A Question of Ethics: What is it to Enable Someone to Meet a Need?

Dover, M. A. (2015). A Question of Ethics: What is it to Enable Someone to Meet a Need? (Cathleen Lewandowski, Moderator). 5th Annual Cuyahoga County Conference on Social Welfare, Cleveland State University.

Workshop Title: A question of ethics: “What is it to enable someone to meet a need?”  

Workshop Goal: To clarify the theoretical and applied implications of social work’s ethical mission to “enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty.” 

Workshop Objectives:

•To discuss participants’ response to Gillian Brock’s (2009) question, ““What is it to enable someone to meet a need?”

•To articulate how social workers in our daily practice exercise our ethical responsibilities to help address basic human needs of our clients and communities.

•To identify structural barriers to people and communities addressing our human needs in our culturally preferred manner.

•To clarify how emerging theories of relatedness and significant primary relationships as basic human needs can re-emphasize the role of relationships in social work practice with individuals, families, and groups. 

Workshop Description: 

The workshop will explore the intersection of the NASW Code of Ethics’ focus on the centrality of addressing human needs and emerging concepts from the Theory of Human Needs (THN) and Self-Determination Theory (SDT).  The workshop will seek a practice-rooted social work answer to the implications of Gillian Brock’s (2009) philosophical question, “What is it to enable someone to meet a need?” and engage in critical thinking about how to better conceptualize human needs in our daily social work practice.  The workshop was moderated by Cathleen Lewandowski, Director, CSU School of Social Work.