Social Work and Empowerment (Practical Social Work)

Originally published as Self Help, Social Work and Empowerment , this fully revised second edition sets out a framework for the development of empowering social work in different domains. It examines the inherently problematic concept of empowerment in social work, the tensions between the consumerism informing the operation of markets in health and social care in the wake of the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 and the development of an empowering practice. "Since this book was first published in 1990 as Self-Help, Social Work and Empowerment, the empowerment paradigm has come of age in social work. Robert Adams argues that it is not just a method, or a new perspective, but the paradigm, replacing the paradigm of client treatment which dominated social work in former decades." "In this substantially rewritten new edition of a lucid and stimulating introductory text, Adams takes on board new experience, writing and research in the fields of user participation and self-help in order to illustrate the application of the paradigm of empowerment to many different practical aspects of social work. He argues that the development of an empowering practice necessitates the overhaul of virtually all the social work literature; yet this is crucial, since professionals need to grapple with the inherently complex and problematic aspects of empowerment as well as its obvious applications." "This text, then, offers an overview of the challenges and ambiguities of the empowerment paradigm in terms of a wide range of empowering relationships - from individuals to whole communities. It looks at the nature of empowering evaluation and the role of reflective practice. Finally, it addresses issues to do with values, policies and resources, for individual practitioners and to the teams and organisations in which they work."--BOOK JACKET Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Concept of Empowerment....Pages 1-24 Framework for Empowerment-in-Practice....Pages 25-42 Self-Empowerment....Pages 43-53 Empowering Individuals....Pages 54-71 Empowering Groups: Mapping the Territory....Pages 72-94 Empowering Groups: Implementation....Pages 95-115 Empowering Community Groups and Organisations....Pages 116-135 Empowering Evaluation....Pages 136-160 Professionals and Service Users: An Empowering Relationship?....Pages 161-182 Towards an Empowering Social Work....Pages 183-201 Back Matter....Pages 202-221