Real World Examples

These ethical dilemmas were all reported on Reddit by real social workers. All of them involve misrepresentation. How would you answer each of them?

1

Hi everyone. My sister is a case worker for the unhoused. She is newish to the organization, but has noticed that her colleagues refer to themselves as social workers to their clients. These colleagues have no social work degrees or credentials. As a social worker myself, I take issue with this, and my sister isn’t fond of this either. She thinks it’s misleading for her coworkers to call themselves social workers to their clients. I’ve asked my sister if she’d be okay addressing this with her coworkers, and she said she would, she just doesn’t know how to go about this since she’s still new and doesn’t want to burn any bridges. Any advice for my sister?

2

I’m in my first year of an MSW program. I’ve been in my placement for about a month and a half, and I just found out that my supervisor has been lying to everyone about having her license. As in, she was hired under the guise of having her L, her business cards say LMSW and she signs her emails with LMSW but either never took or never passed the exam. I have put in well over 100 hours at this placement already and now those hours might not count because my school’s policy requires that I be supervised by an LMSW. I feel like I want to report her to the board, but I can’t even figure out how to do that and I’m not sure if it’s my place to do so. I am so angry about the situation; I really don’t know what to do.

3

Hello everyone! I am struggling with a situation at work and having a really difficult time trying to decide how to handle it. I work at an FQHC. I am supervised by a psychologist and he reviews/signs our progress notes and assessments. I am an LCSW and not allowed to sign. I saw a new pt for an initial psychotherapy appointment. The pt has Medicaid. This pt did not meet criteria for a billable diagnosis. I completed the progress note, thoroughly documenting and justifying no diagnosis. I submitted the note to my supervisor for his review and signature.I arrived at work the following morning to a voicemail from my supervisor in which he stated “We need to get paid for this. The pt’s GAD7 score is 3. Consider unspecified anxiety.” I opened up the pt’s note to review it again and saw that my supervisor wrote, along with his usual “Reviewed,” “Consider anxiety unspecified. GAD7=3”. He also went ahead and added anxiety unspecified. Not only did he do this for me and without discussing it with me, but the body of my note that indicates no diagnosis with a justification remained the same.

4

If any agency told you that in your six-month review of a client’s treatment goals, they must be at least 80% successful or higher in order to keep their contract, and proceeded to tell you to lie if you have to, would this be considered fraud?

(Reddit citation)