ACWA Code of Ethics Scenario:

You have been appointed as a Case Manager at the Dodgy Human Services Agency (DHSA). The Agency's values are "Client-Centred, Compassion, Integrity, Dignity and Inclusivity." The DHSA is facing an audit of their service delivery practice by their funding partner. Your Line Manager, Sally, has asked you to ensure that the DHSA is compliant with the ACWA ethical guidelines. She knows that as a member of the Australian Community Workers Association (ACWA) who graduated from EQUALS International, you will have learnt how to interpret the ACWA's ethical guidelines. "Check us out," Sally says, "and let me know what we are doing right, what we need to improve on, and anything that needs an urgent fix." The good thing about joining a small agency was that there was going to be plenty of work for you to do. Already, on your first day, you had been handed three ongoing cases that you were to take over.

For each of the following scenarios, identify actions, behaviours, processes and/or procedures that are:

a) Compliant with ACWA's Code of Ethics

b) Potentially problematic or non-compliant with ACWA's Code of Ethics

c) A breach of ACWA's Code of Ethics

For each aspect you identify, link it directly to one or more sections of the Code. Where you note a problem or urgent fix required, suggest an improvement, supported by the Code. You must also describe how the Agency's values are or are not reflected in the scenario.

Scenarios:

(A) Cindy, who works in the office next to yours, appeared at your door with an unusual question, "do you happen to speak Punjabi? I have an international student in my office," she tells you, "and I have been explaining to them the conditions of their student visa with respect to the number of hours they can work. But they keep telling me that their boss says this must work every night or he will have them deported. I don't think they understand what I am telling them. I've made a note in their file that I warned them about compliance, but before I close the interview with them, I thought that we might give it another try - if you speak Punjabi, that is." Unfortunately, you don't speak Punjabi.

(B) Your client, Eric, is about to lose their room at the St Vinnies Men's Crisis Centre. Eric has already been there six weeks and the demand for the room is too great to allow Eric to continue to stay. Your efforts to find him a room in a boarding house or a hostel hasn't worked out yet but you think that a room for Eric might become available in three nights. Eric tells you that he will have to sleep rough until then. You look out the window and see that the rain is pouring down and, thinking about the spare bedroom in your house, you make a quick decision; Eric can stay with you for three nights until the hostel room becomes available.

Answer in sections.