Abstract

Social workers have been influential policy makers due to their understanding of the sociocultural–political scenario of the state and core social work values of social justice and social change. In India, the engagement of social workers in policy and political change has been restricted due to various internal and external work challenges. The authors in this article present two case studies of challenges faced by social workers in policy making in India. In the first case, the social worker dons the role of a change agent for setting up a social welfare system based on policy practice for persons with psychiatric disability in the rural community. In the second example, the social worker acts as a policy expert who is a catalyst between the service users (of psychiatric disability in urban community) and the state in influencing disability policy making. The lessons learnt and the way forward from the challenges faced in the two case studies are discussed.

中文翻译：

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印度精神病患者社会政策制定中的挑战：社会工作者的经验教训和前进方向

摘要

由于社会工作者对国家的社会文化政治情境以及社会公正和社会变革的核心社会工作价值的理解，他们成为有影响力的决策者。在印度，由于各种内部和外部工作挑战，限制了社会工作者参与政策和政治变革。本文的作者针对印度社会工作者在决策中面临的挑战进行了两个案例研究。在第一种情况下，社会工作者扮演变革推动者的角色，以建立针对农村社区精神病患者的政策实践为基础的社会福利体系。在第二个示例中 社会工作者充当政策专家，在服务使用者（城市社区中的精神残疾者）和国家之间，在影响残疾人政策制定方面起到催化剂的作用。讨论了这两个案例研究中汲取的经验教训和面临的挑战。