Empowerment: a new perspective for social services

Abstract

The current Spanish Social Services model is caught between the rigid structures created by the welfare state and a neoliberal ideology that leads (without realizing it) to prioritize interventions from a quantitative perspective above the qualitative dimensions and resources above of the accompaniment processes. It is intended to provide a reflection, fruit of both the academic experience and training / supervision of professionals of social intervention (social educators, psychologists and social workers), on the different ways of approaching the social reality, from the role of professionals of the social, and from the tools and methodologies with which they have to perform their accompaniment function with greater quality. It advocates a review of the model and the implementation of new proactive intervention processes, which empower both the professional and the subject / user. It is reflected on the use of diagnostic methodologies that are within the paradigm of 'Approach of capabilities' and 'Person-centered care'. 'Self-diagnosis' methodologies based on the axiom of empowerment. Axiom that places professionals as a catalyst for the self-diagnosis that the subject performs on himself; as a form of accompaniment to the subject in the identification of their life processes and relational environment. We consider that its implementation contributes to generate a more mature citizenship, more knowledgeable of their rights, which calls for the use of more comprehensive and dialogic intervention methodologies, from welfare institutions.