Social work practice and respect
Learning Objectives
After considering this resource, you should be familiar with some of the skills needed to work with respect and how you can apply these to your practice.
Respect is something most people learn as children (“respect your elders, teachers, others”) and we’re expected to demonstrate respect for others both in our everyday lives but also our professional lives as social workers. Respect is often placed in the context of human rights and social justice and it’s often discussed alongside its fellow term, dignity. Chenoweth and McAuliffe (2015, p. 69) suggest that respect for persons sits alongside other values also important for social work. These are values about respecting difference and diversity; maintaining a belief in the ability of people to make positive change; and values about the rights of people to make choices about their circumstances and decisions to name but a few.
In this activity we explore some of the skills social workers develop to work with respect and dignity, and asks why this is important.
Reflective Questions
- What does it mean to be respectful?
- Why does social work hold respect for persons as an important value?
- Give some examples of disrespect. In your view, what do these examples violate or transgress? What makes them disrespectful?
- What do social workers need to do in practice to ensure they respect people’s dignity, and convey respect for persons?