NASW Celebrates Code of Ethics’ 65th Anniversary
By Laetitia Clayton
As NASW commemorates it 70th anniversary this year, there is another
milestone to recognize as well: The NASW Code of Ethics turns 65.
To honor the Code, NASW’s Office of Ethics and Professional Review
(OEPR) is launching a monthlong 65th birthday campaign this month that
includes a social media campaign and a dedicated
web page with NASW ethics resources.
The NASW Code of Ethics has been updated periodically over the decades to align
with changes in the profession and in society. It continues to define "the
values, principles and ethical standards that guide the decision-making
and everyday professional conduct of social workers. It is relevant to
all social workers and social work students regardless of their specific
functions or settings,” NASW says on its
website.
“The Code of Ethics is the engine that drives our profession’s
mission, said Julie Black, LCSW-C, senior ethics and professional review
associate in the OEPR. “It’s the compass that drives social work practice.”
The Code also has stood the test of time, said OEPR Director Andrea Murray, MSW, LICSW.
“The Code continues to meet the moment by evolving with the times to guide social workers through challenging dilemmas encountered in all practice settings,” she said.
History
NASW adopted its original Code of Ethics on Oct. 13, 1960, as a set of 14 guidelines. Over the decades, the Code has gone through several revisions, with the latest updates occurring in 2021 and focusing heavily on technology. Today’s Code of Ethics includes “more than 170 ethical standards, a mission statement for the profession, six broad ethical principles, and a set of core social work values,” ethics expert, educator and author Frederic G. Reamer, PhD, writes in the preface to his book “Ethical Standards in Social Work: A Review of the NASW Code of Ethics” (Revised 3rd Edition), published in 2023.
In 1979, NASW adopted a revised version of the Code of Ethics to include standards that more specifically addressed unethical behavior in the profession and enforcement of ethical practices among social workers. This version was revised twice, and, in 1993, Reamer chaired a task force to amend the 1979 Code to include five new ethical standards that addressed social worker impairment and boundary issues.
NASW’s 1993 Delegate Assembly voted to incorporate the new standards, but also passed a resolution “to establish a task force to draft an entirely new code of ethics for submission to the 1996 Delegate Assembly …” Reamer writes. “An entirely new code was needed because, since the 1979 code had been drafted, a new scholarly field—applied and professional ethics—had emerged.” NASW adopted the new Code of Ethics in 1996.
The association approved several revisions to the new Code in the following years, including a 2008 change that incorporated “sexual orientation, gender identity, and immigration status into the existing nondiscrimination standards,” Reamer writes. In 2017, extensive technology-related additions were incorporated “pertaining to informed consent, competent practice, conflicts of interest, privacy and confidentiality, sexual relationships, sexual harassment, interruption of services, unethical conduct of colleagues, supervision and consultation, education and training, client records, and evaluation and research.” In 2021, revisions were made to include language around the importance of social worker self-care and the addition of the term “cultural competence.”
As for what might prompt another Code revision, artificial intelligence (AI) is a strong possibility. Though the 2021 revisions focused mainly on technology, AI had not yet infiltrated society as it has done in the past couple of years. But the timing for any revisions is driven by NASW members, Murray said. “They have a voice through Delegate Assembly.”
Ethical Dilemmas
Social workers periodically encounter dilemmas in their day-to-day practice and often look to NASW for guidance. Presently, social workers are wrestling with the application of the Code’s core values that at times conflict with policy, regulation and law. The current political climate has presented renewed attention to the values that underpin the social work profession.
Some issues causing ethical dilemmas for social workers include gender-affirming care, immigration, and return-to-work challenges. Most social workers want to abide by the Code, Black said, and they “feel very deeply about upholding these values.”
Being faced with these dilemmas can cause “a lot of moral distress,” she added.
In the past, clinical concerns usually drove the ethics, Murray said, but “now it’s more societal concerns around social justice and advocacy. That’s new for many social workers.”
The Six Core Values
NASW will honor the Code’s 65th
milestone throughout October, and celebrate all it has done to guide
the social work profession. “We’re going back to the basic values that
brought us to the profession and unite us,” Murray said.
The preamble to the NASW Code of Ethics says: “The mission of the social work profession is rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the profession’s history, are the foundation of social work’s unique purpose and perspective." They are:
- Service
- Social justice
- Dignity and worth of the person
- Importance of human relationships
- Integrity
- Competence