Dunderhonung för socialt arbete? En studie av MI:s användbarhet inom försörjningsstöd

MI, motivational interviewing, is a counseling method for increasing a person's motivation for behavior change with a large prevalence in social work. MI emphasizes building trusting social worker-client relationships and is presented as concrete and simple to follow. MI's benefit is limited by actual opportunities for change through poverty, the labor market and health. The article aims to critically examine MI's usefulness in connection with the handling of social assistance. It is based on a study of the use of an assessment instrument and of individual action-plans (contracts) in a municipality where MI is a central tool. The study is based on analyzes of documents, individual interviews and group interviews with staff as well as observations of meetings and training.The results show that MI has been integrated into a comprehensive implementation of other elements to standardize initiatives within income support. The client's obligations are emphasized through a strong individual focus, despite that extensive efforts may be needed from actors in the environment. The action-plans have inherent problems in terms of clarity and legal certainty. The authors argue that it is paradoxical to use a method based on alliances and collaboration in connection with conditional decisions. The use of MI becomes a commitment that lacks reciprocity and whose activation of self-technologies can be questioned. (Less)