January 23-25 2008 Edinburgh International Conference Centre
Involving people who use human services - it is rocket science!
Keywords: practice learning, skill development, therapeutic impact, user involvement
Authors: Mike Tait (Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations' Council); Monica Hunter (People First - Scotland)
Abstract:
The presentation will argue that involving people who use human services is both a basic requirement of any social work practice and any student learning and that, to do it well, it requires skill matching that required in any other intervention approach. One of the presenters will describe herself not just as a user of human services and as someone with a learning disability but as a manager of a small social work agency which undertakes 'real' social work as opposed to bureaucratic procedure-driven 'false' social work which has fallen into disrepute. The other presenter, an experienced practice teacher, will challenge the tokenism of much service user involvement and suggest that service user involvement is one of the more therapeutic and redressive of approaches and, as such, requires the application of knowledge and skill as any other complex intervention approach.
Contribution:
...for practitioners, practice teachers, academics.
A more rigorous view of involvement and the reasons for it, rather than something we are expected to do with no real understanding of why.
Date: Friday 25 January 2008, 11.30-12.00
Venue: Ochil One
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Organised by the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services in association with PEPE (Practical Experiences in Professional Education).