Critical Clinical Social Work and the Neoliberal Constraints on Social Justice in Mental Health

Abstract

Despite a strong history of social justice–based social work professional education in Canada, there has not been an intentional integration of direct critical clinical mental health practice with social justice–based theory. Progressive social work has tended to view clinical work as focusing on the individual and failing to contribute to social change. In this article, I elaborate upon a critical clinical social work approach influenced by postmodern critique, and feminist-, narrative-, and collaborative-based practice rooted in critical theory. Critical clinical practice disrupts the individual/social binary through counterviewing unhelpful dominant social discourses and producing counterstories that participate in social resistance. I explore the constraints of neoliberalism on social work mental health practice and its influence on the ability of social workers to practice social justice–based social work. Neoliberalism constrains social workers’ ability to address the social and structural determinants of mental health through its focus on economic rationalization, biomedicalization, and individual responsibilization, alongside rationalized practices that emphasize evidence-based and short-term efficiency-based models. I argue that social work is facing a crisis as a disempowered profession, as it attempts to reconcile its commitment to social justice and the importance of addressing inequity, marginalization, and oppression while often working in settings that demand the subordination of social work knowledge to neoliberal biomedicalism. Under these conditions, a critical clinical approach to mental health practice is needed now more than ever.

Bridging the Grey Gap: Conducting Grey Literature Reviews for Ethical Social Work Practice and Research

“…As social work shifts from debating if evidence-based practice (EBP) is relevant to social work (Hurley & Taiwo, 2019;Hanesworth, 2017;Rubin, 2011) to engaging evidence in a way that is consistent with social work's commitment to social justice (Bellamy & Parish, 2020;O'Neill, 2015), we must consider the value of knowledge items that exist outside of the academic sphere. Several scholars have analyzed how neoliberal ideology, which emphasizes individualism and market-based solutions to social issues, depoliticizes social work research, education, and practice (Abramowitz, 2012;Brown, 2021;Hanesworth, 2017;Mehrotra, Kimball & Wahab, 2015). Consequently, social workers should question if sole reliance on evidence produced in academia, what Humphries (2003) described as "the hegemony of positivist-inspired social science" (p.89), is consistent with the field's ethical commitment to integrity, competence, and social justice.…”

“…Also, an in-depth quality assessment of each item takes place through the synthesis process. This assessment includes an analytic critique of how well each item centers stakeholder perspectives, considers the local context and incorporates social justice and equity (Abramowitz, 2012;Brown, 2021;Hanesworth, 2017;Authors, under review;Mehrotra et al, 2015). The critique emerges through writing synthesis results.…”

Unsettling reflexivity and critical race pedagogy in social work education: narratives from social work students

“…These pathologizing and decontextualized approaches that fail to address the social and political contexts in which people live are reflected in the mainstreaming of recovery (Rose & Hughes, 2018), the increasing reduced provision of social welfare services and supports (Baines, 2019), and efficiency-based models such as evidence-based practice that promotes control by allowing organizations to manage, implement, and monitor practitioners using audits and measures (Webb, 2001). As a response, social workers have proposed critical clinical social work approaches rooted in critical theory to resist neoliberal forces and negotiate the profession's values (Brown, 2021). Additionally, scholars across fields such as medical health sciences and public health are increasingly identifying structural forces such as racism as a settler colonial project that continues to maintain racial hierarchies affording privileges to dominant groups and that is necessary to examine in-depth in research (Bailey et al, 2017;Boyd et al, 2020).…”

Challenging the Constraints of Neoliberalism and Biomedicalism: Repositioning Social Work in Mental Health

“…Neoliberalism refers to a political philosophy and set of practices of late capitalism based on the logic of a free-market economy and a small government approach which results in the reduction in social welfare services and resources. While critiques of neoliberalism often focus on the impact of market principles on economic and social distribution of goods, the influence of neoliberalism is wide reaching, shaping social and individual values and practices (Brown, 2021, p.2; Braedley & Luxton 2010).…”

“…According to Morrow and Weisser (2012) “[T]he authority of biomedicalism works to undermine broader social and structural understandings” (p.39) of mental health and recovery. In contrast, social work as a profession is committed to social justice which is positioned on the side of social critique and transformation (Brown, 2021).…”