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Engaging with Involuntary Service Users in Social Work
Professor Viv Cree, September 2010
Involuntary service users Not a straightforward term Diversity A broad spectrum? Aren’t all service users in sw
involuntary? Too general to be useful? But a term like this reflects the
reality of everyday social work
Everyday social work Can be hard, lonely, and at times, scary Service users can be angry, upset, violent at
times; drugs and alcohol may make things worse
Social workers have to do things that are not welcomed – who is the ‘client’??
Impact of public attitudes to social work on service users – makes people reluctant to engage with sw
Also on social workers – may make sws (at times) tentative, defensive, less willing to share assessment & plans
What can research offer? Not perfect answers, not simple solutions Involuntary service users are – unsurprisingly – difficult
to research Social work research produces different kinds of
knowledge to health research – is more messy Research offers a source of guidance, some pointers,
some suggestions for principles, some examples of good and bad practice
This project has provided some starting points for discussion, reflection and critical thinking about what user engagement is, and its place in social work
Those involved have opened up opportunities for discussions around a challenging area of practice, and suggested some possible ways forward
Key themes for engagement with involuntary service users User engagement isn’t politically neutral; we need to think
about why we are doing it and where the impetus comes from
It requires trusting long-term relationships to be established with service users
Communication and providing clear, accessible information to clients is essential to enabling user involvement
Involuntary clients will most likely require some form of active support to express their views
Engaging with involuntary service users is messy and compromised; what makes the difference is the persistence and creativity of individual workers in specific circumstances
We need to affirm core social work values and skills again! We also need to reaffirm the importance of supervision
Thanks to Mike Gallagher, Heather Wilkinson and Mark
Smith who led the ESLA project All the practitioners who gave their time and
headed up research projects in their councils All the service users who took part in the
research projects The six LAs which participated in the project The ESRC & Scottish Gov for its financial support The University of Edinburgh for hosting the
project You all for coming and sharing our concern for
this important topic