Human Services Ethics And Interventions

For this assignment you will be reading a case scenario in your text and responding to some questions related to the impact of the environment on behavior and choices, the impact of the client-human services professional relationship, and how identifying potential ethical issues and the National Organization for Human Services (NOHS) Ethical Standards can help guide you in working with clients.

Teen pregnancy affects millions of adolescent clients and their families every year. As a human service professional working with adolescents and families you will build reciprocal relationships that make a lasting impact on both the client and yourself. Understanding how the environment is impacting the client and their family helps build the trust required to better understand what interventions and resources may be available to empower the client and their family. In the field of human services you will be interacting with individuals with a variety of needs within many systems, especially when working with families. Due to the span of diversity among individuals it is important for you to become familiar with the ethical standards as set forth for human service professionals. The following Assignment will require you to find and discuss the importance of the ethical standards as developed by the National Organization for Human Services (NOHS). A code of ethics is “an explicit statement of the values, principles, and rules of a profession, regulating the conduct of its members” (Barker, 2001, p. 84). Understanding how to consider ethical issues and how we may resolve them using ethical standards is critical to successful and ethical client outcomes and ensuring both the human service professional and the client are protected from potential conflicts.

Go to page 290 in your text and read the case study in Spotlight 6.2 titled Portrait of a Single Father. Next go to www.nationalhumanservices.org website and review the NOHS Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals.

After reading the case study and NOHS Ethical Standards, reflect on the situation Gary finds himself in, his environment, and possible ethical considerations in the case and that the worker may need to consider as part of an ethical approach to the client and his family. Answer the following:

1. Discuss how Gary’s environment has influenced his behavior and decision-making during his adolescence.
2. Discuss how working with a Human Service Professional (HSP) in a reciprocal relationship may help Gary change his behavior and decision-making to address his current life challenges.
3. Considering the case study details and the NOHS Ethical Standards, identify one ethical concern you would have when working with Gary and/or his family. Provide one NOHS Ethical Standard that you believe would be important to apply in this case to ensure this ethical issue is addressed within the client and HSP relationship. Refer to the specific NOHS Ethical Standard in your response.
4. Discuss one specific way using ethical standards impacts the behavior of a HSP when working with clients such as Gary.
5. Provide the name and contact information for one human service agency you believe a HSP could refer Gary to in order to provide assistance with his current issues. Explain how you believe this agency could specifically assist Gary.
6. Considering your responses to the assignment questions, explain how Gary’s case outcome might change from the ending offered in the case study epilogue. Discuss how familiarity with ethical standards and available resources strengthened the relationship between the Human Service Professional and Gary in your response.

The paper should be 6 complete paragraphs, resulting in approximately 2 pages of text in addition to the cover page and the final reference page. It also should be free of spelling and grammatical errors. The Assignment should be double-spaced, using a 12 point Times New Roman font.

The Assignment should include a cover page and a final reference page where you cite your course text and any other sources you choose to include in the paper. The only required sources are your text and NOHS Ethical Standards of Human Service Professionals.

You can explore the Kaplan Library or credible Internet sites for additional sources, but the text and NOHS Ethical Standards are your primary sources of support. Your opinions also are valued, but it is important to keep in mind that your main objective in completing this project is to illustrate your knowledge of the course material.

Citing Sources:

It is important to always attribute credit to the proper sources when relying on the text, articles, websites, or other sources. You must credit your work when you:

• Summarize concepts and theories that you learned in the text, articles, or internet sources.
• Use others’ ideas, theories, and concepts in constructing Discussion topic responses or completing Assignments.
• Use direct quotes in the context of your paper (when quoting directly, you must use quotation marks).

Your Assignment must be your original work; plagiarism will not be tolerated. Be sure to review the Syllabus in terms of what constitutes plagiarism.

Reference: Zastrow, Charles, Karen Kirst-Ashman. Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series: Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment. Cengage Learning, 02/2012. VitalSource Bookshelf Online.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
• Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
• Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.