Conservative think tank reviles Code of Ethics, clouds public understanding of profession, NASW responds.
(June/July 1997)

An article in a magazine published by a conservative think tank last month appears to be the latest in a series of attacks on the social work profession by conservative groups.

The article, "(Social) Workers Unite!" by Alan T. Demaree, which appears in the Spring, 1997 issue of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal, calls NASW's Code of Ethics to task for not "...help[ing] clients to examine their won defects of character and judgement or to take responsibility for themselves."

The New York Times characterizes the Manhattan Institute as "..home to a range of species on the right-hand side of the political spectrum: market conservatives, social conservatives, old style aristocratic conservatives, libertarians, as well as a few registered Democrats..." The Institute is also credited by the Times as having "...pulled off the improbable feat of helping change the course of the country's , most liberal big city."

The article follows the recent publication of an op-ed piece by Heritage Foundation fellow James Payne in a number of newspapers, in which Payne blamed the anticipated failure of federal welfare reform on social workers. Last year, Crain's New York Business, another conservative publication, called social workers the most powerful group in New York State, based on legislative attention to social services issues.

The New York City Chapter, as well as the National organization, has made enhancing the image of the profession a priority, reflecting as accurately as possible what it is social workers do and, what we accomplish in the face of overwhelming odds. NASW takes the threats from the right quite seriously, as they have the potential to negatively impact both the systems with which we and our clients interact and the public's view of the social work profession.

(Social) Workers Unite!

Leave it to the National Association of Social Workers to bring its code of ethics up to date with an ever-more-complex world. To take but one example: the old version of the code, which dates back to 1979, devoted 13 simple words to prohibiting sex with "clients" (as social workers call the people they serve). The new code, adopted in January, dedicates 488 words to discussing every imaginable contingency concerning sexual relations, sexual harassment, even physical contact among co-workers, former clients, current clients, and their friends and relatives. For social workers, it seems, it's never enough just to say, "Be responsible and exercise self-control.

But what's most striking in the new code is the candor with which the NASW articulates its sociopolitical world view. No one will be surprised to learn that the 155,000-member group, whose board of directors unanimously endorsed Bill Clinton for reelection and resolutely opposed welfare reform, trumpets political correctness, and tilts decidedly to the left. But here, for the first time, the NASW provides a full social workers' credo.

The code lays out a familiar and--one would think--by now discredited view of the poor as victims of social and economic injustice. It defines the profession's "primary mission" as enhancing human well-being, with particular attention to the "empowerment" of the "oppressed." Social workers, it says, strive to end all "forms of social injustice," including poverty, and pursue their ends through "advocacy," "community organizing," and "social and political action." As the NASW sees it, the poor bear no responsibility for their lot in life, and the system is the villain.

What's almost entirely missing here, of course, is any expectation that social workers will help clients to examine their own defects of character and judgement or to take responsibility for themselves. This jibes nicely with the code's command to respect "ethnic diversity" and constantly display "cultural sensitivity." Far be it from social workers to make judgements, impose standards, and demand that their impoverished clients change their ways. Indeed, social workers should recognize "the strengths that exist in all cultures" and educate themselves about "the nature of social diversity and oppression with respect to race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, political belief, religion and mental or physical disability."

The NASW's original code, written in 1960, focused narrowly on how social workers should behave towards their clients: "I give precedence to my professional responsibility over my personal interest," "I respect the privacy of the people I serve," and so forth. It all fit neatly on one page--and it deserved respect.