From social workers to socio-therapists: the transformative journey of substance abuse therapists (original) (raw)
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The Routledge Companion on the Professions and Professionalism , 2015
The aim of this chapter is to examine the concept of professional identity as it relates to social work. This will facilitate greater theoretical clarity, map possible alternatives and refinements to the concept so that these can contribute to a better understanding of the field of social work. Despite a growing interest in matters of professional identity in social work, researchers know relatively little about how identities are formed among practitioners who carry out complex, challenging and often ambiguous public sector functions (Baxter, 2011). Professional identity - or how a social worker thinks of herself or himself as a social worker - is often defined as a practitioners professional self-concept based on attributes, beliefs, values, motives, and experiences (Ibarra, 1999; Schein, 1978).
Social workers' roles and contemporary responsibilities in addiction management
International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147- 4478)
This paper sought to explore and describe the roles and responsibilities of social workers in addiction management. The researchers adopted a qualitative approach and used a multiple-case study design. Purposive and convenience sampling techniques were used to select social workers who specialise in substance/addiction management from two Non-Governmental Organisations and one Government Department. Individual interviews and focus group discussions were used to gather data, then thematically analysed. The study's findings indicated that social service practitioners' roles and responsibilities in the public and private sectors are blurry. It was further found that there is role confusion due to a lack of clarity on this issue as some staff tends to shift their responsibilities. This article provides lenses for higher education institutions in tailoring social work programs to address addiction management issues, as there is a persistent need for the development of a curriculu...
Training staff to combat drug use is not an easy task given the range of different treatment models and professionals in this field. Treatment models range from pharmacotherapies through outpatient approaches to drug-free self-help groups and therapeutic communities. Staff working in Greek therapeutic communities for drug addicts constitute a mixed group, ranging from some who have already acquired a professional identity through university studies to others being ex-addicts who base their work mainly on a personal treatment experience. This present paper is focused around the experiential approach to training programmes in the drug addiction field. Consideration is given to the origins in a generic TC with special reference made to the therapeutic communities movement in the Greek context. The development and history of training within hierarchical TCs will be explored and the tensions between the professional staff group and the ex-addict staff group will be discussed. The paper suggests that the improvement of existing services and the development of better facilities for drug addicts and their families require greater emphasis and resource allocation for staff training.
Health & Social Care in the Community
The practice of social prescribing (SP) has been rapidly expanding throughout the UK in recent years. The role of SP link workers (SPLWs) currently has no nationally prescribed requirements in terms of qualifications, background, or experience. This qualitative study of 13 SPLWs using semi-structured interviews is believed to be the first exploration of perceptions of their professional identity and the agency and structure within their roles. SPLWs reported feeling caught between biomedical and biopsychosocial models of health. Some identified with clinical healthcare teams, whilst others preferred non-medical and community-based identities. SPLWs valued professional flexibility and freedom, though were concerned this was becoming increasingly restricted. They reported filling gaps in the health system and absorbing more risk and complexity than they believed was reflected in their training or pay. Despite this, SPLWs demonstrated consistent core values of person-centredness, holis...
The social constructions of drug users in professional interventions
Journal of Social Work Practice, 2011
This qualitative study analyses the construction of a subject who uses drugs (injected drugs) so as to offer psychosocial proposals for social healthcare interventions within this collective, and thereby contribute to social healthcare policies that optimise treatment for drug use. The results indicate that identity is connected to positions that are activated in interactions and relationships between users and professionals in various day-to-day contexts of healthcare and treatment. We have labelled these activated positions: therapeutic, drug-sensory, consumerist, legal-repressive and group-community. Understanding them provides clues that may improve interventions in health and legal contexts. These clues include understanding the tensions between the subject and the substance, considering the stigmatised image and identity, and supporting the idea of the existence of dilemmas in users and professionals, as this may allow transformations to occur in the mutual relationships that are established.