<p>Abstract</p><p>Author: Ellinor Carlsson and Renate Höjd</p><p>Title: "When you can make a difference and when you can´t" the power relation between psychiatric</p><p>disability social worker and client [translated title]</p><p>Supervisor: Eva Skogman</p><p>Assessor: Norma Montesino</p><p>One branch of the social works field of research is the relation between social worker and</p><p>client. Research has shown that the power and inequality in the relation between helper and</p><p>person being helped is needed for the helper to provide help. Power is often mentioned under</p><p>negative circumstances such as social workers abuse of their power position, violating the</p><p>person being helped. However, Michel Foucault suggests that power is something neutral that</p><p>exists in every social interaction. The negative aspects of power are effects of the parties not</p><p>reaching agreement. Through Michel Foucault and Max Weber we have described how the</p><p>social system affects people seeking help. With a qualitative research we have studied how</p><p>social workers experience the power relation between them and their clients. We have focused</p><p>on the group of people with psychiatric disability and interviewed six social workers working</p><p>with that target group. Our purpose was to describe and analyze how psychiatric social workers</p><p>experience their power position. Our findings suggested that the social workers have their</p><p>power position in mind but not in their everyday work. They recognize both positive and negative</p><p>aspects of power for them and for their clients and describes situations were they don't</p><p>have power to help. This because of how the system is built and because of the client's right</p><p>to say no to help. With the results in mind we have argued that social workers have a great</p><p>impact on their client and his/hers experience of the encounter with the social system. Therefore</p><p>it's of great importance that the power relation is discussed and taken into consideration.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:vxu-5490 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Höjd, Renate, Carlsson, Ellinor |
| Publisher | Växjö University, School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Växjö University, School of Health Sciences and Social Work |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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