Social Work and the Ethics of Involuntary Treatment for Anorexia Nervosa

A Postmodern Approach

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12902189
AutoresSacha Kendall (Kendall College, autor de correspondencia), Richard Hugman (0000-0001-9988-6849, Russian State Agrarian Correspondence University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2013
Volumen7
Número4
Páginas310-325
Fecha de publicación2013-09-06
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEthics and Social Welfare (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1749-6535 • E-ISSN: 1749-6543
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17496535.2013.833275
OpenAlexW1989884866
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas42

The debate on the ethics of involuntary treatment for Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is dominated by biomedical ethics approaches to the issues. In keeping with the biomedical ethics emphasis on objectively balancing ethical principles, the debate centres on how to respect the autonomy of persons with AN who refuse treatment whilst protecting these persons from harm. Commentators discuss this at a normative ethics level. Thus, the debate does not address the moral relevance of how knowledge is constructed in the practice environment and the impact this has on how professional values are applied during treatment decision making. Social work ethics highlights the need for professionals to account for the authority of professional knowledge and for patients to participate in treatment decisions. However, in the practice environment, questioning medical hegemony and supporting patient participation, empowerment and self-determination (core social work values) is complicated by a lack of treatment efficacy, the high level of risk that patients present to themselves and uncertainty around the autonomy and competence of the patient to refuse treatment. This paper argues that postmodern ethics can support practitioners in managing these issues. In doing so, this paper makes a social work contribution to the debate

Anorexia nervosa · Applied ethics · Autonomy · Clinical social work · Competence (human resources · Eating disorders · Empowerment · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Harm · Normative · Nursing ethics · Political science · Postmodernism · Psychiatry · Psychotherapist · Sociology · Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare · Ethics in medical practice · Law · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Work