Critical pedagogy and open dialogue – their parallels and importance for social work practice

Mckenzie-Brook, Sophie

doi:10.1080/02650533.2022.2142769

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 18 publications

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“…While social work can play an important role in this work, social workers also need to be working collaboratively with other health-based professions, working inside and outside traditional biomedical forms of provision. The development of these initiatives can enable social workers to create a unique identity and approach in the mental health sector, based on a philosophy of equality and "open dialogue" (while there is insufficient space to talk about how the model of "open dialogue" in mental health could work in Guyana, there is evidence which points to the this elsewhere; see McKenzie-Brooke [66]; these approaches draw on the work of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, who is well known throughout Latin America and the Caribbean), an approach which is based on giving patients and service users a voice in their own treatment.…”

Section: Mental Health Social Work In Guyana: Building a Different Fu...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciling a Broken Heritage: Developing Mental Health Social Work in Guyana

Halley,

Cowden

2023

IJERPH

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Guyana’s colonial past has left a trail of economic instability, racial polarization, and physical and mental trauma. Despite the progress made since Guyana’s independence in 1966, the remnants of this colonial past continue to shape present-day Guyana. As a result, violence and trauma continue to impact the mental health of the population. This is manifest in endemic problems of domestic violence and racialized social divisions which have created the conditions for rates of suicide which are amongst the highest in the world. The formal mental health provision which exists in Guyana is based primarily on an individualized and largely biomedical model of care. Despite valuable attempts to develop this provision, the difficulty of physically accessing this for some people and the stigma which surround this means that the capacity of this system to address the serious problems which exist is limited. It is also the case that in times of emotional and psychic distress, and in the context of Guyana being a very religious country, many people turn to traditional supernatural healers and remedies for support. In this paper, we discuss what is known as “Obeah”, noting that while this is widely practiced, it remains something of a taboo subject in Guyana. We consider the reasons why these practices and beliefs continue to be influential. However, what neither these biomedical or supernatural perceptions of mental health are able to address is the sociogenic nature of Guyana’s mental health issues, which we argue emerges out of the historic trauma of Guyana’s experience of colonialism and the violence which it engendered. We argue that profound forms of mental distress which exist in Guyana call for an integrative and holistic practice model that contextualizes these problems through a sociogenic lens. Social workers, working collaboratively with other health-related professions, can occupy a critical role in integrating these different conceptions through developing a rights-based model of mental health where the causes of mental ill-health are understood as socially determined.

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Section: Mental Health Social Work In Guyana: Building a Different Fu...mentioning

confidence: 99%