ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the well-known process of assessment through an ethical lens. It explores the question of how to balance a client's interests with the goal of furthering the community of interests. It also links the problem of ethical ambiguities in an interesting way to the expansion of social workers' knowledge. An ethical assessment is an evaluative process, similar to other assessments conducted by practitioners. Unlike those ambiguities that ignorance inspires in practice, ethical ambiguities may become even more sharply delineated as ignorance is dispelled. Thus, knowing more can clarify choices and consequence, while concurrently highlighting an ethical dilemma that stems from the conflict of a good versus a right. Practice in social work is intended to assist the recipients and concurrently to advance a useful social purpose. Thus, a worker advances the well-being of an aggregate—the community—by an intervention that improves the well-being of its individual members.