Should Social Work Guidelines Include Lum’s Principles?

The Content Guide for this module described several ethical principles that Lum believes should be included in social work’s ethical values and principles. They are as follows (Lum, 2004, p. 80): Social work values family unification, parental leadership, respect for the elderly, and collective family decision making. Social work encourages the healthy application of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices which join the individual to collective institutions and cosmic forces in the universe, resulting in harmony, unity, and wholeness. Social work seeks to use family kinship and community networks as supportive means of treatment for persons who are able to benefit from collective helping. Social work values the rediscovery of ethnic language and cultural identity which strengthens a person’s relationship to his or her heritage. Social work promotes the harmony or sense of congruity and agreement in feelings, actions, ideas, and interest within and between persons. Harmony is essential to the balance of the person in relationship to others, society, and the universe. Social work fosters cooperation that brings families and groups together in a common sense of purpose. This sense of purpose may include pooling resources for survival and coping with problem situations, meeting a common crisis, and working with the extended family as part of an ethnic community. Decide for yourself whether these principles should be formally included in social work’s ethical framework. Create a reasoned argument for your position and submit it, below. Once you’ve submitted your assignment, proceed to the discussion area and post a summary of your argument.