News Brief: A Seminal Work by Prof. Frederic Reamer

RIC Professor Frederic Reamer, the foremost ethics expert in the field of social work, has just released a book titled "Moral Distress and Injury in Human Services: Cases, Causes, and Strategies for Prevention," published by the National Association of Social Workers Press.

"This groundbreaking book takes Reamer's past and current scholarship on ethics to a new level," writes Mary Jo Monahan, past CEO of the Association of Social Work Boards. In it he tackles the effect on social workers of witnessing unsafe, incompetent and unethical behavior.

Through extensive and relatable case studies, Reamer illustrates the many ethical dilemmas most social work practitioners will face in their careers that can result in physical or mental illness such as posttraumatic stress disorder, sleep dysfunction or feelings of overwhelming guilt and remorse. This can be so debilitating that some practitioners will leave the profession they love.

"This book is a wake-up call for supervisors, administrators and executive directors of social services agencies and hospitals to review agency policies and procedures and the personnel working within their settings and a warning for social work educators to hold themselves accountable in their gatekeeping role," says Monahan. "Dr. Reamer's story will reach thousands of social workers who can then say, 'Me, too.'"

Visit: https://naswpress.org/product/53654/moral-distress-and-injury-in-human-services.

 
Frederic Reamer's research and teaching have addressed a wide range of human service issues, including mental health, health care, criminal justice and professional ethics. He has served as a social worker in correctional and mental health settings and has lectured extensively nationally and internationally on the subjects of professional ethics and professional malpractice and liability. Reamer received the Distinguished Contributions to Social Work Education award from the Council on Social Work Education (1995), the Presidential Award from the National Association of Social Workers (1997), the International Rhoda G. Sarnat Award from the National Association of Social Workers (2012), the Excellence in Ethics Award from the National Association of Social Workers (2015) and the inaugural Contributor Award from the Association of Social Work Boards (2019). In 2016 he was named a Social Work Pioneer by the National Association of Social Workers.