Social workers’ experience with the concept of empowerment: voices from the disability field

ABSTRACT

The concept of empowerment is one of the fundamental building blocks of social work practice. This concept plays a key role in liberating people who feel pressured, such as individuals with disabilities. The main aim of this study is to explore the relationship between social workers in the disability field and the concept of empowerment. This study seeks to understand how social workers perceive the concepts of disability and empowerment, the roles in which they attempt to empower their clients, and the factors that prevent them from applying the empowerment approach. To this end, phenomenological design, a qualitative research method, was used, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 social workers. Social workers are insightful about the concept of empowerment and their approach to disability. They generally practice at the micro level due to neoliberal policies and the aid-oriented service models. Additionally, there are structural and mentality obstacles that impede the application of the empowerment approach, consequently affecting empowering practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Empowerment
• individuals with disabilities
• social worker
• social work practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zeliha Tören

Zeliha Tören works as a research assistant at the Bingöl University in Social Work Department. Tören finished her PhD at Ankara University with the dissertation “An Analysis of Experiences of Visually Disabled Parents and Children Who Have Disabled Parent in terms of System Approach” thesis. Her main research interests focus on disability, family and children.

Bilge Aslan Açan

Bilge Aslan Açan is an assistant professor at the İstanbul 29 Mayıs University’s Social Work Department. Bilge has started her professional career as a lecturer in Social Work department. Having received her doctorate degree in 2021 by submitting her thesis on “ The effect of group work on the self-esteem and social adaptation of the elderly from the role exit theory perspective”. Her primary research areas are ageing, family, children and management.