scholarly journals Empowerment i velfærdsarbejde fordrer professionel læring

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Maja Lundemark Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Relational Work ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
The Individual

ResuméDet sociale og pædagogiske velfærdsarbejde i Danmark har udviklet sig, så der kan iagttages to modsatrettede tendenser, hvor den ene handler om mere kontrol og sanktioner i velfærdsarbejdet, og den anden handler om at øge borgernes deltagelse og ejerskab i egen sag. Denne artikel diskuterer om – og hvordan – det er muligt at øge borgernes deltagelse og ejerskab i egen sag gennem en kommunikativ kompetenceudvikling hos de professionelle. Artiklens fokus er en undersøgelse af, hvordan et praksisforskningsprojekt kan bidrage til refleksion og læring i den professionelle praksis, som kan medvirke til et øget samarbejde mellem borger og professionel. Observationer og direkte supervision af praksis kan danne en frugtbar akse, hvor organisation, profession og forskning spiller sammen i en kritisk konstruktiv optik, der kan omsættes i læring og konkrete produktive forandringer i mødet mellem system og borger. AbstractEmpowerment within modern welfare requires professional skills. Power and power relations are dominant concepts in any form of social and relational work in modern welfare. In order to create an empowering partnership between service users and social workers it is necessary to research the production of power and to make power relations visible and negotiable. Service users’ perspectives and democratic principles could strengthen empowerment processes and develop social work practice. This article discusses how practice research as a process of collaboration is able to inform professional competence building and reflection to further cooperation between the professionals and the service users. Paying attention to details and micro processes in the individual meetings between service user and professional makes it obvious to understand how professionals can learn to communicate and work with empowerment in cooperation with the service users. On this basis the article concludes that it is possible for practice research – based on a close collaboration between research, social work and user perspectives – to inform new learning processes among professionals, and this in turn can contribute to a more empowering perspective in the collaboration between professionals and service users.

Shame and social work: an introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Liz Frost ◽  
Veronika Magyar-Haas ◽  
Holger Schoneville ◽  
Alessandro Sicora
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
General Structure ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Work System ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Shame is a powerful emotion in the context of social work. It affects individuals and attacks their subjectivity from within, and yet is also experienced in the here and now as a thoroughly social emotion that enmeshes the individual in society. It is therefore highly potent within the field of social work, for its service users, and in social work practice itself. People who become service users often live in social situations in which they are confronted with shame. This emotion can occur to service users by virtue of being in the social work system, and it can also be experienced by those recruited to alleviate social problems the social workers. This introduction will try to give some preliminary definitions, introduce the main concepts highlighted in the book, present the general structure of the latter, and briefly describe the content of each of its chapters.

scholarly journals Service Users as Collaborators in Social Work Practice, Research, and Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
Elena Cabiati ◽  
Chiara Panciroli
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Collaborative Relationships ◽  
The People ◽  
Research And Education

The idea that social work needs to be concerned with thinking and acting in a more collaborative way with the people in need is common around the world. At the international level, codes of ethics and social work principles inspire practitioners, researchers, and educators in bridging the gap between themselves and people in trouble, commonly known as service users. Beyond a common agreement around such principle, to realize collaborative relationships in practice is a challenge that requires prudence, coherence, and methodology. The Relational social work method supports the practical development of participation, collaboration, and reciprocity. Through concepts and examples, this article aims to describe how service users can assume the role of collaborators in social practice, research, and education.

Purchasing Power and Self-Determination: Social Worker Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bailey ◽  
Debbie Plath ◽  
Alankaar Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Purchasing Power ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Management Approaches

Abstract The international policy trend towards personalised budgets, which is designed to offer people with disabilities purchasing power to choose services that suit them, is exemplified in the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This article examines how the ‘purchasing power’ afforded to service users through individualised budgets impacts on social work practice and the choice and self-determination of NDIS service users. Social workers’ views were sought on the alignment between the NDIS principles of choice and control and social work principles of participation and self-determination and how their social work practice has changed in order to facilitate client access to supports through NDIS budgets and meaningful participation in decision-making. A survey was completed by forty-five social workers, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with five of these participants. The findings identify how social workers have responded to the shortfalls of the NDIS by the following: interpreting information for clients; assisting service users to navigate complex service provision systems; supporting clients through goal setting, decision-making and implementation of action plans; and adopting case management approaches. The incorporation of social work services into the NDIS service model is proposed in order to facilitate meaningful choice and self-determination associated with purchasing power.

scholarly journals The Information Behaviour of Social Workers: Needs, Seeking, Acquiring and Using Information in Practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 1588-1610
Author(s):  
Niamh Flanagan
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Information Behaviour ◽  
Traditional Research ◽  
Search For Information ◽  
Information Landscape

Abstract In the debate about what informs social work practice, research remains the dominant discourse. However, the relationship between research and social work practice has always been an uneasy one, arguably passed from other clinical disciplines without resizing to fit social work. Even as social work research matures as a discipline it represents one element in a much broader composite which informs practice. This article takes a unique step back from the traditional research-practice discourse and examines the broader information landscape of social work practice, asking how practitioners inform their practice, rather than how research informs practice. This study explores the information needs that prompt practitioners to search for information, the strategies they employ, their acquisition of information and the uses to which the information is put. This study aims to elucidate the information behaviour with a view to improving dissemination and use. Findings demonstrate that the social work information base is substantially broader than has been suggested. Practitioners employ a pragmatic palette of strategies to navigate the breadth of information that supports practice, from research through to knowledge sharing. This article proposes that a pragmatic framework of information behaviour is required to accurately reflect the information behaviour of social workers.

Radical Hope

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Krumer-Nevo
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Critical Social Work ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Impact

This book describes the new Poverty-Aware Paradigm (PAP), which was developed in Israel through intense involvement with the field of social work in various initiatives. The paradigm was adopted in 2014 by the Israeli Ministry of Welfare and Social Services as a leading paradigm for social workers in social services departments. The book draws from the rich experience of the implementation of the PAP in practice and connects examples of practice to theoretical ideas from radical/critical social work, critical poverty knowledge, and psychoanalysis. The PAP addresses poverty as a violation of human rights and emphasizes people’s ongoing efforts to resist poverty. In order to recognize these sometimes minor acts of resistance and advance their impact, social workers should establish close relationship with service users and stand by them. The book proposes combining relationship-based practice and rights-based practice as a means of bridging the gap between the emotional and material needs of service users. In addition to introducing the main concepts of the PAP, the book also contributes to the debate between conservative and cultural theories of poverty and structural theories, emphasizing the impact of a critical framework on this debate. The book consists of four parts. The first, “Transformation”, addresses the transformational nature of the paradigm. The second, “Recognition”, is based on current psychoanalytic developments and “translates” them into social work practice in order to deepen our understanding of relationship-based practice. The third, “Rights”, describes rights-based practice. The fourth, “Solidarity”, presents various ways in which solidarity might shape social workers’ practice. The book seeks to reaffirm social work’s core commitment to combating poverty and furthering social justice and to offer a solid theoretical conceptualization that is also eminently practical.

Participation in Child Welfare Services Through Information and Communication Technologies

2011 ◽  
pp. 73-90
Author(s):  
Susan Tregeagle
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Case Management ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Social Work Interventions

Case management systems were designed to open the way for increased participation of young people and their families in child welfare interventions, and, their standardised format provides a valuable opportunity to use ICT in social work practice. Existing research is unclear about how effectively case management affects participation, nor, the impact of ICT on social work interventions. This paper describes the findings of qualitative research with service users about their experiences of case management and how ICT could further their involvement in critical decisions for families. Service users are keen to use ICT and this could help overcome the limitations of paper-based case management systems and exploit the communication potential of the internet and mobile phones. However, before ICT could be used, the complex ‘digital divide’ affecting disadvantaged families would need to be addressed and social workers’ understanding and current use of ICT would need to be explored.

A review of research about the transition from student social worker to practitioner: Exploring diversity

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 834-857
Author(s):  
Lana M Battaglia ◽  
Catherine A Flynn
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Transition To Practice

Summary With increasing student mobility to and from western host-universities, newly qualified social workers are more likely to enter the field in an unfamiliar context. To examine whether current knowledge appropriately informs education and support for a diversifying cohort of newly qualified social workers in the Australian context, a scoping review was conducted on 53 articles investigating the transition to social work practice. Research conducted over a 45-year period from a broad range of international contexts was included in the review. Findings Findings suggest that current understandings do not reflect the needs or experiences of the present cohort of newly qualified social workers as they transition to social work practice. Rather, study samples, mostly derived from western contexts, are notably homogenous, with most participants described by researchers, as ‘white’. Additionally, there is an assumption that students transition to practice within the same context as their education. Current knowledge therefore does not capture the various ways internationally mobile, newly graduated social workers may transition to practice, or how it is experienced. Applications Findings suggest that further examination is urgently needed on the pathways navigated to practice by diverse and mobile early career social workers. Further consideration of the influences of diversity and mobility on experience is needed, using more inclusive research methods, to capture the variability and complexity of the transition to practice as the profession diversifies and mobilises.

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