SHOULD SOCIAL-WORK CLIENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO EFFECTIVE TREATMENT

Currently, the codes of ethics developed for social workers by NASW an d other professional associations do not suggest that clients have the right to receive effective, empirically validated treatment. In addit ion, the codes place no explicit emphasis on empirically validated tre atments when referring to social work competence, education, research, supervision, or the profession as a whole. Does the social work clien t have the right to receive effective treatment when such intervention s are known to be available Should the NASW Code of Ethics include suc h requirements to encourage more responsible behavior on the part of s ocial work practitioners? This article considers some of the issues in volved in this debate and offers suggestions as to how codes of ethics could be modified to include clients' right to receive effective trea tment and social workers' obligation to be educated about and to provi de such treatment.