(a) Social workers who have direct knowledge of a social work colleague's impairment which is due to personal problems, psychosocial distress, substance abuse, or mental health difficulties, and which interferes with practice effectiveness, should consult with that colleague and assist the colleague in taking remedial action.
(b) Social workers who believe that a social work colleague's impairment interferes with practice effectiveness and that the colleague has not taken adequate steps to address the impairment should take action through appropriate channels established by employers, agencies, NASW, licensing and regulatory bodies, and other professional organizations.
An exam question might go something like this: A social work colleague does something awful to a client or to you or is drunk during work or does something else fairly alarming. What do you do FIRST? Going to supervisors and reporting agencies may feel like the correct first step, but the code clearly indicates that's not the answer. Your first step is to discuss the problem with the colleague. Talk about it. Do social work. It stands to reason, sure, but they didn't put it in the code just for fun--it needed writing down. Remember that FIRST and you can have more fun than the code writers when you confidently answer the exam question correctly. Voila, you're licensed!