Personal and Professional Social Work Values

Social Workers and the LGBTQ Community
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Social Workers and the LGBTQ Community
There are diverse scenarios that depict how a social worker’s personal, ethical, and moral values in relation to the LGBTQ community might conflict with those of their clients. A good scenario is when a social worker is exposed to more negative sentiments about LGBTQ community members from the media. This is a process known as social learning or categorization. When people learn negative views about a given group in society, they tend to develop negatives beliefs towards that group. Social categorization plays a significant role in evoking prejudice. Social identities and bias are usually created media stories that reinforce negative views regarding certain social groups. Social workers draw some of their personal values and ethics from the media and these values sometimes contradict with what is expected of them in their profession. Personal beliefs are characterized by stereotypes, negative thoughts, and feelings concerning all the members of the LGBTQ community. It is these views that create barriers for social workers to perform their duties objectively (Dessel et al., 2017).
Professional values demand that social workers protect the members of society without developing any negative attitudes towards them (Dessel et al., 2017). They are obligated to fight against all factors that may have the risk of causing or increasing negative perceptions and harm. Social workers who are driven by prejudice are inflexible, they have irrational opinions, attitudes, and feelings against the LGBTQ community.

Irrespective of their personal beliefs and attitudes, social workers are expected to adhere to their professional values and standards of practice so that they can offer services to all the members of the population. They are expected to be culturally competent and they are to demonstrate a high level of understanding of sexual, gender and religious diversity.
Reference
Dessel, A. B., Jacobsen, J., Levy, D. L., McCarty-Caplan, D., Lewis, T. O., & Kaplan, L. E. (2017). LGBTQ Topics and Christianity in Social Work: Tackling the Tough Questions. Social Work & Christianity, 44.