Social work is one of the few remaining professions in the world where people work for what they can do for others and not for what they can get out of the work. The world today is witnessing a rise in natural calamities among other social vices a trend that has greatly necessitated the need for social workers. Unlike other professions in the world where people do not work with passion, social workers are supposed to devote all energies to their work. On top of this, social work is among the remaining few careers where people are actually governed by well-laid codes of ethics. (Hepworth et al, 2009, p. 6)
According to the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers, the principal objective of the social work profession is to augment human well-being and to help meet the primary needs of humans. To accomplish this, there is the need for meticulous concentration on the requirements and emancipation of people who are defenseless and those living in abject poverty. All social workers are dictated by their ethics to value the dignity and worth of a person. This value makes social workers in return to respect the inherent dignity and worth of an individual. Social workers treat each person with respect despite the backgrounds of those individuals. (NASW, 1999)
A classic example of how social workers respect the inherent dignity and worth of a person can best be seen from the way they treat mentally challenged people in the society. In our country today, people with mental disorders are usually looked down upon by society. This has brought untold suffering to the mentally challenged people who are left with no choice but to wander in the streets since their families either have disowned them or are too busy to take care of them. Most families prefer to take their loved ones who have become mentally unstable to sanatoriums never to return for them. This leaves those mentally challenged individuals with no one else other than the social workers in those mental hospitals. Though by this time most of these mentally challenged people have lost their dignity, a social worker realizes that this individual had an inherent dignity and will do everything possible to treat them with respect despite their condition. (NASW, 1999)
According to a book called, Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skills, “People who receive social work services are often overwhelmed by their difficult circumstances and have exhausted their coping resources”. (Hepworth et al, 2009, p. 6) Most times in life when individuals come to that point of despair, those around them desert for fear of commitment. This leaves those affected with stress and in most cases, many people opt for suicide since they cannot see a way out of their misery. Social workers help such individuals who feel that they have come to the end of their tether to cope with the challenges in their life.
The trend in life today, where people treat others according to the level of their dignity, has left those without it in an uncertain predicament. With the current inclination in the world today where people are treated based on what they can offer to society, those who are not able to offer anything have been left in neglect by society. This has left such kinds of people with no one else but social workers who realize that every individual has an inherent dignity within them and should therefore be treated with respect.
References
National Association of Social Workers, (1999). Code of Ethics, Web.
Hepworth, D., Rooney R., Rooney, G., & Larsen, J. (2009). Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skills. Cengage Learning.