Ethical Principles and Responsibilities
A social worker has a signed consent form in a client's file. What does the signature by itself establish?
Valid consent needs five things together: capacity, disclosure, comprehension, voluntariness and authorisation. A signature is the authorisation part, and it is evidence that something happened, not proof that the other four did. A describes what the agency handed over, which is not what a signature records. C is the assumption this whole topic exists to unsettle, and it is the one a board will test if a complaint arrives; understanding has to be built and checked, not inferred from a name on a page. When an option treats the form as the end of the matter, ask whether anyone confirmed the client understood.
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