Ethical Decision Making

A human services worker needs to be competent to work with clients from different cultures. There are times when cultural differences between the human services worker and the client influence the final service. For example, suppose a human services worker promotes the cause of independence for all people while the client’s culture values strong family cohesion. In this case, the client’s values are equivalent to dependency in the eyes of the human services worker and can lead to conflict. However, if the human services worker possesses the cultural competence necessary to work with the client, he or she would be better equipped to manage this discrepancy in personally held, culture-based views. When situations such as these arise, the human services worker should be aware of the needs of the client with strong consideration of cultural influence.

When potential ethical conflicts occur due to various differences, the human services worker faces the challenge of making the appropriate ethical decision to ensure that the rights of his or her client are protected while receiving services. The assignment will explore the role of such cultural influences in ethical decisions in human services.

Tasks:

On the basis of your readings and research, address the following in about 200 words:

Discuss the influence of culture in ethical decision making. In your answer:

o Address the influence of culture on the individual perceptions of the human services worker and the client.

o Focus on the potential ethical dilemmas that might arise from differences in cultural perspectives.