An Analysis of the Ethical Dilemma of a Case in Family Social Work

Abstract: A family is a basic unit of a society and the first school of life, so the importance of the family is self-evident. Social work is a work that makes oneself improvement by helping others, prevents and solves social problems. A social worker will encounter a variety of ethical dilemma which it need to be made a decision when he/she practices, especially dealing with the case of family cases. Which family member should be argued to consider with a priority by a social worker making ethical decisions in order to make the relationship of the whole family becomes more harmonious?

Based on analysis of the family case in social work, this paper put forward the decisions to deal with ethical dilemma as follow: social workers should (1) comply with the guidelines for ethical decision-making recommended by Professor Ralph Dolgoff when we encounter the ethical dilemma in professional practice; (2) enhance our quality in all aspects through sustainable study by ourselves, and (3) make the social work localized by means of integrating theories with local practice. In other words, these conclusions have been summarized in accordance with the empirical research method in this paper.

Therefore, the social worker should fulfill above-mentioned methods to cope with the family case in professional practice in order to assist the client and ourselves to improve jointly.

Key words: Social work, Family case, Ethical dilemma, Localization.