professional conduct of social workers. Reference Reamer, F.G. (2006). Social work values and ethics. 3rd edition. New York: Columbia University Press....