Medical Social Work and Legal Challenges - Coursework Example

Similar to mental and physical health physicians, social workers as well face numerous ethical and legal issues all through their profession hence are equally are obligated to make critical decisions concerning treatment issues, maintain their professional ethics and develop knowledge of value conflicts. As such, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Ethical Code outline both ethical and legal doctrines for social workers in their practice when offering health care services to their clients and the society. Therefore, they must maintain their efforts to foresee that all their clients receive high-quality medical treatment both physically and mentally and ideal clinical social work services even in the case of their clients contemplated suicide. Thus, this paper shall address both the ethical and legal issues obligations surrounding social workers when working with patients’ contemplating suicide.

Majority of social workers work with contemplating suicide clients in severe and chronic conditions in both private and public sects. Consequently, the social workers are obligated to familiarize with the legal issues and professional ethics and standards accordingly while preserving the clinical measures. Moreover, owing to the persuasiveness of suicidal thoughts among ill adults, suicide contemplation has continued to be critical health care problem in the society notwithstanding the terrific efforts by the healthcare sector to supersede the patient’s freedom to avert it (Royse, Dhooper & Badger, 2017). Primarily, the ethical and legal dilemma that social workers experience when their patients communicate their plan commit suicide or be aided to foresee it is wanting to the present day. As such, social workers are obliged to fully contemplate their client’s health and the legal obligation of such actions in the providence of health care to adults. In the current epoch, assisted or contemplated suicide has a significant social and communal health consequences globally. Like this, medical practitioners and social workers are mandated to take necessary steps to prevent a client from committing suicide (Shelby, Aronstein & Thompson, 2014). Owing to the implication it renders to the society, suicide whether contemplated or assisted causes challenging times for both victim’s family and close acquaintances. This expounds on why suicide is the most demanding and challenging aspect of social and clinical work. As the society maintains, life is sacred hence ought to be preserved at all times illustrating why the vice ought to be addressed critically or somewhat prevented by social workers in such circumstances. The aforementioned is parallel to religious doctrine that demands that life is of value. Typically, the stated elaborates why most social workers that adhere to religious tenets desist assisted suicide as per their religious norms. Perhaps, as study indicates, the majority of patients that contemplate suicide react to their emotions of despair and hopelessness as result of their mental breakdown and depression disorders. Hence, a social worker is indebted to seek effective intervention for such patients as a moral obligation for prevention of suicide as the patients affirm their inability to make rational decisions hence the need for their getting assisted.

Nonetheless, there exists legal implications and challenges surrounding the issues of suicide contemplation among patients. Majorly, the legal implication surrounding a social worker conduct with suicidal patients is when to disclose the patient’s information regarding his or her suicidal thought. The care rendered to the patient as well attracts particular legal implications that a social worker is obliged to adhere to. In essence, the healthcare provider dealing with such patient is required by the law to prevent suicide and not facilitate it unless under particular circumstances reached after a systematic and critical assessment of the patient under question. Typically, as required by the statute of medical providence, physicians are obligated to observe adequate measures to protect patient lives. Hence, in the case of negligence when meeting the standards of care for their patients as necessitated, a social worker would be held liable for negligence and malpractice. Reasonably, the many suits filed against social workers globally are founded on cases of patient misconduct for their failure to prevent suicidal cases. For the above social workers are therefore required to adhere to the standards of care when working with suicidal patients by acting in a manner that is prudent to their profession. The stated can be via conducting a comprehensive assessment of the patients, applying effective treatment plans, conserving the patient’s confidentiality unless the patient threatens her own life or that of a third party.

Conversely, social workers are supposed to maintain high levels of competency when handling high-risk patient such as suicidal individuals while seeking consultation and assistance where they might face difficulties. Given that, a social worker is entirely entitled to execute a detailed assessment of risk from cognitive, physical to a social evaluation of the patient to make an informed decision regarding suicide. More significantly, the social worker is mandated with the responsibility of seeking alternative interventions for the patients before settling on foreseeing the suicide within therapeutic alliance viewpoint. Additionally, confidentiality is fundamental in the course of healthcare providence to such patients to. For this, a social worker is only supposed to disclose the patient’s information after contemplating that suicide is the only viable option as the client intends, to protect other parties that might be exposed to risk at the patient’s presence. Likewise, the social worker might disclose the patient’s info when the suicidal patient at hand has acceded the release or when the law requires (Bisman, 2014). However, despite the above legal obligation surrounding the issue, the high cost of medication, abuse, and neglect of the elderly suffering from Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is a challenge that faces social workers. Therefore, the high cost of medications unaffordable to the majority of the patients cause both financial and emotional staggering effects to both the families and individuals due to inadequate funding of health care hence making it difficult for social workers to make informed decisions (Segal, Gerdes & Steiner, 2015). Similarly, the outbreaks of epidemics challenge the legal policies around the issues since vaccines to protect all individuals, for instance in the US, against the pandemics are not available as experts’ assert. Therefore, as policymakers argue, the vaccines ought to be reserved for the most productive groups in the nation that are yet to live most of their lives (like youths, physicians, and pregnant women) in comparison to those that are acute or chronically ill. For their scarcity, the debate on such vaccines not only suggest that it is better to protect the healthy rather than the ill evidently challenging the legal obligations of the issue as Segal, Gerdes, and Steiner (2012) argue.

Even so, there exists other circumstances that might compel a social worker to assist a patient’s suicide, a majority of practitioners argue that a contemplated patient suicide undermines a physician’s obligation to support suicidal patients that desire it. There is an accord that a social worker is indebted to use whatever channels whatsoever to offer the patient advocacy to help them live despite their desire to terminate their lives. As such, the first course of action the social worker ought to take is comprehending the patient cause of his suicidal desire while contemplating the role that the society played in the patient’s stigmatization which mostly is the causative agent of self-hate among acute and chronic patients. Significantly, the social worker is also obliged to establish trust via creating a prosperous communication relationship with both the patient’s family and the individual while assuring them the best therapy and intervention to the condition. As well, the physician should obtain resources to assist the patient’s family in caregiving, address the patients social support and spiritual needs, facilitate the patient’s family address its financial needs to cover the most effective treatment plans and offer to counsel the patient for the restoration of their self-determination (Reese, 2013). Correspondingly, the social worker is needed to encourage the patient assuring them that they are among the many that have restored back their lives through the intervention that they are offering while being supportive to them all through. By frequently reminding the patient that a positive feature lays ahead of them and emphasizing to the patient’s family and acquaintances the value of supportiveness and empathy to the patient recovery is a surefire for the patient’s rejuvenation from suicidal thoughts (Shulman, 2015).

To educate the patient and their family regarding the suicidal ideation, the first action a social worker would be required to take is to identify the predisposing aspect of the patient through a proper cognitive diagnosis of the patient. The action step would assist in the identification of the influential factors like substance abuse or mental disorders like PTSD that promoted the suicidal ideation in the patient. Secondly, the social worker will be required to identify the contributing aspects of the patient’s conditions. This would include an assessment of the patient’s family background or history, medical records, the patient’s demographic factors among others. The mentioned could be realized through interviewing the patient’s family and close acquaintances. The above would correctly aid the social worker to deduce the contributory factors of the patient’s suicidal ideation enacting measures to prevent a repetition of such occurrences in the future. The above action implication is that there has never been a single case of a suicidal patient loathe of every individual in their family and friend circle. This has been proved to lay the foundation for the best individual to offer support to the patient in facilitating their recovery. The third course of action would be to identify the available medical interventions for the patient inclusive of family and social supports. The goal of determining the most effective treatment approach for the patient is to moderate the immediate precipitation factors of the patients’ desire for contemplating suicide. The argued would facilitate the encompassing of the patient’s family and acquaintances to establish a setting for the patient transformation and recovery (Taylor, 2013). Apparently, the actions as mentioned earlier steps would facilitate the patient recovery when spreading awareness to the patient’s family facilitating his recovery and occurrence of such suicidal ideation in the future.

Nevertheless, in taking the three actions above beforoe educating the patient and his or her family regarding the impacts of suicidal ideation (the prevention measures and their need to establish a setting that would propagate suicidal patient’s recovery), a social worker might stumble upon several challenges. First, when identifying the predisposing factors of the patient’s suicidal ideation, the social worker can stumble upon other health conditions underdiagnosed such as mental disorders like depression and anxiety that were prevalent before mostly in aged patients (Gehlert & Browne, 2011). If left, the conditions undoubtedly lead to increased desire for hastened death facilitated by depression and hopelessness in the patient. To curb the stated, the social worker should seek supplement intervention of a specified psychiatrist to deduce the most effective treatment approach to start for the patient. Also, it is likely that the social worker would encounter lack of support from other family members in denial of their patient situation (Reese, 2013). As a result, inconsistent collaboration and lack of communication from the patient’s family might derail the patient’s intervention hastening their desire for death. For this, a social worker is obliged to encourage a cooperative relationship with the family and friends of the patient, to amend the patient’s suicidal ideation contributory factors and establish a conducive milieu for his recovery (Kirmayer, Guzder & Rousseau, 2013). Moreover, the social worker might develop and maintain a community relationship that will undoubtedly support their patient’s treatment interventions within the suicidal intervention program.

In summation, it is apparent that social workers face significant complexities when dealing with suicidal patients. Thus, by their adhering to the NASW ethical and legal guidelines, social workers can determine the most effective intervention for their patient in their critical conditions by their tackling the issues and dilemmas that may arise when their patients become persistence in contemplating suicide. Still, social workers also play a significant role beyond their offering health care services to their patients by working supportively with suicidal patient families and controlling both prompting and contributory factors of suicidal ideation in patients.