«Shhhh! Can You Keep a Secret?»: Reflecting upon the experience of working with «secret keepers» in social work
Louise Oliver, Clare Stephens, Sally Shakespeare
Meaning-making in relation to secrets and secrecy may become a source of tension between service users and social workers due to the different socially constructed understandings of secrets, the privacy of family life and the intervention role of social services. From this theoretical position, a critical reflection on secrets held by service users and their negotiated relationship with social workers demonstrates how complex the issue is in practice and offers insights into how this dilemma can be solved.
Keywords
Secrets, secrecy, social work, social work practice.
