Abstract
[full article and abstract in English]
 The aim of this study was to shed light on family social work through analyzing the insights of Lithuanian social workers about the ethical questions that emerge during their daily practices. Social workers’ ethical considerations are analyzed in the framework of “doing ethics.” Ethics work also pays attention to the broader political and social contexts behind the processes that happen within families. Our qualitative research was carried out in three of the largest Lithuanian cities: Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 family social workers. The research findings showed that family social workers construct ethical questions through discursive themes, such as the dignity of the client and societal inequalities – especially poverty issues and social control and support. Ethical dilemmas arise in the settings where social workers do evaluations and make decisions, and where actions require professional knowledge.
Highlights
This paper is part of a larger body of research focused on family social work in Lithuania (Motieciene and Laitinen 2016; Motieciene, Laitinen and Skaffari 2018)
As previous articles were focused on discourses on social services and the interpretative repertoires of the roles of family social workers in the context of Lithuania, this article focuses on ethical questions in the context of the daily practices of family social work
The heads of the social services agencies were introduced to the research aim and the key questions; later, an invitation to participate was sent directly to family social workers, while some of them were contacted by phone
Summary
This paper is part of a larger body of research focused on family social work in Lithuania (Motieciene and Laitinen 2016; Motieciene, Laitinen and Skaffari 2018). As previous articles were focused on discourses on social services and the interpretative repertoires of the roles of family social workers in the context of Lithuania, this article focuses on ethical questions in the context of the daily practices of family social work. The results of social work are estimated based on how effective family social workers are as professionals or how effective the social services agency is, which causes ethical dilemmas for the practice of family social work. Calculating human suffering or social work interventions through euros or time spent with clients does not provide a base for ethically sound and effective family social work. This paper is among the studies in which the ethics of the professional practices of social work are analyzed (Banks and Williams 2005). The everyday ethics of family social workers are approached as doing ethics through the interdependent moral spheres in which family social workers’ ethical considerations take place: the personal, professional and public or social spheres. Banks (2016) broadens ethics work to include emotion, identity, roles and responsibilities
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