Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/98058
Title: Caring relationships in drug addiction : the role of the social worker in supporting and caring for heroin addicts
Authors: Scicluna, Maria Sabina (1999)
Keywords: Social work with drug addicts -- Malta
Drug abuse -- Malta
Heroin -- Malta
Issue Date: 1999
Citation: Scicluna, M. S. (1999). Caring relationships in drug addiction : the role of the social worker in supporting and caring for heroin addicts (Postgraduate Diploma).
Abstract: Every attitude of the person contains some reflection of his totality (Sartre, 1956, p. 58). When a person who is having problems with heroin addiction meets the social worker (or any other caring professional) s/he may run the danger of being looked upon as a 'drug case' if the same carers were not aware that the addiction is but one part of the total context of the client's life. Should this be forgotten or overlooked there is the pitfall, in any worker-client relationship, that the worker might defend him/herself from the profound experience of a deep and moving encounter with the client by treating the latter as a case rather than as a person. The worker might do this by focusing only on certain mechanisms of behaviour rather than on the client's entire being. This attitude would lead to a radical distortion of reality because in this way the worker would not really see the person of the client (Rollo May, 1983). One needs to bear in mind that a person cannot be reduced to a number of determined drives. Should this happen the man would disappear and the worker would no longer find the one to whom the experience has happened (Sartre, 1983). These attitudes may be avoided through the establishment of a caring relationship with the client in his physical, psychological, social, behavioural and spiritual totality.
Description: P.G.DIP.SOCIAL WORK
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/98058
Appears in Collections:Dissertations - FacSoW - 1997-2010
Dissertations - FacSoWSPSW - 1986-2008

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