Ethical Concerns of Human Services Management
Ethical Concerns of Human Services Management
Teen Program Managers oversee the daily operations of whatever program the company you work for has involving teens. The main role of this manager position are providing innovative services and successfully promoting these services to teens and their parents. Managing a program in health services implies training employees and volunteers to provide the best to the most teens in the area. In this short document, a manager’s duties will be looked at; these duties will be looked at through an ethical lens, outlining a couple standards that need to be followed as a manager, how to teach ethical standards to employees and volunteers, and a brief look at some other concerns regarding teen programs.
The focuses of a program like this should include providing positive self-esteem goals, good work in schools and after-school jobs; showing examples of good civic stewardship through community action and fostering leadership skills and a compatible personality (Boys and Girls Club, n.d). Your staff may include counselors, life coaches, sports coaches, and academic tutors. Volunteers will likely include community leaders, those who need experience in their own academic goals, and concerned parents or other adults.
There are abundant ethical standards that need to be met when it comes to the care of minors. As a manager, it is profoundly important that the right people will be hired and monitor the needs of kids, and its also important for the manager to make sure that employees and volunteers are following standards. Specifically, as a manager to employees working under your direction, it is important that standards 28 and 37 are expected between the manager and employees.
Standard 28, to paraphrase, means that a counselor or worker will initiate a conversation with the manager if there are any questions regarding legality, ethics or any other decision that could impact the teen or coworker (NOHS, 2015). Standard 37 is another important ethical concern, that we understand as a manager, and as a program, that we are working with teens who come from all different backgrounds. We need to be aware of where the students are coming from, both socially and culturally; they will have different religions, be of different races and socioeconomic backgrounds. They may be a member of the GLBTQIA community. Some will probably have different levels of learning capabilities. We need to have a uniform understanding and awareness of these differences, and it is ultimately up to the manager to make sure that the methodologies developed are being followed (NOHS, 2015).
There are several ways to implement ethics training in a workplace. Three that are very effective are having a written code of conduct. This ensures that the guidelines are followed uniformly. In order to enforce compliance to reading this document, it should be concise, and read during training. A second method is to have active conversations and incentives for participating in the discussions during employee and volunteer meetings. Keeping the discussion alive is key to remembering ethical standards. Role playing during these meetings is a third way to teach ethics, that may be a more effective learning tool for those you do not learn well via discussion or reading. Acting out ethical concerns keeps everybody alert and on their toes; it can also be a lot of fun. By the manager involving the staff in on-job-training, they are providing field instruction, which has been studied and documented as the best way to train employees on ethical standards (Reamer, 2012)
Three other concerns include maintaining the confidentiality of teenagers, and knowing when that confidence must be broken, as per standards 3 and 4 regarding abuse. The teens should always be aware that when seeking consultation from us, we may be required to inform the legal enforcement agencies if laws were broken (National Counseling Society, 2016). And if a counselor sees something, regardless of counseling or not, they need to say something. The second concern is not undermining other counselors from what they are trying to work with the teens on, per standard 5. The solution is simple, since this type of work requires multiple relationships. We, as an organization, need to be in constant contact with each other. Conflicting ideas only serve to confuse the teens.
A third standard, standard 7, is short enough to quote: “Human service professionals ensure that their values or biases are not imposed upon their clients.” (NOHS, 2015). This is a good standard to finish on, because it reinforces the need we have to be aware of as an organization to be aware of cultural differences. Teen programs are not very common in monocultural neighborhoods, for good reason. Everybody tends to know each other, and families in these neighborhoods tend to share similar values.
Teen programs are much more abundant in places where teenagers are frequently marginalized upon several status quos. Who are we to impose whatever values we have on these formative minds, when they are already facing it from a ton of other places. The solution here is to be an example. Show respect and dignity for all different cultures, religions, races, sexual orientations or identities, or those who have been affected by a mental or physical incapacity (Humanservicesedu, 2015). After all, this is the ultimate goal we should want for the people we are helping, whether being a manager, or a once a week volunteer.
References
Boys and Girls Club. (n.d.). Position Description: Teen Program manager. Boys and
Girls Club of Chicopee web portal. retrieved from bgcchicopee.org//Teen%20 Program%20Manager%20Job%20Description
HumanServicesEDU. (2015). Understanding Cultural Competency. HumanServicesEDU.org.
retrieved from http://www.humanservicesedu.org/cultural-competency.html
National Counseling Society. (2016). The National Counselling Society Safeguarding Policy.
The National Counseling Society. retrieved from http://www.nationalcounselling
society.org /about/code-of-ethics/safeguarding-policy/
NOHS. (2015). Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals. National Organization
for Human Services. retrieved from http://www.nationalhumanservices.org/ethical-
standards-for-hs-professionals
Reamer, F. (2012). Essential Ethics Education in Social Work Field Instruction. Field Scholar.
vol. 2.2 Fall 2012. retrieved from http://fieldeducator.simmons.edu/article/essential-
ethics-education-in-social-work-field-instruction/
