Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Department of Social Work, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
J Evid Based Soc Work (2019). 2023 Jul 4;20(4):568-594. doi: 10.1080/26408066.2023.2192707. Epub 2023 Mar 21.
This paper explores how neoliberal ideologies inform both social and political agendas that influence how social workers can provide support to trans and gender diverse people attempting to access gender-affirming healthcare, using an analysis of social workers' experiences working in mental health in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Qualitative semi-structured interviews provide a perspective of the experiences of social workers in Nova Scotia and how their ability to provide mental health services to trans and gender diverse people is impacted by neoliberalism.
Most social workers attributed the structural context of working within a bio-medical system as contributing to social workers being disempowered, undermined, and not able to practice according to the values of their profession thus limiting their ability to provide affirming mental health supports to trans and gender diverse people in ways that align with their social work professional ethics and values.
Through examining how neoliberal ideologies create notions of ideal social citizens by controlling the body, the paper explores how lived experience of neoliberal practices in mental health social work reinforce transnormativity. This paper highlights the necessity for social workers to resist dominant neoliberal and medicalized discourses which serve as mechanisms of power and control.
The paper concludes with recommendations for social work practice with trans and gender diverse populations.
本文探讨了新自由主义意识形态如何影响社会和政治议程，从而影响社会工作者如何为试图获得性别肯定的医疗保健的跨性别和性别多样化人群提供支持，分析了加拿大新斯科舍省社会工作者在心理健康方面的工作经验。
定性半结构化访谈提供了新斯科舍省社会工作者经验的视角，以及新自由主义如何影响他们为跨性别和性别多样化人群提供心理健康服务的能力。
大多数社会工作者认为，在生物医学系统中工作的结构背景导致社会工作者被剥夺权力、被削弱，并且无法按照他们职业的价值观行事，从而限制了他们以符合他们的社会工作专业伦理和价值观的方式为跨性别和性别多样化人群提供肯定的心理健康支持的能力。
本文通过考察新自由主义意识形态如何通过控制身体来创造理想的社会公民观念，探讨了新自由主义在心理健康社会工作中的实践如何强化跨规范。本文强调了社会工作者抵制主导的新自由主义和医学话语的必要性，这些话语是权力和控制的机制。
本文最后提出了针对跨性别和性别多样化人群的社会工作实践的建议。
