Case Study
You are a social worker working in a mental health facility with a Latino female client, Ms. Rosario. You have been working with Ms. Rosario for three months, primarily to help with the behavioral problems of her six-year-old son. You live in the same community as Ms. Rosario, but you do not know her personally; you have cultural similarities that make the working relationship comfortable.
The work has been going well; you have developed a good rapport, and trust is building in the working relationship. As such, Ms. Rosario has recently begun to speak about some deeper, more personal issues, such as ongoing financial problems and her depression. Working together, you have shared some strategies for addressing her son's behavioral issues, which seem to be going well, and Ms. Rosario reports some improvement.
During a session, Ms. Rosario shares with you an incident that happened a short while ago of which she is ashamed. In the midst of one of her son's outbursts, she pushed him out of frustration and he hit his head, fell into a door and got a bad bruise that required medical attention. The urgent care facility accepted her story that he tripped and fell.
Ms. Rosario is clearly distraught over the incident. She has not told anyone and begs you not to repeat this as she fears that the authorities will get involved. She also reveals that she had been referred to CPS when he was a small baby. She had postpartum depression, and her neighbor saw her shaking his carriage violently. The case was subsequently dropped. Since then she has been on medication, doing reasonably well.
You are bound by law and a duty to report child abuse to CPS, but you are conflicted. You observe the improvement she has made, and the progress she continues to make. You feel as though reporting the case will destroy the relationship you have worked so hard to build, and you are not quite sure if this incident is really a case of child abuse. You are a mother and understand how things can get out of hand. You believe that parents should be given some latitude in dealing with their children as the boundaries can be blurry.
In your case study analysis, address the following questions:
1. Are you duty-bound by confidentiality?
2. Are you more obligated to uphold the clear mandate to report?
3. How do you manage balancing your professional obligation and your personal feelings about Ms. Rosario and child-rearing?
4. Discuss any issues of culture or conflicts of interest that may exist in this case.
Cite the following references:
- Levy, C. (1976) Personal vs. professional values: The practitioner's dilemma. Clinical Social Work Journal, 4(2), 110-120.
- Conmartin, E.B., & Gonzales-Prendes, A.A. (2011). Dissonance between personal and professional values: Resolution of an ethical dilemma. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 8(2), 5-14.