Empowerment and partnership in mental health: Towards a different relationship

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Abstract
Empowerment (the process of service users taking control of their own lives) and partnership (the process of working with people on an equal footing in the pursuit of agreed goals) have become accepted principles in social work practice and have received legislative endorsement as the foundation stones of quality relationships between users and providers of community care services. However, these key principles have been interpreted differently by the stakeholders in these services, such that practising empowerment and partnership is neither simple nor straightforward. This article suggests that, for their potential to be realised, the principles of partnership and empowerment must be located within a conceptual framework which integrates the following elements: firstly, an understanding of power, inequality and oppression, and why these concepts are relevant to professional practice; secondly, personal and organisational commitments to challenging and changing oppressive practices which maintain inequality; and thirdly, a practice base which will give expression to these commitments

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