ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the experiences of an intern studying for a masters in social work, Mary, during her time at a public child welfare office, as she tried to address an obstacle to liberation health service delivery. To protect the identities of those involved, Marys name has been changed and the location has been omitted. Information for the chapter was collected through interviews with Mary. The chapter focuses on contextualizing and understanding, from a liberation health perspective, the pervasive negativity about clients that occurred in Marys agency. The benefit of liberation health is two-fold. First, it provides tools to social workers so that one can understand the clients and the problems they face more completely. It can help people to avoid burning out and adopting a victim blaming mentality. Secondly liberation health provides a model for understanding the dynamics that are acting on people, as social workers, and thus empowers us to engage in praxis to create positive change.
