Ethical Decision making with a Client

Single Subject Design – Ethical Decision Making

The 12-year-old Black/African American young male could benefit from the use of a wide range of interventions or techniques that seek to improve his symptoms and behavior. However, his ability to receive services could be affected by various factors that also generate ethical issues. One of the potential ethical issues is consent to treatment, which affects decision-making when offering services to this client. This ethical issue is likely to arise given the child’s family situation. The ethical issue would surround questions on who can give consent to treatment between his grandmother, the legal guardian temporarily, and his biological mother. The issue could affect the client by delaying decision-making about the treatment given that he is incapable of giving completely reasoned consent.

Ethical decision-making to address this issue requires consideration of relevant ethical principles and standards. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics is an applicable framework that could in the ethical decision-making process. The relevant NASW Code of Ethics section for this scenario is the ethical responsibilities social workers have for clients. Informed consent is an applicable section to the scenario since social workers have the responsibility to offer their services to clients only when appropriate, valid informed consent is given in the context of a professional relationship (National Association of Social Workers, n.d.).