Frederic G Reamer
Biographic Data
| ID | 4175901 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Frederic G Reamer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Frederic G |
| FAMILY NAME | Reamer |
| SIGNATURE | REAMER F G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Rhode Island College |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6324-7623 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 56 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 158 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 56 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Social Work Boundary Issues in the Digital Age: Reflections of an Ethics Expert
Throughout social work's history, practitioners have faced challenging boundary issues. Boundary issues occur when social workers encounter actual or potential conflicts between their professional duties and their social, sexual, religious, collegial, or business relationships. Today's social workers face a wide range of boundary challenges that are unprecedented because of practitioners' and clients' widespread use of digital and other forms of …
Artificial Intelligence in Social Work: Emerging Ethical Issues
Archives > Volume 20 (2023) > Issue 2 > Item 05 DOI: 10.55521/10-020-205 Frederic G. Reamer, Ph.D. Rhode Island College [email protected] Full disclosure: Frederic G. Reamer is a member of the IJSWVE editorial board. IJSWVE uses an anonymous review process in which authors do not review their own work and reviewers do not know authors’ identities. Reamer, F. (2023). Artificial Intelligence [...]
Use of Collaterals in Social Work: Ethical and Risk Management Issues
Social workers in a wide range of settings collaborate with clients’ collaterals to plan and implement services. A collateral in social work is a spouse, partner, family member, friend, or other individual who participates in counseling and casework services to meet clients’ needs. Social workers who meet with collaterals can encounter complex ethical issues, especially related to confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and documentation. The pur…
Ethics Risk Management in Social Work: A Primer
Contemporary social workers typically receive in-depth education on the subject of professional ethics. Common topics include social work values, challenging ethical dilemmas, and ethical decision-making. Much less common is comprehensive education on ethics-related risk management. Ethics risk management in social work includes steps practitioners can take to help protect clients and prevent lawsuits, licensing board complaints, and criminal cha…
Social work research and practice in the digital age
Social work research and practice in the digital ageThis special issue of the China Journal of Social Work presents three articles that expand our theoretical, empirical and reflective understandings of social work education, research and practice in the digital age.Reflecting the country's commitment to promoting the development of its digital economy, China's 14th Five-year Plan on Digital Economy Development details the roadmap for national de…
Standards of Care in Social Work: Ethical and Risk Management Implications
Social workers are sometimes named as defendants in malpractice lawsuits. These lawsuits allege negligence, specifically that social work defendants owed a duty to the plaintiff, breached this duty, and the defendant’s actions caused harm. Plaintiffs in litigation cases typically allege that social workers violated or failed to meet prevailing standards of care in the profession. It is essential that social workers understand the legal concept of…
Ethical Practice in a Post- Roe World: A Guide for Social Workers
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, concluding that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision in Dobbs immediately introduced challenging ethical issues for social workers who serve people who become pregnant. Key questions concern social workers' ability to protect clients' privacy and confidentiality, documentation protocols, and client abandonment. In add…
Moral Disengagement in Social Work
In recent years, social workers have paid increased attention to ethical issues. The profession's literature has burgeoned on topics such as ethical dilemmas in social work practice, ethical decision making, boundary issues and dual relationships, ethics-related risk management, and moral injury. This noteworthy trend builds on social work's rich and long-standing commitment to the development of core values and ethical standards evident througho…
Moral Injury in Social Work: Responses, Prevention, and Advocacy
Throughout social work’s history, some practitioners and their employing organizations have caused harm. This article explores the concept of moral injury and its relevance to the social work profession. The author explores essential components of a meaningful response to moral injury in social work that simultaneously acknowledges the impact of moral injury on individual victims and addresses the need for structural reform. The author discusses …
Why Care-Based, Not Carceral, Approaches to Suspects With Mental Illness Is Key to Whether We Trust Professional or State Authority Ever Again
Many police officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and parole boards have reformed how their court- or carceral-based work with patients who have mental illness proceeds. This article discusses how policies and protocols have evolved to help court and carceral workers meet mental health needs of people in their custody and considers which virtues and values should guide clinically, ethically, and legally relevant deliberations and cond…
Managing Ethics Challenges in Social Work Organizations: A Comprehensive Strategy
Social workers are keenly aware of ethical challenges in professional practice. Formal ethics education strives to acquaint social workers with common ethical dilemmas in practice and decision-making protocols and frameworks. However, the social work literature includes relatively little information about practical resources promoted in allied professions that can be useful to social workers who encounter ethics challenges. This article discusses…
Why Moral Theories Matter: A Review of Ethics and Adoption Literature
This study argues that moral theory is an important aspect of our use of self in adoption practice. Within this context, the authors examined the extent to which ethical theories were explicitly incorporated in the peer-reviewed adoption literature – published between 1996 and 2019 – that purported to focus on ethical issues. Findings from our review suggest that the inclusion of moral theories was largely implicit (e.g., informed by relevant cod…
Virtue ethics in social work practice
Adoption Ethics in a Digital World: Challenges and Best Practices 1
This article discusses the range of ethical issues that today’s explosion of information and communications technology (ICT) has brought to the adoption landscape. It draws on recently adopted technology-related ethics standards and practice standards pertaining to human service professionals’ use of technology to deliver services and communicate with clients, both of which are highly relevant and useful in helping adoption professionals create g…
On the Parole Board: Reflections on Crime, Punishment, Redemption, and Justice
Few people experience life inside of prison. Even fewer are charged with the responsibility of deciding whether inmates should be released. In his twenty-four years on the Rhode Island Parole Board, Frederic G. Reamer has judged the fates of thousands of inmates, deciding which are ready to reenter society and which are not. It is a complicated choice that balances injury to victims and their families against an offender’s capacity for transforma…
Evolving Ethical Standards in the Digital Age
Ethical standards in social work have matured significantly since the formal inauguration of the profession in the late 19th century. This article traces the global evolution of ethical standards in social work, focusing especially on current challenges in the digital age. The author discusses changes over time in social workers’ understanding of ethical issues and development of conceptual frameworks and protocols for managing them. Social worke…
Social work ethics in India: A call for the development of indigenized ethical standards
In recent years, various professional associations in social work and regulatory bodies worldwide have engaged in ambitious efforts to draft and implement comprehensive ethics guidelines, standards, and education. For a variety of complex reasons, the social work profession in India has lagged behind developments in many other nations. The purpose of this article is to assess the current status of social work ethics in India, review relevant deve…
Distance and Online Social Work Education: Novel Ethical Challenges
Digital technology has transformed social work education. Today's students can take individual courses and earn an entire degree without ever meeting their faculty members in person. Technological innovations such as videoconferencing, live online chat, asynchronous podcasts, and webinars enable social work educators to reach students whose personal circumstances and geographical locations make it difficult for them to attend school in person. Th…
Social Work in a Digital Age: Ethical and Risk Management Challenges
Digital, online, and other electronic technology has transformed the nature of social work practice. Contemporary social workers can provide services to clients by using online counseling, telephone counseling, video counseling, cybertherapy (avatar therapy), self-guided Web-based interventions, electronic social networks, e-mail, and text messages. The introduction of diverse digital, online, and other forms of electronic social services has cre…
The Evolution of Social Work Ethics: Bearing Witness
The evolution of ethical standards in social work, and conceptual frameworks for examining ethical issues, is among the most compelling developments in the history of the profession. Since the formal inauguration of social work in the late nineteenth century, the profession has moved from relatively simplistic and moralistic perspectives to conceptually rich analyses of ethical issues and ethical guidelines. This article examines the evolution of…
The Digital and Electronic Revolution in Social Work: Rethinking the Meaning of Ethical Practice
The recent and dramatic emergence of digital and other electronic technology in social work—such as online counseling, video counseling, avatar therapy, and e-mail therapy—has tested and challenged the profession's longstanding and widely accepted perspectives on the nature of both clinical relationships and core ethics concepts. These developments have transformed key elements of social work practice and require critical examination of the meani…
Documentation in Social Work: Evolving Ethical and Risk-Management Standards
Social workers' understanding of the relevance of documentation has evolved over time. During the profession's earliest years, social workers viewed documentation primarily as a mechanism to facilitate theory building, research, and teaching. This was followed by social workers' development of detailed and sophisticated documentation standards for clinical and other direct practice settings. Most recently, social workers have begun to appreciate …
Social Work Values and Ethics: Reflections on the Profession's Odssey
Social workers' understanding of ethical issues has matured significantly. This article traces the evolution of the profession's approach to the values and ethics. During its history, social work has moved through four major periods-- the morality period, the values period, the ethical theories and decision-making period, and the ethical standards and risk-management (the prevention of ethics complaints and ethics related lawsuits) is diverting s…
Social Work and Criminal Justice: The Uneasy Alliance
We shall begin with the principal, and complicated, conclusion: Regrettably, the social work profession has largely abandoned the criminal justice field. That is not to say that social workers are not employed in criminal justice settings. Certainly they are. Significant numbers of social workers earn their living as probation and parole officers, caseworkers in public defender offices, counselors in correctional institutions and halfway houses, …
Social Work, Evangelical Christians, and Values
Journal Article Social Work, Evangelical Christians, and Values Get access Frederic G. Reamer, PhD Frederic G. Reamer, PhD Providence, RI Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 48, Issue 3, July 2003, Pages 428–431, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/48.3.428 Published: 01 July 2003
The Evolution of Social Work Ethics
The recent ratification of a new NASW Code of Ethics—the most ambitious set of ethical guidelines In social work's history—marks an important stage in the profession's development. This article traces the evolution of ethical norms, principles, and standards in social work during four stages in the profession's history: (I) the morality period, (2) the values period, (3) the ethical theory and decision-making period, and (4) the ethical standards…
Boundary Issues in Social Work: Managing Dual Relationships
Social work literature clearly demonstrates that ethical issues related to boundaries are among the most problematic and challenging. Boundary issues involve circumstances in which social workers encounter actual or potential conflicts between their professional duties and their social, sexual, religious, or business relationships. This article provides an overview of boundary issues in social work (circumstances involving dual and multiple relat…
Social Work in a Digital Age: Ethical and Risk Management Challenges
Digital, online, and other electronic technology has transformed the nature of social work practice. Contemporary social workers can provide services to clients by using online counseling, telephone counseling, video counseling, cybertherapy (avatar therapy), self-guided Web-based interventions, electronic social networks, e-mail, and text messages. The introduction of diverse digital, online, and other forms of electronic social services has cre…
The Concept of Paternalism in Social Work
The phenomenon of paternalism-interfering with an individual's freedom for his or her own good-is prevalent in contemporary social work. Despite its visibility, however, the concept has received little attention in the profession's literature. This article examines the philosophical origin and evolution of the concept of paternalism and discusses its relevance to the practice of social work. Particular attention is given to the problems of justif…
Distance and Online Social Work Education: Novel Ethical Challenges
Digital technology has transformed social work education. Today's students can take individual courses and earn an entire degree without ever meeting their faculty members in person. Technological innovations such as videoconferencing, live online chat, asynchronous podcasts, and webinars enable social work educators to reach students whose personal circumstances and geographical locations make it difficult for them to attend school in person. Th…
Evolving Ethical Standards in the Digital Age
Ethical standards in social work have matured significantly since the formal inauguration of the profession in the late 19th century. This article traces the global evolution of ethical standards in social work, focusing especially on current challenges in the digital age. The author discusses changes over time in social workers’ understanding of ethical issues and development of conceptual frameworks and protocols for managing them. Social worke…
Documentation in Social Work: Evolving Ethical and Risk-Management Standards
Social workers' understanding of the relevance of documentation has evolved over time. During the profession's earliest years, social workers viewed documentation primarily as a mechanism to facilitate theory building, research, and teaching. This was followed by social workers' development of detailed and sophisticated documentation standards for clinical and other direct practice settings. Most recently, social workers have begun to appreciate …
Ethical Dilemmas in Social Work Practice
Social workers encounter a wide variety of ethical dilemmas in practice. This article provides a classification of such dilemmas and presents a series of guidelines for assessing cases in which standard social work values come into conflict
Social work ethics in India: A call for the development of indigenized ethical standards
In recent years, various professional associations in social work and regulatory bodies worldwide have engaged in ambitious efforts to draft and implement comprehensive ethics guidelines, standards, and education. For a variety of complex reasons, the social work profession in India has lagged behind developments in many other nations. The purpose of this article is to assess the current status of social work ethics in India, review relevant deve…
Ethics Committees in Social Work
Ethics Committees in Social Work Get access Frederic G. Reamer Frederic G. Reamer Frederic G. Reamer, Ph.D., is Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Rhode Island College, 600 Mt. Pleasant Avenue, Providence, RI 02908. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 32, Issue 3, May-June 1987, Pages 188–192, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/32.3.188 Published: 01 May 1987 Article history Accepte…
Protecting Research Subjects and Unintended Consequences: The Effect of Guarantees of Confidentiality
There is significant concern among researchers and government administrators that individuals who serve as research subjects be protected from risks associated with empirical inquiry. Survey researchers frequently administer guarantees of confidentiality and anonymity in an effort to minimize subjects1 psychological harm and to increase the validity ofdata. This study tests the effect of guarantees of confidentiality and anonymity on (I) the eval…
The Evolution of Social Work Ethics: Bearing Witness
The evolution of ethical standards in social work, and conceptual frameworks for examining ethical issues, is among the most compelling developments in the history of the profession. Since the formal inauguration of social work in the late nineteenth century, the profession has moved from relatively simplistic and moralistic perspectives to conceptually rich analyses of ethical issues and ethical guidelines. This article examines the evolution of…
Ethical Practice in a Post- Roe World: A Guide for Social Workers
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, concluding that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision in Dobbs immediately introduced challenging ethical issues for social workers who serve people who become pregnant. Key questions concern social workers' ability to protect clients' privacy and confidentiality, documentation protocols, and client abandonment. In add…
The Digital and Electronic Revolution in Social Work: Rethinking the Meaning of Ethical Practice
The recent and dramatic emergence of digital and other electronic technology in social work—such as online counseling, video counseling, avatar therapy, and e-mail therapy—has tested and challenged the profession's longstanding and widely accepted perspectives on the nature of both clinical relationships and core ethics concepts. These developments have transformed key elements of social work practice and require critical examination of the meani…
The Use of Modern Technology in Social Work: Ethical Dilemmas
The Use of Modern Technology in Social Work: Ethical Dilemmas Frederic G. Reamer, Ph.D. Frederic G. Reamer, Ph.D. Associate Professor School of Social Work, Rhode Island College, 600 Mt. Pleasant Ave., Providence RI 02908. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 31, Issue 6, November-December 1986, Pages 469–472, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/31.6.469 Published: 01 November 1986 Article his…
The Free Will-Determinism Debate and Social Work
Social workers'judgments about the determinants of clients' problems have a substantial effect on practitioners' willingness to provide assistance. There is considerable variation in professionals' beliefs about the extent to which clients are themselves responsible for their difficulties, as opposed to factors that are beyond their control. This article examines the philosophical controversy known as the free will-determinism debate, and assesse…
Adoption Ethics in a Digital World: Challenges and Best Practices 1
This article discusses the range of ethical issues that today’s explosion of information and communications technology (ICT) has brought to the adoption landscape. It draws on recently adopted technology-related ethics standards and practice standards pertaining to human service professionals’ use of technology to deliver services and communicate with clients, both of which are highly relevant and useful in helping adoption professionals create g…
Social Work, Evangelical Christians, and Values
Journal Article Social Work, Evangelical Christians, and Values Get access Frederic G. Reamer, PhD Frederic G. Reamer, PhD Providence, RI Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 48, Issue 3, July 2003, Pages 428–431, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/48.3.428 Published: 01 July 2003
The Social Work Ethics Audit: A Risk-Management Strategy
In recent years, social work's knowledge base related to professional ethics has expanded significantly. However, most practicing social workers concluded their formal professional education at a time when comprehensive ethics education was not a critical or mandated component of the curriculum. This article integrates current knowledge on social work ethics and introduces the concept of a social work ethics audit to aid social workers in their e…
Moral Philosophy Meets Social Work: Commentary on Alan Gewirth’s “Confidentiality in Child‐Welfare Practice”
Clients' Right to Competent and Ethical Treatment
Although clients do not have a right to effective treatment, they do a have a right to competent and ethical treatment. Clients have a right to expect that social workers will provide services in a manner consistent with prevailing practice and ethical standards. This article explores social workers' obligation to provide service competently and ethically, focusing especially on issues related to social workers' guaranteeing treatment results, ex…
Fundamental Ethical Issues in Social Work: An Essay Review
Discussions of social work ethics have traditionally been concerned with identifying values considered central to the profession and establishing guidelines for relationships between social work practitioners and their clients, colleagues, and employers. This article considers the implications of Gewirth's Reason and Morality as it applies to the justification of social work values and the profession's ethical guidelines. Questions are raised con…
Freedom and the Welfare State . Bill Jordan
Back on the Street: The Diversion of Juvenile Offenders . Robert M. Carter , Malcolm W. Klein
Fundamental Ethical Issues in Social Work: An Essay Review
Discussions of social work ethics have traditionally been concerned with identifying values considered central to the profession and establishing guidelines for relationships between social work practitioners and their clients, colleagues, and employers. This article considers the implications of Gewirth's Reason and Morality as it applies to the justification of social work values and the profession's ethical guidelines. Questions are raised con…
Protecting Research Subjects and Unintended Consequences: The Effect of Guarantees of Confidentiality
There is significant concern among researchers and government administrators that individuals who serve as research subjects be protected from risks associated with empirical inquiry. Survey researchers frequently administer guarantees of confidentiality and anonymity in an effort to minimize subjects1 psychological harm and to increase the validity ofdata. This study tests the effect of guarantees of confidentiality and anonymity on (I) the eval…
Case Studies: Should Child Abuse Always Be Reported
A case is presented involving sexual abuse of an adolescent by her brother. The physician and social worker, consulted by the pregnant adolescent and her mother, are required by state law to report the incident to the Department of Family and Children's Services. The mother objects, fearing confidentiality will not be maintained, and argues that the family is capable of handling its own problems. The commentators, a philosopher and a social worke…
Ethical Dilemmas in Social Work Practice
Social workers encounter a wide variety of ethical dilemmas in practice. This article provides a classification of such dilemmas and presents a series of guidelines for assessing cases in which standard social work values come into conflict
The Free Will-Determinism Debate and Social Work
Social workers'judgments about the determinants of clients' problems have a substantial effect on practitioners' willingness to provide assistance. There is considerable variation in professionals' beliefs about the extent to which clients are themselves responsible for their difficulties, as opposed to factors that are beyond their control. This article examines the philosophical controversy known as the free will-determinism debate, and assesse…
The Concept of Paternalism in Social Work
The phenomenon of paternalism-interfering with an individual's freedom for his or her own good-is prevalent in contemporary social work. Despite its visibility, however, the concept has received little attention in the profession's literature. This article examines the philosophical origin and evolution of the concept of paternalism and discusses its relevance to the practice of social work. Particular attention is given to the problems of justif…
The Intellectual Base of Social Work Practice: Tools for Thought in a Helping Profession . Harold Lewis
Case Studies: A Duty to Warn, An Uncertain Danger
A case study is presented in which a maternity patient with a history of schizophrenia and pyromania informs a hospital social worker that she and her infant will live temporarily with a clergyman and his family. The social worker, aware of the patient's history and concerned for the family, asks the patient for permission to discuss her problems with the clergyman, but is refused. Reamer argues that the social worker has a duty to warn, should d…
Rehabilitating Juvenile Justice
Studies the juvenile justice system from the nature of juvenile crimes and the effectiveness of rehabilitation, in order to reopen dialogue on the mission, function, and values vital to juvenile justice policy and practice.
The Use of Modern Technology in Social Work: Ethical Dilemmas
The Use of Modern Technology in Social Work: Ethical Dilemmas Frederic G. Reamer, Ph.D. Frederic G. Reamer, Ph.D. Associate Professor School of Social Work, Rhode Island College, 600 Mt. Pleasant Ave., Providence RI 02908. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 31, Issue 6, November-December 1986, Pages 469–472, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/31.6.469 Published: 01 November 1986 Article his…
Social Work: Calling or Career
churchly call of the clergy (the foremost learned profession) now seems anachronistic, out of step with the pace of modem professions. The public hardly views most professionals as respondents to the call, without greedy ambition in receiving a proffered office. Granted, this may be somewhat less the case with professions such as nursing and social work-where some vestige of selflessness seems to persist-but the main point holds. Today the term p…
Ethics Committees in Social Work
Ethics Committees in Social Work Get access Frederic G. Reamer Frederic G. Reamer Frederic G. Reamer, Ph.D., is Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Rhode Island College, 600 Mt. Pleasant Avenue, Providence, RI 02908. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 32, Issue 3, May-June 1987, Pages 188–192, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/32.3.188 Published: 01 May 1987 Article history Accepte…
Aids and Ethics: The Agenda for Social Workers
AIDS and Ethics: The Agenda for Social Workers Get access Frederic G. Reamer Frederic G. Reamer Frederic G. Reamer, PhD, is Professor, School of Social Work, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI 02908. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 33, Issue 5, September-October 1988, Pages 460–464, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/33.5.460 Published: 01 September 1988 Article history Accepted: 08 Au…
Tough Change: Growing up on Your Own in America . Bernard Lefkowitz
Case Studies: Should Competence Be Coerced
Juvenile Correctional Reform: Two Decades of Policy and Procedural Change . Edmund F. McGarrell
Juvenile Justice in Double Jeopardy: The Distanced Community and Vengeful Retribution . Justine Wise Polier
Ethical Issues in Counseling . Ronald H. Stein
Deciding for Others: The Ethics of Surrogate Decision Making . Allen E. Buchanan , Dan W. Brock
Children, Ethics, and the Law: Professional Issues and Cases . Gerald P. Koocher , Patricia C. Keith-Spiegel
Re-Visioning Ethics Through the Prism of Aids
Deciding Who Lives: Fateful Choices in the Intensive-Care Nursery
The Community of Rights . Alan Gewirth
Political science (50 works) · Law (44 works) · Sociology (42 works) · Social Work (39 works) · Engineering (36 works) · Social Work Education and Practice (32 works) · Law (30 works) · Psychology (28 works) · Engineering ethics (23 works) · Computer Science (21 works)