Personal Narrative: My Ethic Dilemmas

Ethic dilemmas I faced was enabling Alan to be more involved in having some say in the services he receives, as I would have wanted Alan’s to be more actively involved as equal partners in co-producing and voicing his opinions rather than his family (Parker, 2014), this was a challenge for me while working with Alan. This user-led model of social work (Beckett, Maynard, 2013) argues that in order for this to happen, service users’ demands for autonomy, participation and inclusion must be met, enabling independence rather than maintaining dependency, by focusing on abilities rather than incapacities, and supporting their independence. This is the groundwork of a social worker but I faced challenges as to what is best for Alan, as he had become
dependent of services and care staff. His independency I questioned and now he lacked capacity decisions were made without his involvement although they were made in his best interests. This questioned my value base, as I knew he was unable to make the decisions and retain information about his circumstances. I wanted him to be fully participative as much as he could, as the decisions made would determine the quality of life he had, but as a social worker, I had statutory responsibilities adhering to the Care Act and the principle of well-being (BASW, 2016g).
My practice comprised of a sequence of actions and tasks that draws on all the theories, skills and values discussed in this assignment. By developing an understanding and awareness of the social worker role and processes is one of the prerequisites for becoming a reflective worker. Reflection enabled me to work in a thoughtful and systematic way. When engaging with Alan I was aware that I had to justify my methods of working, and interventions were meaningful that fitted within the overall plan and strategy. Having an awareness and demonstrating different stages of the intervention process assisted me to prepare and evaluate my performance when engaging with service users. It was important to place Alan, at the heart of the social work process. The relationship I built up with Alan are integral to all interventions and being able to build relationships with him and colleagues, maintain them and reflect honestly is the centre of the practice of social work (BASW, 2016c).
I have learnt a vast amount of knowledge after observations and reflection from this experience.
My concern was I was not sure if the family were aware of my lack of communication with them in the early stages of intervention, as I tended to engage with Alan and not acknowledge them when they were answering questions directed at Alan. I did feel general discomfort in the room and felt embarrassment for the nephew and I felt he was patronising his uncle, I was not sure if this was his normal behaviour or was taking his role as informal carer very earnestly and I did not have the full picture of the situation. I reflected my anxieties with my practice educator who thought I was over analysing the situation and that the nephew was taking his role very seriously maybe to give him a sense of responsibility and importance.
Being self-aware and conscious of my impact on others is a necessary element of reflective practice and is crucial to building relationships. Qualities such as ‘integrity, genuineness and self-awareness’ are central to developing empathy and an understanding of social work values. Although self-awareness is required it is also a necessary aspect of taking a professional responsibility for my own learning and
development.
Within the domain of critical reflection and knowledge, the College of Social Work (England) also requires its workers to be able to:
‘Apply critical reflection and analysis to inform and provide a rationale for professional decision-making. They use critical thinking augmented by creativity and curiosity’ (BASW, 2016b).
The domain emphasises that I need to be aware of not just my practice but also of my professional development needs. Self-awareness is a form of reflection, in the sense that it encourages me to think about myself, what sort of person I am and want to be. The process never stops, the more self-awareness I acquire, the more I discover the need to develop it further. Developing self-awareness is an important element of developing a professional identify. Increasing self-awareness allows me to understand what might influence my relationships with service users, families and professionals; therefore, I needed to reflect in action as well as reflecting on action (Gardner, 2010).