ACWA Code of Ethics Scenarios: LEGAL AND ETHICAL DILEMMAS AS HUMAN SERVICE WORKER (LAW)

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.

Scenario-1: Your 17-year-old client, Alex, is under "guardianship of the Minister" and wants you to arrange for them to leave foster care because her current foster carers will not accept her desire to transition from her birth gender (male) to her preferred gender identity (female). You have never delt with a transgender youth before. When you ask your line manager about getting some professional development training, they tell you to "use Google like everyone else; there is no money or time to send staff on training days."

Scenario-2: Alex has just disclosed to you that one of her teachers has offered to take her on a weekend trip to Robe so that she can get away from the pressures of her foster family. Alex says she likes talking with this teacher and has met them for coffee at a caf in Glenelg a couple of times and he seems really nice. When you tell her that you will need to report this teacher to the Department, she starts yelling at you because "this is unfair!" and "you said everything I told you would be confidential!"

Scenario-3: 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.

How to identify this in Short answers?