ABSTRACT

Social workers – including clinicians, community organizers, policy makers, supervisors, researchers, administrators, students, and educators – often encounter circumstances that pose actual or potential boundary issues. Boundary issues occur when social workers face possible conflicts of interest in the form of what have become known as dual or multiple relationships. Dual relationships occur primarily between social workers and their current or former clients and between social workers and their colleagues. Boundary issues in social work can be placed into conceptual categories revolving around five central themes involving practitioners’ intimate relationships, pursuit of personal benefit, emotional and dependency needs, altruistic gestures, and responses to unanticipated and unavoidable circumstances. To manage boundary issues effectively, social workers must develop a clear understanding of what distinguishes ethical and unethical dual relationships. Social workers have developed a richer, more nuanced understanding of boundary issues in the profession, particularly with regard to variation in norms across and within cultures.