In This Issue

policy require such documentation? Is
this information relevant to the services
you are providing? Is there a way that
you and the client reach agreement
about how to handle these sensitive issues
in an ethical manner, meeting both
client wishes and your professional
obligations?
As a social worker, consider what
needs to be documented for you to provide
safe and effective services. If you
have many clients, records help you
keep track of the work you are doing
with each. They also allow colleagues
and supervisors to follow up with a
client if you take ill or are not available
for other reasons. In some instances,
clients may return to services after
many months or years. Records allow
you to refresh your memory and ensure
that new services take prior assessments
and experience into account.
I have worked with agencies that
have no documentation for clients. I
have worked with agencies that have
kept complete videos of all social
work-client interactions, to maintain a
full record of all communications and
interactions. Each of these situations
had reasonable ethical justifications
for its approach. Some agencies that
provide outreach to survivors of state
torture, for instance, do not maintain
documentation about the individual clients
they serve. These clients have been
traumatized and may not engage with
any helpers who collect and record
personal information. To build trust,
outreach workers forgo consent forms,
progress notes, and formal assessments.
They may document the number of
clients served and the types of services
offered, but they do not maintain any
identifying information. In contrast,
some forensic social workers use video
to ensure that they have a complete
record of the information they are
gathering, as well as the process used
to collect the information. If their
forensic evaluations are questioned
in court, they are able to produce the
videos. Most agencies fall somewhere
between these extremes. In these situations,
social workers need to make
choices about what is legally required
to be documented, what is important to
document, how to respect client wishes,
and how to respect client privacy.
When in doubt about what to
document, consult your supervisor or
another trusted professional. As a general
guide, do not put anything in your
case records that you would not want a
client to see. In most practice settings,
clients have a right to see their records,
as well as to request changes. And
finally, find ways to document what is
important in an honest and efficient
manner. Social workers and their agencies
can take the tedium out of recordkeeping
by streamlining the process,
using mobile technology (where appropriate),
and avoiding documentation of
information that does not advance the
helping process.
Dr. Allan Barsky
is Professor of
Social Work at
Florida Atlantic
University and
former Chair of
the National Ethics
Committee of
the National Association
of Social
Workers. He is
the author of Ethics and Values in Social
Work (Oxford University Press), Conflict
Resolution for the Helping Professions
(Oxford University Press), and Clinicians
in Court (Guilford Press). The views
expressed in this article do not necessarily
reflect the views of any of the organizations
with which Dr. Barsky is affiliated.
The New Social Worker Winter 2017 5