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ABSTRACT
Service user involvement (SUI) in social work education has gained widespread attention in Europe and other continents. Nevertheless, experiences on including service users in social work education have not been reported from Germany or other German-speaking countries to date. This paper reports preliminary experiences with implementing SUI in a bachelor’s programme of social work in a German University of Applied Sciences. The main goals of the current paper are (1) to provide a background for implementing service user approaches in Germany by introducing the structure of social work education in Germany; (2) to report experiences from a weekend seminar where service users worked together with students of social work in the framework of a curriculum of a German University of Applied Sciences and (3) to formulate some implications of these experiences for SUI across Europe. The main results were that introducing service user involvement into a German curriculum of social work is possible but needs careful reflection and planning. Experiences gathered in the weekend seminar with service users were encouraging for service users, students and teachers. We conclude that systematically implementing SUI into German curricula of social work is important.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
Der Einbezug von Nutzerinnen und Nutzern in die Ausbildung Sozialer Arbeit hat in Europa in den vergangenen Jahren vermehrte Beachtung gefunden; dies zeigt sich auch in dem Erfolg des Netzwerkes PowerUs. Trotzdem liegen bis jetzt keine dokumentierten Erfahrungen aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum vor. Dieser Artikel berichtet über ein Projekt, an dem Nutzer und Nutzerinnen im Rahmen eines Bachelor Programms der Sozialen Arbeit an einer Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften in Deutschland aktiv teilnahmen. Das Konzept und die Erfahrungen werden eingeordnet vor dem Hintergrund der Ausbildungsstrukturen für Soziale Arbeit in Deutschland und es wird ausführlich über ein Wochenendseminar berichtet, das gemeinsam mit Nutzerinnen und Nutzern aus den Bereichen psychischer Erkrankungen und Suchterkrankungen durchgeführt wurde. Die Auswertungen zeigen, dass ein Einbezug machbar und gewinnbringend für Nutzerinnen und Nutzer, für Studierende und Lehrende ist, aber auch einer sorgsamen Planung und Reflektion bedarf. Ein Einbezug von Nutzerinnen und Nutzern in die Ausbildung Sozialer Arbeit sollte auch in Deutschland systematisch weiter entwickelt und vorangetrieben werden.
Acknowledgements
We want to thank the service users and students who participated in the seminar. Also, we want to thank Dr. Susan Bach for language assistance with this manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Marion Laging is a social worker and social pedagogue and has been professor since 2005 at the faculty of Social Work, Health Care and Nursing Science at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences. She is vice dean and head of the Bachelor in Social Work degree programme. Her main interests include participative approaches in theory, practice and education. Together with Thomas Heidenreich she has developed and conducted service user involvement seminars and activities since 2014. Marion Laging and Thomas Heidenreich are active members of the network PowerUs.
Thomas Heidenreich is a professor of psychology for social work and nursing at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences. His main research interests are counselling and psychotherapy approaches to mental health and substance use problems. Together with Marion Laging, he has been involved in implementing service user involvement approaches into the BA curriculum at Esslingen UAP with an emphasis on different service user groups (mental health service users, users of substance use services, families with educational problems).