Thinking "Ethically"

We all want to do a good job

at managing and supporting our staff.

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Ethical member care involves more than identifying the right ethical guidelines and then simply applying them. Rather it is fundamentally a way of thinking through problems, our practices, and the possible consequences of our actions. It is a mentality. And it is a mentality which develops over time through training, experience, and reviewing various scenarios with others.

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Examples for Member Care Workers (MCWs)

Before we send an email response to someone’s question about a child’s misbehavior, a depressed team member, or a conflict with an organizational policy, we do well to “think ethically”. We pause and ask ourselves: who may be seeing our communications, now and in the future; do the communication exchanges need to be encrypted; am I responding informally as a colleague or “officially” on behalf of an organization or as an MCW; do I have enough information to offer input; how accurate is the information I have; should I consult with anyone about the situation; which ethical guidelines are relevant; and what may be the consequences of my response/advice? Remember, there is always an ethical context and an ethical mentality that accompany our member care work!

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Many other types of ethical issues get stirred up in mission/aid settings:

• assessing physical/mental disabilities during selection, including those of children
  (e.g., whether hiring, locating, or promoting staff is based on such disabilities)
• determining who has access to personnel files
  (e.g., whether team leaders have access to team members personnel files, especially “negative” information)
• working in stressful settings with limited supervision, contingency plans, and personal debriefing
  (e.g., whether senders can support staff adequately in risky, disaster settings, or in longer-term isolated settings)
• consulting with people with whom one has many types of social/work relationships
  (e.g., whether to offer conflict mediation to an interagency group that includes people from your own agency)
• confronting unhealthy practices of leaders and other staff
  (e.g., whether certain lifestyle choices are private affairs, and how to protect staff that point out problems)
  
  It is important for sending organizations and MCWs to anticipate and discuss such issues together.

We Need Guidelines

Many types of professional ethical guidelines—codes—exist that relate to the practice of member care. Such ethical codes are primarily relevant for the disciplines and countries for which they were intended. Yet many MCWs enter the member care field via a combination of their life experiences and informal training, and are not part of a professional association with a written ethics code. Common sense and one’s sense of morality only go so far. As does appealing to another country’s or discipline’s ethical code, which can result in a rather cumbersome match between the person and the code.

Guidelines exist for four purposes:
· to emphasize quality of services by senders and MCWs
· to encourage ongoing development for MCWs and senders
· to educate those who are using/providing MCW services
· to protect service receivers via safeguards.

Next week we'll list a set of 15 Guidelines to help us think and respond ethically in our work.

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Reflection and Discussion

• Which set of ethical guidelines do you follow in your member care work?
• Think of one situation in which having an "ethical mentality" (i.e. thinking through the issues and consequences) was crucial for providing quality services.

Member Care and Ethics

During the months of April and May, we will be looking at the important area of ethics in member care. One of the main sources that we will use is from the July 2006 article in EMQ, "Upgrading Member Care."

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Ethics involves a mindset (a way of thinking through issues) in light of recognized guidelines which promote responsible care and good practice. Such guidelines deal with areas like confidentiality, skill competencies, continuing growth, accountability, sensitivity to human diversity, and organizational responsibility for staff care.

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"Member care is a broad field with a wide range of practitioners. As this field continues to grow, it is important to offer guidelines to further clarify and shape good practice. Any guidelines must carefully consider the fact of the field’s international diversity, and blend together the best interests of both service receivers and service providers. They also need to be applicable to member care workers (MCWs) with different types of training and experience."

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Is this relevant for me? For sure! Here are three examples.

Example One. Competence.

An experienced consultant makes recommendations to a humanitarian service organization based in Asia. The consultant is addressing the care of their emergency staff working in a mass disaster area, rampant with cholera and malaria. The consultant is vaguely familiar with that cultural context and the organization itself. To what extent does the consultant need to inform the agency about limitations in his/her background? When is it OK to “stretch” beyond one’s areas of training and experience? What if no one else is readily available to offer advice? So is the consultant acting competently?

Example Two. Confidentiality.

A compassionate leader informally exchanges a few emails with a man in their organization who has marital struggles. The man tells the leader that he and his wife have frequent fights that can be overheard by African neighbors. Later, the leader prays with his own wife about the other couple's struggles. Is it OK for one’s spouse to know such things? Is the disclosure of “significant problems” protected information? Would asking the leader to not share be “secretive”? So what type of confidentiality is appropriate?

Example Three. Responsibility.

A reputable sending organization shortens a family's field preparation from three months to one month. The reason is so that the husband, a medical doctor, can cover a crucial and vacant position in a refugee hospital in the Middle East. To what extent does making such “adjustments” simply reflect the realities of mission/aid work? What if “lives”, or a large funding grant, are at stake? So to what extent is the organization acting responsibly towards the family and the refugee patients?

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Reflection and Discussion

• Recall a situation in member care where ethical practice was not adequately understood.
• How can a person further develop a "mindset" for ethical practice?
• What is the difference between ethical guidelines for good practice and personal morality?