Anti-oppressive Practice in Working with Individuals and Families

Question 1

The purpose of social work and human services:

Answer 1

• The fundamental purposes of social work and
  human services are “to combat oppression and
  to empower and liberate people so that they
  meet their needs and achieve their goals”.

Question 2

The goal of social justice:

Answer 2

• Full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs.
• A society where the distribution of resources in equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure.
• A society in which individuals are self-determining and interdependent.
• Social justice is a process of equalisation.

Question 3

Structural inequality:

Answer 3

• Patterned inequalities are produced and reproduced by social processes that reinforce one another to enable or constrain individual actions in many ways.
• The causes of many inequalities of resources or opportunities lie in social institutions, their rules and relations and the decisions others make within them that affect the lives of others.

Question 4

Social justice theory base:

Answer 4

• Personal level (psychological oppression).
• Cultural level (dominant knowledge and norms reproduced).
• Institutional/structural (systematically reproduced).

Question 5

Types of oppression:

Answer 5

• Classism
• Racism
• Sexism
• Ableism
• Ageism/adultism

Question 6

Main costs of oppression:

Answer 6

• Violence
• Injustice
• Disenfranchisement
• Psychological pressures
• Health effects
• Housing
• Economic effects

Question 7

Social justice approaches…

Answer 7

… the fair disbursement of common advantages and the sharing of common burdens, by focusing on the needs of the most disadvantaged.