Journal of Social Work Values & Ethics

Reviewed by Donna DeAngelis, MSW, LCSW; Executive Director, Association of Social Work Boards

With the tension increasing between the values of social work and the values of society and organizations, the third edition of Social Work Ethics and Values provides sage and timely guidance for responsible and ethical social work practice. Dr. Reamer’s classic work has been updated to address the NASW Code of Ethics revisions of 1999. This book provides an overview of the history of the Code of Ethics for the social work profession and relates the changes in the code to changes in social work philosophy and practice. He identifies and describes core social work values, relates them to ethical principles, and gives case examples to demonstrate values in action. There is an excellent discussion of potentially conflicting values and the professional struggle to reconcile these conflicts.

Dr. Reamer discusses ethical dilemmas and provides a decision-making framework for addressing ethical dilemmas in direct and indirect practice, again complete with illuminating examples. Finally he discusses ethics as they relate to risk management and the occurrence of ethical misconduct.

If there is only one book that you ever read (and hopefully you will read many) on social work ethics, this should be it.