Description
Although many social workers pursue careers in macro-level practice areas, such as program operations, management, and policy, most social work ethics trainings are focused on the ethical challenges encountered in clinical-level work. Macro practice, however, is replete with ethical dilemmas unique to that level of work, including where the consequences of ethical errors include the possibility of significant harm to large numbers of people. This course zeroes in on social work ethical challenges specific to macro settings, especially governmental program management and operations. We will re-evaluate the familiar advice many of us learned in school that "if your agency is doing something unethical, you need to quit" and examine the limits to that approach in terms of duties to clients. Considering the ethical challenges encountered in macro practice in both "domain" and "host" agency settings, this course is designed to offer social workers both a decision-making structure and a defined set of macro-specific intervention and action tools.
This workshop meets the Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners’ requirements for Ethics CEs.
Instructor
CAPT Jonathan White, PhD, LCSW-C, CPH (he/him), is an officer in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a clinical social worker, and an emergency manager specializing in the needs of children and vulnerable populations in crisis events.
He serves in the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), US Department of Health and Human Services, where he is the director of the Office of Community Mitigation and Recovery, the office responsible for HHS’ disaster behavioral health, community resilience, and disaster recovery programs.* In that role, he also serves as national coordinator for the Health, Education, and Human Services Recovery Support Function, which is responsible for sectoral elements of long-term disaster recovery missions nationwide.
In 2018–2019, he led the mission to reunify children separated from their parents at the US border as the federal health coordinating official for the reunification mission, and served as the HHS operational lead for family reunification. In testimony before Congress, he was the first federal official to describe the harms of family separation to children and to advocate an end to separation for reasons other than the safety of the child. Prior to joining ASPR, he was the deputy director for children’s programs in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), where he led the Unaccompanied Children Program, which provides care and services to 40,000–60,000 children and youth annually who enter the US without parents or legal guardians. He previously served as senior adviser in ACF’s Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary, responsible for crisis management, public health, and strategic initiatives. Prior to that he served as deputy director of ACF’s Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response. Earlier in his social work career, he was an oncology social worker with the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, and in prior careers he taught English to undergraduates and coordinated logistics for international labor union campaigns. He holds a Maryland LCSW-C, is a Maryland Board-approved supervisor, and is a NBPHE-Certified Public Health professional. He has deployed or held national-level leadership roles in over seventy domestic disaster, public health emergency, unaccompanied children influx, and programmatic crisis events.
* Position information for identification purposes only. Course content does not necessarily reflect positions of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Agenda & Learning Objectives
AGENDA:
8:50 am – 9:00 am Log on
9:00 am – 10:30 am
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Introduction (5 minutes)
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What they taught us macro social work was in social work school—and what it really is: the scope of macro practice defined (10 minutes)
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How I learned to stop worrying and love bureaucracy—social work practice in governmental settings (15 minutes)
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Duties of macro social workers, as defined in the NASW Code, and how those duties can come into conflict (30 minutes)
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Ethical horizons of beneficence, non-maleficence, and benevolence in the context of governmental action (10 minutes)
10:30 – 10:45 Break
10:45 – 12:15 pm
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Why just saying something is unethical almost never changes policy or procedure (15 minutes)
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The old advice “If your agency requires you to do something unethical, your ethical remedy is to quit”—and how implementing it can harm clients (15 minutes)
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If I don’t quit, what can I do?: intro to three core interventions other than quitting (5 minutes)
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Core Intervention #1: Delay (15 minutes)
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Core Intervention #2: Expose (15 minutes)
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Core Intervention #3: Subvert (15 minutes)
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Questions and Wrap-up (15 minutes)
12:15 Adjournment
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Upon the completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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Define macro social work practice in large institutional settings, such as government bureaucracies.
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Enumerate, with reference to the NASW Code of Ethics, potentially conflicting duties of macro practitioners.
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Elaborate three core interventions, other than quitting, for macro practitioners facing unethical agency behaviors.
Bibliography & References
BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES
Balaz, R. (2020). Be ready for the clash of powers: Theorising power for teaching policy practice in social work. European Journal of Social Work, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2022.2161485
Confucius (1995). The Analects. Trans. W. E. Soothill. Dover.
Machiavelli, N. (1950). The Prince and The Discourses. Trans. M. Lerner. The Modern Library.
National Association of Social Workers (2021). NASW Code of Ethics. Code of Ethics: English (socialworkers.org)
Netting, F.E., Kettner, P.M., and McMurtry, S.L. (2004). Social Work Macro Practice (3rd ed). Pearson Education.
Reamer, F. G. (2018). Social work values and ethics (5th ed.). Columbia University Press.
Weiss-Gal, I., Smila-Sened, S., & Gal, J. (2023). Ethical dilemmas in policy practice: a Conceptual Framework. European Journal of Social Work, 27(4), 775–786. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2023.2200905
Witt, H., & Levin, K. (2021). Ethical dilemmas in human rights field education: A case study on macro practice in a reproductive-rights policy setting. Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, 6(1), 78–81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-020-00142-0
Target Audience
Social Workers, LCPCs, and Psychologists
We welcome anyone interested in the topic!
Late Fees and Refunds
The base price is $70, which includes CE credit.
Late Fee: On 5/16/25, a non-refundable late fee of $20 is added to the base price. Late fees cannot be refunded or applied to account credit.
Cancellations: **ALL cancellations will be subjected to a $35.00 administration fee.** To be eligible for a refund or CPE account credit, cancellations must be made at least 24 hours before the workshop.
For more information, please read the general policies on our website.
ADA Accommodations
If you are requesting ADA accommodations, please contact our office via email at least two weeks prior to the workshop date. Requests after that date may not be fulfilled.
Our email address is cpe@ssw.umaryland.edu.
Evaluation
Participants will have access to the evaluation after attendance has been verified. Evaluations will be available for one (1) week after the workshop has ended.
After one (1) week, participants will no longer have access to the evaluation and will have to contact CPE about reactivation.
