Vertybių raiška socialiniame darbe /

Bachelor Thesis – Manifestation of Values in the Social Work Relevance. We live in a global world full of different cultures and attitudes. The faster globalization is, the more people become cosmopolitan and gradually destroy their own values, which accompany them from birth to death. As the world changes we forget that the values created and shaped us as personalities. A person begins creating his life on the basis of such values, but there are people who find it difficult to create their own lives independently and who then need the help of social workers. Following the Law on Social Services of the Republic of Lithuania (2006), the social work shall mean the activities helping a person, a family to solve their social problems according to their possibilities and with their participation, without violating human dignity and by increasing their responsibility based on the co-operation of a person, family and society. The main values of social work in practice are defined by the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. National codes of ethics of social workers in different countries of the world are prepared according to this Code. Ivanauskienė, Varžinskienė (2007) state that the national codes of ethics describe the values which shall be followed by social workers, what the desirable behaviour with the clients and colleagues is and how a social worker should act in practice. The authors state that the values related to the social work may indicate the direction of the daily practical social work. In accordance with the Code of Ethics of Social Workers of Lithuania (2017), the social work helps a person, a family to solve their social problems according to their possibilities and with their participation, without violating human dignity and by increasing their responsibility based on the co-operation of a person, family and society. The social work – “enables people, families, communities and society to solve their relationship and social problems by promoting social change, improving the quality of life and strengthening solidarity and social justice” (Code of Ethics of Social Workers of Lithuania, 2017). The social worker must be guided by specific values when working with the clients. According to Gualtherie van Weezel, Alkimavičius and others (2010), theoretical and actual values of social workers often differ. These authors state that the social workers must understand personal values and have knowledge of the values that are widespread in society, as in case of failure to understand the importance of values of social work may become a difficult and even misleading profession. Understanding the values – the main guarantor of a personality (Budreikaitė, 2013). According to Jovaiša (2007), a value is a thing which meets the needs of a person or society. According to Budreikaitė (2013), the results of the research carried out by Lithuanian researchers Aramavičiūtė (2005), L. Duoblienė (2007) and others showed that the uncritical adoption of the present model of the world without giving importance to the moral attitudes and values negatively affect the development of a person. Subjective values, i.e. the one on the basis of which a person seeks or the most meaningful thing, may be attributed to the social work. According to Ambrosino, Hefterman and others (2011) it can be stated that the social workers are determined to respect the dignity and worth of every human being, regardless of the social class, ethnic origin, skin colour, gender, sexual orientation or age. The social workers treat their clients as personalities while maintaining their dignity, privacy and values. The aim of the Code of Ethics of Social Workers of Lithuania (2017) – is to determine the main values of social work, establish main attitudes and principles, which shall help the social workers to solve ethnic problems related to their social work. In accordance with the Oder of the Minister of Social Security and Labour of the Republic of Lithuania (2006), the social worker and his/her assistant shall be guided by the values. According to Kavaliauskiene (2005), it might be assumed that the social work is closely related to the values which are expressed through the principles of social work, the code of ethics and which become the indicator of practical activities related to the social work (performance standards). The researchers Vyšniauskienė, Minkutė (2008) state that the values are certain ideals created by a person, beliefs that one of the choices is more socially acceptable than the others. According to these researchers it might be stated that by following the values a person himself decides how to behave in a certain situation. It shall be noted that no detailed researches regarding the subject of this thesis have been carried out in Lithuania. The scientific literature usually analyses individual issues related to the social work, social workers and values. It might be pointed out that individual aspects of the values of people performing social work have been analysed by the following Lithuanian researchers (Vyšniauskienė, Minkutė (2008); Ivanauskienė, Varžinskienė (2007); Prakapas (2007); Kavaliauskienė (2005) and others) and foreign researchers (Barsky (2010); Johnson (2001); Sutton (1999); Rothman (2014); Humphrey (2010); Wilson (2008); Seden (2010) and others). However, there is a lack of researches on the manifestation of values in the social work among the representatives of the field of social work. The scientific and practical relevance of the research implies the following main problematic issues: How can we describe the content of the values? What challenges do the social workers have to face in respect of the values? What is the difference between the implementation of the Code of Ethics of Social Workers in practical activities in Lithuania and Latvia? Subject of the research – manifestation of values of social workers. The aim of the research – to reveal the manifestation of values of social workers. Objectives: To reveal the main values of the social work and provide the model of the theoretical model of the structure of values of social work while applying the theoretical analysis. To describe the content of values and the challenges of its realization in the context of social work while applying the theoretical analysis. To reveal the manifestation of values of social workers in Lithuania and Latvia and the challenges of realization of the code of ethics in practical activities while applying the method of qualitative research. Methods of the research: Analysis of scientific literature; Empirical research method was applied - qualitative research - semi-structured interview, written survey with open-ended questions. 6. Method of qualitative content analysis. Participants of the research (respondents) – 8 social workers (social work experts) from Lithuania and 8 social workers (social work experts) from Latvia. In summary, social worker who provides social services to the patience, is oriented towards satisfying the needs of a person in accordance with the expectations of a person, the dedication to work, including the cooperation and the basic fact that the patients have to solve their problems on their own and the social worker only points out the directions how to achieve it. In order to reveal the expression of the values of social workers in the context of Lithuania and Latvia, we can compare the answers in some subcategories. For example, in the subcategory „The conformity of behaviour and values of the social worker following the ethics of social work“ (N=15) we can notice that social workers understand differently the harmony of the Code of Ethics and values in Lithuania (N=9) and Latvia (N=6). Referring to the next subcategory \"The realisation of the principles of the Code of Ethics in social work\" (N = 5), it is noticeable that social workers in Latvia (N = 3) are struggling to implement the principles of the Code of Ethics in practical work comparing with the social workers in Lithuania (N = 2). Comparing the research results in the subcategory \"Equality principles between the patents in social work\" (N = 11), we observe that Lithuanian social workers (N = 9) adhere to the principle of people equality in practice, while it was not noticed talking about Latvian social workers (N = 2). In the subcategory \"The respect of social worker for a patience\" (N = 6) it is noticeable that Lithuanian social workers (N = 5) emphasise respect for a patience, while in Latvia (N = 1) it was not noticed. Regarding values in the development of mutual relations, \"The values in relationships between social worker and a patience\" (N = 13) revealed that both countries Lithuania (N = 7) and Latvia (N = 6) have almost the same understanding of the values in which mutual relations are being developed. Therefore, by comparing the results of the research, it can be argued that Lithuanian social workers adhere to the Code of Ethics and perceive the coherence between their behaviour and the values promoted by the Code of Ethics. Latvian social workers are still trying to apply ethical principles in their professional activities. Lithuanian respondents respect their clients as equals. However, in the creation of mutual relations it was revealed that social workers in Lithuania and Latvia know the most important values that exist in the development of interpersonal relations. Conclusions: 1. While carrying out the theoretical analysis, the main values of social work were revealed and the theoretical model of the structure of values of social work was presented. In accordance with the analysis of scientific sources and legislation, it might be stated that there are 6 main values of social work: relationship between people; competence, integrity; individual freedom and dignity; services; social justice. The distinguished values can be found in the operational definitions (see Annex No. 1) 2. While analysing the theory, the content of values, ethical dilemmas and value conflicts in the context of social work were described. Social workers face ethical dilemmas in their work as they arise in such situations when the professional duties conflict with the main values of social work. For example, a situation when the social workers have to choose between maintaining the confidentiality of a person and the professional duty to ensure the well-being of a person. Confidentiality is the value of social work, but the duty of a social worker is to ensure the well-being of a person and sometimes the well-being can only be ensured by breaching person’s confidentiality. The value conflicts also occur when professional duties conflict with the values of social work. However, the main source of value conflicts - the awareness of a social worker about the code of ethics and individual differences of the cognitive process. Value conflicts also arise when the social workers face a situation when their personal and professional values conflict with each other. 3. After carrying out the qualitative research it was revealed that the manifestation of values of social workers in Lithuania and Latvia is not very different. Social work professionals know such values as: confidentiality, uniqueness and others. They continuously improve their skills and professional competence both at the theoretical and practical level in order to become professionals in their field. The social worker encounters the code of ethics in his/her everyday activities and it becomes the basis of his/her behaviour in a specific situation, but the code of ethics also causes dilemmas when the theoretical clauses of the code of ethics cannot be applied in practice only because they become archaic and differ from the context of today’s world. During the research it was determined that it is a great challenge for the social workers to be fair. Nevertheless, they seek to ensure the individual freedom and dignity in their daily activities, they respect a person who asks for help. Social workers believe that a person is precious and important as well as able to decide what kind of help he/she needs. Social workers emphasized the fact that the development of mutual relations and awareness about values might help to provide professional help to a person and meet his expectations.

Grantor dc:publisher

Institutional Repository of Vilnius University

Year dc:date

2018

Author dc:creator

• Ožolaitė, Irena,

Contributors dc:contributor

• Šapelytė, Odeta

• Values in social work ; values ; value manifestation

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Language dc:language

lit

Repository record dc:identifier

https://repository.vu.lt/VU:ELABAETD28547137&prefLang=en_US

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vu.lt:elaba:28547137