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Full-Text Articles in Social Work
Clinical Social Work In A Digital Environment: Ethical And Risk-Management Challenges, Frederic G. Reamer
Clinical Social Work In A Digital Environment: Ethical And Risk-Management Challenges, Frederic G. Reamer
Faculty Publications
Clinical social workers’ use of digital and other technology to provide distance counseling services is proliferating. Increasing numbers of contemporary practitioners are using video counseling, email chat, social networking websites, text messaging, smartphone apps, avatar-based websites, self-guided web-based interventions, and other technology to provide clinical services to clients, some of whom they may never meet in person. The advent of this technology has produced a wide range of ethical challenges related to social workers’ application of traditional social work ethics concepts: client informed consent; client privacy and confidentiality; boundaries and dual relationships; conflicts of interest; practitioner competence; records and documentation; …
Distance And Online Social Work Education: Novel Ethical Challenges, Frederic G. Reamer
Distance And Online Social Work Education: Novel Ethical Challenges, Frederic G. Reamer
Faculty Publications
Digital technology has transformed social work education. Today’s students can take individual courses and earn an entire degree without ever meeting their faculty members in person. Technological innovations such as videoconferencing, live online chat, asynchronous podcasts, and webinars enable social work educators to reach students whose personal circumstances and geographical locations make it difficult for them to attend school in person. This paper highlights complex ethical issues associated with the proliferation of digital and online social work education. Key ethical issues concern student access; course and degree program quality and integrity; academic honesty and gatekeeping; and privacy and surveillance.