Serviço Social: tensão entre assistencialismo e direitos. Um estudo sobre a autoimagem dos assistentes sociais

Abstract

[eng] This article presents part of the results from a study and aims at analysing the incongruence between, on the one hand, how users, professionals and institutions regard the social work profession and, on the other, the functions performed by social workers in primary care services. The present study employed a questionnaire administered to 30 primary care social service workers from Majorcan municipalities under twenty thousand inhabitants. The reflections presented result from a quantitative analysis conducted using Google Forms and a qualitative content analysis. The data was subsequently analysed through the SPSS software. The results show the tension between the fundamentals of social work and its practice, a professional practice torn between managerialism and the defence of citizens’ rights, while also burdened by a culture of assistentialism and the influence of an institutional context shaped by social policies