SECTION 675:20-1-4. Social worker's ethical responsibility to clients

(a)   Social workers shall not exploit their professional relationships with clients (or former clients), supervisees, students, employees, or research participants, sexually or otherwise for personal or business advantage. Social workers shall not condone or engage in sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is defined as deliberate or repeated comments, gestures, or physical contacts of a sexual nature that are unwanted by the recipient.

(b)   The social worker shall not solicit the clients of one's agency for private practice.

(c)   The social worker shall terminate service to clients, and professional relationships with them, when such service and relationships are no longer required or in which a conflict of interest arises.

(d)   A social worker shall not engage in any sexual act with a client or with a person who has been a client.

(e)   The client/social worker relationship shall be presumed to exist for a period of six months after the termination of services except where circumstances such as, but not limited to, selection of a new therapist shows otherwise.

(f)   A social worker shall give precedence to his/her professional responsibility over personal interests.

(g)   A social worker shall not commit fraud and shall not represent that he/she performed services which the social worker did not perform.

(h)   The social worker shall not divide a fee or accept or give anything of value for receiving or making a referral.

(i)   The social worker shall provide clients at the beginning of service accurate and complete information regarding the extent and nature of the services available to them, to include fees and manner of payment.

[Source: Amended at 35 Ok Reg 2031, eff 11-1-18]