SWK 344 Technology and Social Work: Managing IT in Helping Professions

Standards for Technology and Social Work Practice

Standard 1: Social workers providing services via the telephone or other electronic means shall act ethically, ensure professional competence, protect clients, and uphold the values of the profession.

Standard 2: Social workers shall have access to technology and appropriate support systems to ensure competent practice, and shall take action to ensure client access to technology.

Standard 3: Social workers shall select and develop appropriate online methods, skills, and techniques that are attuned to their clients’ cultural, bicultural, or marginalized experiences in their environments. In striving for cultural competence, social workers shall have the skills to work with a wide range of people who are culturally different or who may be considered a member of a vulnerable population, such as people with disabilities and racial, ethnic, and sexual minority status, and those whose primary language may not be English.

Standard 4: Social workers shall be responsible for becoming proficient in the technological skills and tools required for competent and ethical practice and for seeking appropriate training and consultation to stay current with emerging technologies.

Standard 5: Social workers who use telephonic or other electronic means to provide services shall abide by all regulation of their professional practice with the understanding that their practice may be subject to regulation in both the jurisdiction in which the client receives services as well as the jurisdiction in which the social worker provides services.

Standard 6: Social workers who use electronic means to provide services shall represent themselves to the public with accuracy and make efforts to verify client identity and contact information.

Standard 7: Social workers shall protect client privacy when using technology in their practice and document all services, taking special safeguards to protect client information in the electronic record.

Standard 8: Social workers providing services through the use of the telephone or other electronic means shall ensure high-quality practices and procedures that are legally sound and ethical to protect clients and safeguard against litigation.

Standard 9: Social workers shall use technology to inform and mobilize communities about policies that will benefit individuals and groups and seek to provide tools, opportunities, and information so that clients are able to advocate directly for their own interests.

Standard 9.3 Social workers shall keep themselves informed about technology that will advance quality program operations and service delivery, invest in and maintain such systems, and establish policies to ensure access, appropriate security, and privacy in agency information systems.