Thursday 21st October is World Values Day. World Values Day recognises and celebrates the importance of values. This year, the theme is “Reconnecting”. The past 18 months have been a time of uncertainty and we have all had our daily lives disrupted. You may find that your experience over the last few months has given you a new perspective on what is really important, and your personal values may have changed to reflect this. The theme this year highlights the importance of identifying your values and using them to reconnect with each other.
Values are the principles that we live by that guide us on what is right and wrong. There are different types of values, but they all link together and cross over closely with each other.
You will have a set of personal values that are important to you. Your personal values could include loyalty, passion, honesty, reliability and good communication. This article from Harappa Education, an online learning institution, outlines the importance of personal values and also looks at the role of personal values in the workplace.
In addition to your personal values, it is likely that your organisation or work sector has a set of values that are important for employees to align with and demonstrate within the workplace. These could include trustworthiness, commitment, honesty and dependability.
At Northern Healthcare, we work in close partnership with adult Health and Social Care professionals to change the lives of the people we support. We only work with professionals that strive to provide the highest standard of care: those that demonstrate all the core values that are vital in the Health and Social Care profession.
The Health and Social Work industry has a core set of values that form the basis of the Code of Ethics. The 6 core social work values are:
Social workers strive to provide a high quality service to their service users at all times, in alignment with the 6 core Social Work values. They should use their knowledge and skills to help those in need and also address social problems.
Social workers should push for social change for all, but especially when advocating on behalf of vulnerable individuals. Examples of areas of social change that social workers focus on are: poverty, discrimination and unemployment. They promote sensitivity towards issues and encourage learning about cultural and ethnic diversity and oppression.
Social workers should ensure access to information, resources, and services are available for everyone, and encourage equal opportunity for every member of society. In addition, making sure each service user has meaningful participation in decision making (if they have the capacity to do so), especially in decisions regarding their care, is very important.
Social workers treat everyone respectfully and with care and compassion, while remaining mindful of individual differences.
An important aspect of being a social worker is recognising their responsibility not only to service users but also to wider society. They should aim to resolve conflicts of interest between service users and the wider society in a socially responsible way, in line with the values and ethics of Health and Social Care work.
Social workers require the understanding that relationships between people are an important ingredient for change, and they should engage people as partners in the helping process. Social workers should work to strengthen relationships between people in a deliberate and purposeful effort to restore and maintain, or promote and enhance the well-being of everyone, including individuals and communities.
Social workers are aware of the values and ethical standards of the Health and Social Care profession and should strive to work consistently in line with them. They should always act honestly and responsibly. Social workers also ensure they take care of themselves both professionally and personally.
It is imperative that social workers continually strive to increase their professional knowledge and skills and apply them in practice to ensure they are always delivering the highest standard of care in line with the values and ethics of the profession.
Source: https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English
Here at Northern Healthcare, we keep the social work core values at the heart of everything we do. In addition to this, earlier this year we launched our new company values. These were decided based on our team and resident feedback, as well as our collective vision for the future of our team.
Our values are:
Positive.
Respectful.
Open and Honest.
Understanding.
Dedicated.
You can read more about Northern Healthcare values here.
If you find yourself resonating with these values, why not consider applying to work with us today?
Our values are now embedded into our hiring and supervision processes. You can read more about this here, and you can view our current vacancies here.
Photo by Sean Stratton on Unsplash.
