Aspects of Social Work Professional Ethics in The Context of Interagency Collaboration in Latvia

With the development of the social worker's profession in Latvia, the ethical aspects of profession have become more and more topical. Ethical awareness is essential for any social worker in order to provide high-quality social services, and the ethical thinking and consequent behaviour are the cornerstones for a good professional practice. The Code of Ethics helps to regulate the behaviour of social work professionals involved in the problem-solving process as it implies clear guidelines and determines certain behaviours, principles and moral norms that sometimes might not coincide with the expectations of other professionals. The aim of this research is to assess the aspects of social work ethics in the context of interagency collaboration in Latvia. in this article the authors define the basic values of social work and analyse Latvian legislation that defines ethical social work practice. The current trends, which can be observed in the process of interagency collaboration in the context of ethics, are summarized. The social work professionals from different institutions were surveyed in one region of Latvia - Kurzeme with the aim to learn their opinion and experience when dealing with ethical issues in their practice emphasizing the specifics of interagency collaboration. The majority of respondents evaluate the interagency collaboration in ethical context as good, although several problem areas are identified. The research also reveals the main ethical dilemmas in social work practice in terms of ethical decision-making process. The suggestions and recommendations of respondents and other authors are summarized about the changes needed for interagency collaboration to be more ethical and more successful.