Have a great week!
Unit Introduction and What You Will Learn
In week six, we will begin a four-week, in-depth review of the social worker’s ethical standards. The first group of standards covers the expectations social workers have towards their clients. We will also review each of the social worker’s values and discuss how they relate to our lives. During my lecture video we will discuss bias and confidentiality for Substance Use Disorder treatment. The agenda of that session includes:
- Tasks for week six
- Understanding bias
- Confidentiality for SUDPs
Week 6 Objectives:
- Understand the value of Service and provide an example from the student’s life that illustrates the principle.
- Describe several examples of the ethical standards under Commitment to Clients in the NASW Code of Ethics.
- Describe implicit attitudes, implicit stereotypes, and ingroup bias, and how each can shape the way we see and work with clients
- Reflect on a personal bias you are likely to encounter in practice and why it matters for providing non-judgmental services
- Explain how 42 CFR Part 2 and the NAADAC Code of Ethics add to NASW Standard 1.07 when working with clients with substance use disorders
Unit Assignments
Read/Watch
- Read Chapter 2 in Reamer (2023), Ethical Responsibilities to Clients
- Review Section 1 of the NASW Code of Ethics, Social Workers’ Ethical Responsibilities to Clients
- Watch my lecture video
W-06 A-01: Asynchronous Class Engagement and Participation
The expectation is that each of your replies will be substantive and provide meaningful perspectives, contributing to the forum’s conversation and scholarship. They can relate to the prompts or build on conversations your peers share. There are five forums for this week, and you are expected to make at least 3 replies across any of the forums and read all of your peers’ replies. These forums include the following:
- Everyone participates in the values activity described in Values Exercise - Understanding Differing Perspectives (Sec 0 or Sec 2), posting anonymously on the Padlet and then reflecting on what you read.
- The most significant part of the work this week is Ethical Standard 1: Responsibilities to Clients (Sec 0 or Sec 2), where you choose a sub-standard no classmate has written about yet and discuss its importance, its gray areas, or what it means for clients when it is not followed.
- Chapter 2 Reading Discussion (Sec 0 or Sec 2) gives a space where students can discuss the textbook reading.
- When you have a question about something in class, you are very likely not the only one. The forum Questions Regarding A-02: Reflecting on Biases Worksheet (Sec 0 or Sec 2) provides a space to discuss next week’s assignment and ask anything you are unsure about.
- Students can share a time they or someone they know did something in service to someone in Ethical Principle: Service (Sec 0 or Sec 2).
Unit Resources
You can listen to this week’s podcast episode for the reading Deep Dive on Chapter 2: Ethical Responsibilities to Social Work Clients, or listen to the full series Deep Dive: Reamer (2023).
The National Association of Social Workers (2021) Code of Ethics text is included in the forum posts but is also available online. See it here: NASW Code of Ethics. During the lecture video, we discuss confidentiality and working with clients with substance use disorder (a topic required for the Substance Use Disorder Professional Trainee (SUDPT) credential, as identified in WAC 246-811-030(3), Educational Requirements, 2025). For my SOWK 486w class, we discussed this last week in class. This topic is covered in both classes, and for this course I wanted to spend a little time recognizing that there is a separate code of ethics specific to professionals working in this field. You can read the NAADAC/NCC AP code of ethics Code of Ethics.
You can also explore the NASW Standards for Social Work Practice with Clients with Substance Use Disorders (2013). It is a little outdated but still has some good discussion of what our standards of practices should include for working with clients who experience a substance use disorder.
In one of the forums, I ask you to engage with a values exercise. Padlet - W-06 Values Exercise - Understanding Differing Perspectives
All of the presentations for this class can be found at https://presentations.jacobrcampbell.com. This week’s slides are Fall 2026 SOWK 430 Week 06 - Working with Clients - Standards, Bias, and Confidentiality.
The lecture video for this week is Fall 2026 SOWK 430 Week 06 (Sec 0 or Sec 2).
The information for A-02: Reflecting on Biases Worksheet is all uploaded. You can use the forum to ask any questions about this assignment. You can view my handout with the assignment description and grading rubric (Sec 0 or Sec 2), and the worksheet you will complete, Bias Reflection Worksheet.docx (Sec 0 or Sec 2), and the assignment on MyHeritage (Sec 0 or Sec 2) to turn it in.
Reference
NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals. (2025). NAADAC/NCC AP code of ethics. https://www.naadac.org/code-of-ethics
National Association of Social Workers. (2021). NASW code of ethics. https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English
National Association of Social Workers. (2013). NASW standards for social work practice with clients with substance use disorders. https://www.socialworkers.org/Practice/NASW-Practice-Standards-Guidelines/NASW-Standards-for-Social-Work-Practice-with-Clients-with-Substance-Use-Disorders
Reamer, F. G. (2023). Ethical standards in social work: A review of the NASW code of ethics (rev. 3rd ed.). NASW Press.
To-Do List
- Read Chapter 2 in Reamer (2023)
- Watch my lecture video
- Complete one post on the values exercise Padlet
- Make three replies across any of this week’s forums, including at least one on a sub-standard no one else has written about
- Read all of the threads and check out the resources shared