Service User Perspectives: How did a social worker support you to become independent?
Learning Objectives
After considering this resource, you should be more aware of the positive impact empowerment can have on service users.
Empowering service users and promoting their rights to self-determination is a key role you will play as a social worker, and can lead to tangible and life-enhancing results.
Lucy is a service user who went to a residential school and afterwards lived in residential care. In this video, she talks about her experiences in residential care and discusses how a social worker provided independence training, which has eventually led to her living independently.
Reflective Questions
- In what ways do you think the personal, cultural and structural aspects of empowerment impacted Lucy's progress to independence?
- To what extent do you think other stakeholders such as parents or other professionals empower or disempower service users? How might you begin to manage this?
- How might disempowering a service user lead to resistant or reluctant behaviour?
- In what ways can you recognise aspects of the professional value base in Lucy's story?