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Position Paper Assignment #2

Human Service Workers are often faced with the task of ethical decision-making. When making these decisions, they must be able to adequately support the decision that has been made. As we discussed in class this may require them to refer to their code of ethics, their agency’s policies and procedure manual, and the law. For this assignment, you will be given a case study, and you will need to respond to the questions that follow the case. When responding to the questions, you will need to refer to the text, the code of ethics, and at least one scholarly journal article beyond our course materials to help you make your decision and demonstrate support for your position. Your paper should be a minimum of 3 pages with a maximum of 5 pages, not including the title page and the reference page. You are also required to follow APA format for this assignment, double space, and utilize Times New Roman 12 point font. Paper must contain an introduction and conclusion.

Case Study:

One of the ethical dilemmas commonly faced by social workers is deciding who is to get help when there are limited resources.  In many instances, there is a given amount of money, and a social worker must choose regarding who will and will not receive help. 

The following is a case study designed to help you understand how difficult ethical dilemmas can be – particularly with regards to distributive justice.

You are the director of a drug addiction rehabilitation program and you are facing a difficult budget allocation decision. You have sufficient resources to implement only one of the two programs your agency would like to offer.

Program A: targets elementary school students and will serve 500 children. Past experience has shown that 200 children will be addicted to drugs by the time they are 16 years old if the program is not offered. But if the program is implemented, the number can be reduced to no more than 50.

Program B: targets adolescents who are addicted. If this program is implemented 50 teens will be served a year with a 60% success rate

You approach two very trusted mentors for advice and perspective regarding your dilemma.  The first mentor you approach is an ethical absolutist. The second mentor you approach is an ethical relativist. After meeting with both mentors – while you have more perspective you still have a dilemma and you have to make a decision about which program to fund.

Questions:

1.      Explain how the first mentor would decide which program to fund using the ethical absolutism perspective.

2.      Explain how the second mentor would have a different perspective and offer different advice about which program to fund using ethical relativism.

3.      Finally, apply efficiency and effectiveness criteria to explain your choice and provide a conclusion.

Remember to provide support for your responses.