The Social Worker’s Responsibility Regarding User Participation: Between the Ethics of the Supportive Role, the Needs of the Public, and the Normativity of the Activity’s Framework

Abstract

This the English translation of a conference paper orignally presented at «AIFRIS - 9ème congrès international – Paroles, expériences et actions des usager.e.s dans l’intervention sociale : rendre visible l’invisible », in 2022.

This conference paper aims to reflect on the ethical stance of social workers regarding their responsibility toward user participation, based on a qualitative study examining the factors that hinder or facilitate public participation within frontline care and health services in French-speaking Belgium. Indeed, user participation in social work does not only relate to specific tools or mechanisms but is primarily connected to the ethical positioning of the social worker, who seeks the best—or least harmful—way to include users in a context of uncertainty, never entirely determined by legal or moral imperatives. Accordingly, we are entitled to ask whether the ethical issues inherent in involving recipients in social workers’ intervention practices are adequately considered, and to what extent user participation in practice safeguards fundamental rights and freedoms, given the structural barriers and facilitators of the process as well as the personal outcomes it entails.