Importance Of Boundaries In Social Work

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Boundaries in social work are very important. My supervisor gave me a list of things that, as an employee of the agency, need to be adhere to while working with clients. This list includes not sharing your personal information with the clients, not to give the clients gifts, and staff cannot have contact outside of the agency with clients. This even extends to seeing a client outside of the agency at a grocery store or at the mall. I was instructed that I may not approach a client or say anything to them unless the client initiates the conversation. This is because you, as a social worker, do not want to violate their confidentiality. The client may be with a person who does not know they are substance abuse treatment, and this could make the client uncomfortable trying to explain to their friend how …show more content…
If you give too much personal information to a client or allow the client to get too close to you, there is a risk the client will expect you to act as a friend instead of a professional person with a job to do. The one example could be if you get close to a client and then you need to report suspected child abuse to DCP&P, the client could try to manipulate the situation to their benefit because the social worker is their “friend.”
Boundaries are also important when working with culturally diverse populations. Diverse cultures have different ideas of boundaries which can cause problems between the social worker and the client if the social worker is not aware of these differences. Such as not making eye contact when talking. As a social worker you need to be mindful of these differences. I would also say if you have a new client whose culture you are not familiar with, it is important to research the culture and become knowledgeable of the culture to ensure you do not violate those