Practitioners exploring intertwined challenges and possible solutions for user participation in social services

ABSTRACT

Despite a strong emphasis on user participation in social services, scientific knowledge on how to achieve these goals is limited. The aim of this study is to explore what social work practitioners identify as challenging in implementing user participation and what solutions they propose to be necessary to meet these challenges. Future workshops were applied, combining data from brainstorming processes and from the participants’ analytical work, identifying current obstacles and co-creating solutions. The workshops took place at the Personal Social Services section in a suburban area outside a large city in Sweden with 95 participants. The findings are discussed in relation to a model of participation, where creating openings, opportunities, and obligations are essential. The participants highlighted the need to strengthen commitment to user participation, increased access to knowledge and methods that enhance user participation, and support from management, with increased resources to ensure continuous development and maintenance. Practitioners must be able to engage in user participation, and actions need to be taken at all organizational levels. To overcome a complex and intertwined set of challenges, an intertwined set of solutions is required.

KEYWORDS:

• User participation
• social services
• future workshops

Acknowledgments

We are deeply grateful to all the participating staff from the Personal Social Services section for their time and commitment during the workshop and the provision of indispensable knowledge and experience.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Council for Research on Health, Welfare and Working Life -FORTE- Forskningsrådet för halsa, arbetsliv och valfard, under grant no. 2018-01341.