Challenges in Sweden
Challenges in Sweden from a service user perspective
- The gap between the social workers and the service users is a problem that deserves more attention than it gets today. Service user groups calls for radical changes in social work practice, but there is a lot to be done in overbridging differences in perspectives, languages and priorities.
- There is a lack of knowledge about structural social work due to a development where individual focused legislative social work has been prioritized. More funding is needed for community work practice and to harm reductive social work, and social workers need to develop relevant knowledge about these strategies.
- There has been an increased focus on the need for a service user perspective but there is a lot of insecurity about methods and strategies. There is a need to develop good practices that can serve as models within the education and practice of social work.
- Social workers need to acknowledge a responsibility to speak up for discriminated groups in society, rather than waiting for politicians to set the standards. This is not so common in Swedish media and public communication today.