This analytical approach also sensitised the research to how not only individuals defend the self from unbearable feelings, but entire organisations erect defences that impede thinking and reflective practice (Cooper & Lousada, Citation2005; Whittaker, Citation2011). in the form of the authority or the office. Exploring communication between social workers, children and young people. This echoes Smith et al.s (Citation2012, p. 1474) finding that while managerial regimes often advocate a sensitive focus on service users needs, in reality they act against its meaningful realisation by eroding the social work relationship in favour of bureaucratic, procedural systems. Social work knowledge and legal powers are to be found within the worker herself and can be used unilaterally though it makes the task of a social worker that much easier if the other understands and agrees to the use of (1) and (2). This is a skill which is a power in itself. A support group called PAIN (Parents Against Injustice) was involved in helping and campaigning on behalf of the parents accused of abuse. Soon after, Roberta rang the office twice to tell the team manager (Olivia) she was angry with her, and the researcher could hear her shouting a barrage of abuse at Olivia and demanding a complaint form. In working with on-going hostility, social workers face huge challenges in maintaining their professionalism by having empathy for service users fears and not retaliating. client and social worker, fail to understand the importance of a broader social context to the creation of a relationship of power. Wicked uses of power were legitimated through recording and acceptance of certain types of judgement about people. Amy is in a car seat under the sink in the gap where a dishwasher or washing machine usually goes. Social workers in this situation are not involved in normalization but in influencing, persuading and convincing their colleagues of the validity of their judgement or opinion. This is extremely difficult for professionals to do when they are constantly under attack by service users and rage and hate are projected into them. Christians refrain from sin because they are in awe of God's potential power. 800-742-4089, Political Action for Candidate Election (PACE). Mensch, J.R. (1996) After Modernity, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY. Furthermore, both definitions assume that at least two subjects belong to the power relationship; the one who possesses power and his counterpart, on whom power is exercised. Senior manager supervisor: I was thinking wed spoken about it earlier in the week and she had got upset then and Id heard the story, you know. The two types of power discussed by Fairclough, roughly correspond to my examples of power as capacity and power as exercised. Power imbalance may affect joint work. To care about someone and be helpful requires a capacity to become emotionally attuned to their experience, to think about why they present in the ways that they do and to not retaliate when they are angry and upset. Despite its great influence The first home visit was done by the team manager, Olivia, due to the social worker Susans unavailability. Power has been described according to: (a) who has formal authority to make decisions and who controls the resources; and (b) who has less tangible aspects of symbolic power or the ability to control ideas and meaning [ 17 ]. Despite her overt hostility to social care, Roberta consented to being part of the research. As Cook (Citation2020) argues, it is crucial that the risks arising from the complex emotions experienced on home visits and elsewhere are brought to awareness and made into a resource for insight and thoughtful practice. And of course they can be used in the exercise of power over others. Susan moves to her right to allow this and suggests they move to another room. One must remember that for an exercise of power to be such, does not require that it is successful in its ultimate aims. Roberta Dixon had two children, who were not in her care but resident with their relatives for the past two years, and she saw them occasionally. It has caused a load of stress, headaches, made us sort of feel ill in ourselves. I would want to reject this 'realist' view which says that only power is exercised is real power. Power thus pre-figures our relationships with clients, at both an inter-personal and structural level. On the one hand they feel obliged to treat clients in a disengaged and technical way, in order to establish that their interest is purely professional when discussing personal and sensitive issues such as sexuality. Social work is helping, is supporting. Is It True That Single Women and Married Men Do Best? 100% just losing it. This often results in the perception of a power differential in the relationship such that the therapist is seen as having more psychological strength, control, and leverage than they do. When such splitting occurs, relationships and the work suffers because sound assessments and decision-making require practitioners and the whole system to be in touch with as many dimensions of the emotional dynamics as possible and connected to the complexity of being human the good and the bad in us all (Cooper, Citation2018, p. 32). And while this is true, having less money than your neighbors doesn't make you any less of a person than they are, nor them any better than you. Having shown some general features of social workers and involuntary clients experiences, the paper will now develop these insights by exploring in-depth how hostile relationships developed and were sustained over time. We cannot maximize this mission and fully actualize our core professional values without advocating to reform, dismantle, or even abolish the racist and oppressive systems we may work within and beside. At the beginning of this paper, I would like to present four basic theses that I developed during the theoretical discussion of the topic and that are reflected throughout the paper. In child protection work with involuntary clients what constitutes fair, proportionate and respectful practice is inevitably contested. This is what I am basically being told by them and this is a meeting about my child and I cant even voice my opinion or even factual information or correct them on information that is wrong, all I can do is basically sit there and get upset . This study suggests that given the power imbalance parents perceive between themselves and workers, an equitable partnership may not be possible in child protection casework. P!ZgKRZ>f?"P0G. On the other hand, he points to the " power of definition and decision-making (that) social workers have in many areas with regard to their clients" (ibid.). Power in the social work field is often seen as something negative. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. Sign up for this free e-newsletter for a daily round-up of the top media stories affecting the social work profession. This regular form is indicative of 'the way of doing X' being socially authorized and having a set of rules for the proper performance of X. Many social workers struggle with feelings of power and powerlessness, as do the clients they are seeking to assist ( Bundy-Fazioli, 2004; Pitcher, 2008 ). Bar-On (2002) advocated for the social work profession to master the discourse of power and use it effectively (p. 998). This little speech is not likely to achieve a warm or co-operative relationship with a parent. power imbalance is being expressed when one partner (or a group of partners) is able to dominate decision- making or otherwise asserts power in ways that disadvantages other partners or are not in the best interest towards achieving the partnership objectives. Professionals are liable to retaliate and throw some bombs of their own into relationships and are involved in a struggle not to be hateful and punitive towards the service user. 48 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<34084BC7F182434D9F460EA11BD66545><6F245B4E13675940B38B739BDB8C44F8>]/Index[29 44]/Info 28 0 R/Length 97/Prev 225288/Root 30 0 R/Size 73/Type/XRef/W[1 3 1]>>stream Sr. Public Relations Specialist Olivia was shadowed in the office for the rest of the day and said she was not happy with how she handled the meeting because she felt stressed due to pressure of work and enough attention wasnt given to Robertas views and feelings. To give a fairly obvious example, Hitler and the Nazi Party portrayed the Jewish people as vermin who were destroying German life and culture. It seemed like their anxious state of mind was such that unconsciously they colluded in their own distancing, because they did not want to be there. 750 First Street, NE Suite 800 The following discussion applies to adults in therapeutic relationships with qualified therapists. It promotes, develops, and protects the practice of social work and social workers. Social workers have an ethical duty to dismantle racism, both personally and professionally, and to demonstrate what it means to be antiracist. We had no way of knowing at the outset how long the 30 cases (15 at each site) we sampled would be open for and in the event 12 were shadowed for the full 12months, one for eleven and 22 were shadowed for at least eight months. The research on which this paper is based was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council [Grant Number ES/N012453/2]. The social workers meanwhile, regarded the parents as being responsible for the lack of cooperation and saw this as further evidence of their problematic parenting. A total of 271 practice encounters between social care staff and service users were observed, 146 of which were home visits. Some were cooperative from the start, and therapeutic, or became that way having begun with the service users not wishing to have social work involvement (see, Ferguson, Warwick,Disney,etal.,Citation2020). The maintaining of one's ability to convert a capacity into an exercise of power in the presence of others depends on how one uses one's power, e.g. Communications Director The teams where the casework with involuntary clients occurred that we have featured in this paper were not uncaring. The question of whether power and social work are not a contradiction in terms may seem justified at first glance. There had been significant concern for the two children aged 4 and 5 from early in their lives due to their fathers drug abuse and violence towards their mother. In her final research interview at the end of the research fieldwork (month 12) Roberta still had custody of her daughter but expressed how she regarded the attempt to remove her as a persecutory, punitive response. Strengths-based practice models such as Signs of Safety include techniques for advancing such work (Edwards & Turnell, Citation1999; Turnell & Essex, Citation2006). It is a resource not only of information but of a power/knowledge; that is, knowledge which is the basis of a pre-set agenda of how the social worker can deal with the now labeled 'difficult' client. This paper examines the sources of power of workers and clients, and, by using a power-dependence perspective, it explores the consequences of power on social work practice. The threat by Rebecca the social worker to do spot checks in the middle of the night expressed her commitment to checking on the childrens safety, but because it was so unrealistic it can be construed as retaliatory. She practiced what Ferguson (Citation2018) has called suspended self-preservation, where social workers consciously suppress reflection on and acknowledgement of the depths of their feelings to help them get through the work they have to do and protect themselves and colleagues from their suffering. 3099067 Mood, for instance, without being the object of any intended act of consciousness, can underlie and guide specific forms of client experience. The view, for example, that subjectivity is open-ness and contingent within a field of temporal relations as expressed by phenomenological thinkers, suggests that there are as many forms of subjective being as there are forms of time (see Mensch, 1996). with courtesy or aggression. Child protection interventions Racism and white supremacy are ingrained within American institutions and systems and have therefore affected social work ideology and practice for generations. Audit requirements and the pressure for performance data over-rode the need for attention to what was occurring emotionally and viscerally for the workers, mother and baby, alongside analysis of what was going on in the relationship, especially below the surface. It is striking how these two colleagues wound themselves up into a kind of frenzy about Robertas dangerousness, including imagining and enacting the whack! of her assaulting the baby. Robertas baby, Amy, was born in Month 6 and very regular social care visits began. Within five minutes the social worker tells Roberta to be careful to hold the babys head so that it doesnt flop and Roberta responds angrily that she knows how to care for a baby. The challenges involved were all the greater because typically social workers had several such cases at the same time and team managers had to provide support for their entire teams caseload of involuntary clients. Involuntary clients and hostile relationships have a very powerful presence in statutory social work. While there is no doubt that Roberta could be a frightening person, and that she and her child were vulnerable, the possibility that she was right and that at an unconscious level this was a retaliatory act cannot be ruled out. Following the work of Klein (Citation1946) there is evidence of psychological splitting occurring here, which is a defence mechanism for dealing with intense anxiety and other unbearable feelings. But even in this case we make changes. Furthermore, forms of power are differentiated in the literature; this leads, for example, to distinctions between power to act, power to define, or power to limit. Professionals towering over Roberta merely emphasised their dominance and power precisely that which she most feared. When interviewed for the research around the time these encounters were happening Roberta admitted she deliberately covered the seating to prevent professionals from sitting down, orchestrating discomfort. anal dilation techniques, that all other considerations fell by the way. Leaders of all major social work organizations came together on Aug. 14 in a national town hall to report on their efforts to advance anti-racism within social work practice, education, regulation and research. It should be emphasized here that Weber understands power as a chance, i.e. When I started working on the topic of power and powerlessness in social work, I did not have many questions. awright.nasw@socialworkers.org. The recording process detaches the author from what s/he writes such that we often say of some judgment in a report not "Ms Susan Social-Worker says here ?. " Fifteen months of fieldwork were spent with social workers, the first three months of which were used to identify a sample of 30 cases that were then shadowed for as long as they were open for up to a year (Ferguson et al., Citation2019). People often have sex when they're tired, meaning the sex is more likely to be short, perfunctory, goal-oriented, and mechanical. She sort of laughs dismissively when she looks at things. WebPower and the ways in which social workers manage it are critical elements of the relationships between parents and social workers in child protection systems (Mandell, This was on top of their many other duties. Social and professional status confers power, but it is primarily the knowledge, experience, and tools with which a social worker acts that empower him or her. The aggressive use of power may work in the short tem but not in the long term. This left no space for thinking that could help them become aware of the transference and counter-transference, the pathological nature of the relationship and communication and how they could negotiate things like having a place to sit on home visits and having meaningful relationships with children, where they were held as well as seen. Foucault's conception of power' in Economy and Society, Vol.9, No.1. Thus I will consider, for example, the political aspects of the case conference, writing of reports and assessment procedures all of which construct 'political' regimes and are elements of the process of power. Connect with your NASW Chapter to find local action groups leading the way on achieving equity. Practitioners and managers need to be provided with supervision that goes below the surface and enables them to recognise how they are really thinking and feeling about children and families and identify the effects of fear, anxiety, and defences such as splitting and the dangers of hate and retaliation (Trevithick, Citation2011). In summary then a critical social work operates within the contingent fields of subjectivity and power. As Brett Kahr (Citation2020) shows, when Winnicott (Citation1949) first published his work on hate in the counter-transference there was considerable resistance to it within psychoanalysis and the idea that therapists sometimes hated their clients, but this is now a fully accepted part of psychotherapeutic knowledge. %%EOF Nevertheless, this can be thought of as similar to a physician having a greater understanding of a patient's medical issues than the patient has about the physician's, or an attorney knowing intimate details about a client's life circumstances that the client doesn't know about the attorney. Due to this, nine social care visits occurred in the first half of Month 10 alone, mostly by Susan. In social work, therefore, one is always dealing with power relations. Dual relationships. Psychology Today 2023 Sussex Publishers, LLC. WebThe power of imbalance. Greg Wright In this sort of example we can say that power in discourse is to do with the ability of the social worker to control and constrain the contributions of a non-powerful participant, in this case a client suspected of neglecting a child. In addition, in essence, the client is the therapist's employer. by poverty, by living in an unfurnished house and so forth. As has been shown, on most occasions interactions between social care and families went on in the home. For example, therapists need to learn about the peoples cultures they will be counselling. Remember: Think well, Act well, feel well, be well! But in the vast majority of therapeutic relationships, which should rest on a solid foundation of mutual trust and respect, a level playing field of shared power exists. 7 ways to rebuild your faith in humanity. Equally, if a social worker meeting with other professionals says "I've been a professional for 15 years and I know I am right"; while colleagues may reluctantly give way to the speaker, making it appear that the exercise of power has been successful, they will probably be offended by the confrontational style and be unwilling to accede to further demands by that social worker. - Publication as eBook and book Here Susan was meeting Amy for the first time and while she made genuine efforts to recognise the babys presence, she did not get physically close to her, which we had observed her doing on visits to other infants. In the sense of the English "power", power is related to strength and energy, or, based on the Latin "potentia", power also means possibility. WebAll these aspects can lead to an imbalance of power within the helping relationship, between social worker and client, at least initially (cf. If because social worker A has written down in official files that Mr Jones is unpleasant, and B, C and D read it, (and because it is an official report it has authority and thus likely to be believed), then B, C and D social workers will be suspicious of Mr Jones and prone to exercise their professional powers in a tougher way than they might have done if he had been described as friendly. To this end psychotherapists are being consulted about the decoration of prison cells for violent prisoners. I am going to argue that politics is about a network of forces that create a varying distribution of power and examine the effects this has on subjectivity and social relationships. To do this is to engage critically in the pursuit of just and empowering relationships. As will be shown however, this hostility was not simply a result of parental attitudes or personalities, it was also relational and a product of social worker attitudes and how the interactions between families and professionals developed into hostile relationships. 6MDHF hJ&30x` #S The opportunity for reflective, emotionally supportive supervision was sacrificed to the organisational imperative to comply with government-imposed performance indicators that are inspected by the regulatory body, Ofsted. Those elements of practice, which cut things off at their roots and which permanently foreclose the possibilities of open-ness, are the adversaries of a critical social work. By using the NASW Code of Ethics as a guidepost, social workers can help dismantle systems of oppression, take action against white supremacy culture, and be leaders in the movement for racial justice. Civil servants obey Prime Ministers, not because of anything the Prime Minister will do to them but because of the constitutional powers vested in her or him - the legitimate 'potential' power s/he has been afforded. If shes not working with us and we cant get into the home its not safe enough for her to take that baby home, end of story. All Rights Reserved. How Blame and Shame Can Fuel Depression in Rape Victims, Getting More Hugs Is Linked to Fewer Symptoms of Depression, Interacting With Outgroup Members Reduces Prejudice, Practice Improves the Potential for Future Plasticity, How Financial Infidelity Can Affect Your Gray Divorce. changing someone's opinions or what they were going to say, is power being exercised. Hostile relationships in social work pra . Researching long-term practice and relationships, Sustaining hostile relationships over time, https://doi.org/10.1080/09687590500086666, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.02.029, https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2017.1413083, https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2020.1837105, https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2015.1073145, https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2019.1597693, https://doi.org/10.1332/204674319X15536730156921, https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2018.1460589, https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2011.626642, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2012.00830.x, https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2018.1439460, https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2011.626654. But ? People with narcissistic personalities may behave differently than non-narcissists, such as shunning introspection and denying mistakes. Postmodern feminist social work theories reject the notion of egalitarian power relations as a fantasy that does not engage with the power dynamics that always exist between social workers and clients, a point also made in earlier work ( Wise, 1990 ). Acknowledging this and the presence of difficult emotions in the dynamics of hostile and avoidant relationships is a very important way to begin to overcome them. Another example of power behind discourse might be the assessment procedures of children who are considered at risk of sexual abuse. This move is engineered by the social worker who leads the way despite Roberta saying there are no seats in the sitting-room. A visit that Susan and Olivia made together later in Month 6 was more typical of the pattern of relating that became established: Susan took the lead, knocked on the door and Roberta led us into the kitchen. Social work teaches us to recognize the continuity, the indivision of experiences where each moment of a clients life is caught up with all others in the same propulsion of time, and, simultaneously, to recognize the movement that prevents the fixing of meaning, and makes arise indefinately, beyond the present given, the latent content of a clients life-world. Many of the parents in the study began by disliking, fearing and even hating social workers. Creating space to think and feel in child protection social work; a psychodynamic intervention, The impact of work-related violence towards social workers in children and family services, Sustaining relationships: Working with strong feelings: Part l: Anger, aggression and hostility, Engaging with involuntary service users in social work: Findings from a knowledge exchange project, Challenges and dilemmas working with highconflict families in child protection casework, Understanding defences and defensiveness in social work, Resistant parents and child protection: Knowledge base, pointers for practice and implications for policy, A relationship-based approach to engaging involuntary clients: The contribution of recognition theory, What makes it so hard to look and to listen? - It only takes five minutes hb```X.V!1MiZ'ef:Q.$r)DROG,gV6+ ID# nfE@ZE00ps2d`)Ojx;/Av!S%7 20%iF ^ ` / When Is It OK to 'Fake It Till You Make It'? It is service users who typically are characterised as hard to reach, resistant, difficult, but the social care staff were also often emotionally detached and unwilling or unable to tolerate and reach the parents and children. Roberta tries to get more information from the social worker about Susan but is given a vague reply that this new social worker will be coming to visit for a while. In Being and Time,Heidegger explained that human existence constitutes the open-ness where beings can be revealed. This yet again demonstrates what Francis Bacon, the 16th century English statesman and philosopher meant when he observed that 'knowledge is power'. Some things, like wanting to be liked by everyone, are near guarantees of stress and unhappiness. Both deny it and Rebecca threatens to do spot checks in the middle of the night. According to his understanding, power means "every chance within a social relationship to assert one's own will even against opposition, regardless of what this chance is based on" (Weber 1976, p. 89). A client can "fire" a therapist at any time for any reason no ifs, ands, or buts whereas a therapist can't ethically abandon a client without making an effort to transition the therapy to another provider.
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