How professional systems instruct mothers recovering from substance misuse
Date
1998
Authors
White, Linda Lorraine
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This study uncovers social relations which penetrate the everyday life of a mother recovering from abuse of alcohol or other drugs I explore ruling practices of our society, as they organize the relationships between mothers with addiction problems, and professionals in the child welfare and addiction treatment systems.
The problematic for this research originates in my confusion as an in-home counsellor about the instructions provided by the two institutions to mothers in the early stage of recovery. Adopting the methodology of institutional ethnography, I sought to uncover how mothers' experiences unfold as they do, by exploring the "institutional" framing of their experiences. Institutional ethnography begins from a standpoint of those who are subject to ruling relations to uncover the social relations which determine, shape and organize everyday life. From interviews with mothers, I traced their experiences to legislation governing child welfare work, and social work education and training.
I found that mothers received contradictory instructions from the two institutions about how to conduct themselves in relations of power. The instructions of the addiction treatment system encourage the use of personal power, or their own authority, in order to be successful in recovery, in contradiction to the instructions of the child welfare system to surrender, submit and comply. In the cases I studied, mothers accepted the authority of a child welfare worker and attended addiction treatment in order to regain custody of their children. However, when they attained sobriety, their child welfare workers did not begin a course of action toward reunification, as the mothers expected. Instead, I found that workers continued to work from an adversarial frame, and suspected mothers as manipulative. Mothers attributed the eventual reunification of their family to judicial and professional opinion, not to their own efforts.
Using the methods of institutional ethnography, I discovered ways m which relations of ruling govern worker-client relationships. I found that workers' rejection of mothers' opinions, expertise and authority parallels child welfare legislation; the legislation renders mothers invisible - their mothering work, their relationship with their children, and their opinions about the situation. The embeddedness of child welfare work m the court system creates adversaries of mother and worker. I found that the entanglement of authority and helping in the legislation, where 'help' ss provided in the form of "protective services", contributes to adversarial worker-client relations. My findings show that child welfare workers' limited professional knowledge of the power relations of their work, and of addiction, arises from the organization of social work education and child welfare training. I suggest that workers lack effective strategies for intervening with mothers with addiction problems, and for managing adversarial relationships with clients.
I recommend changes at several levels to facilitate the recovery of mothers who have been misusing substances, which will improve service delivery within the current organization of child welfare work within a legislative framework. However, my analysis concurs with that of other authors in suggesting that separating child welfare work from the legal system will be required to enact a new vision of social relations - where women's work of mothering is claimed as feminist territory, and where egalitarian, respectful relationships with clients are practiced.