Ethical Dilemmas In Social Work Case Study

There is a major ethical dilemma problem in the story about Mr. and Mrs. Jones. According to Webster an ethical dilemma is defined as “A difficult situation in which an individual is unable to make a decision, due to moral conflicts. Picking one solution would mean undermining another.” With that being said, the social worker for Mr. Jones family situation have a difficult decision to make. The jones family is seeing a social worker due to trust issues with the marriage. Both Mr. Jones and Mrs. Jones signed a consent form indicating that all information shared individually with the social worker should be shared with the couple. There was one session when the wife did not come to the session only Mr. Jones came to see the social worker. During this session Mr. Jones shared with the social worker that he a homosexual that have tested positive. Mr. Jones also have been having sex with several women
Jones ethical dilemma applies to section 1.07 Privacy and Confidentiality part C. This section states “The general expectation that social workers will keep information confidential does not apply when disclosure is necessary to prevent serious, foreseeable, and imminent harm to a client or other identifiable person”. This connects to Mr. jones case because is putting others peoples lives in danger by having sex with people when you are HIV positive. Another section of the NASW Code of Ethics that apply to Mr. Jones case is section 1.07 Privacy and Confidentiality part B. This section states Social workers may disclose confidential information when appropriate with valid consent from a client or a person legally authorized to consent on behalf of a client. The social worker had Mr. and Mrs. Jones sign consent forms indicating that all information shared with the social worker individual should be shared with the couple. Therefore the social worker have to share this information with Mrs.