ABSTRACT
Public service agencies in welfare states are central to service users as they offer one of the best opportunities for families, children, adolescents and other individuals and groups at risk to understand and solve severe social problems and in that way obtain new and different living conditions. This chapter focuses on issues connected to the collaboration between social workers and service users and why stronger service user-involvement is needed from a service user perspective. It analyses service user participation by using different research cases that focus on service user experience and expressed needs. The chapter also focuses on collaboration between service users and social workers and on why social work, apparently, has developed barriers to involving service users. Building on this analysis and the findings the chapter discusses the possibilities of overcoming some of the barriers as well as the need in social work to connect problem-solving processes and service user participation in acting on marginalization processes.
