Prof. Dawn Belkin Martinez Shares Liberation Health Expertise in Greece
Prof. Dawn Belkin Martinez from BU School of Social Work recently traveled to Greece to teach the Liberation Health Model, an innovative process she co-created, to more than 400 professionals and social work students. This holistic approach to mental health includes a person’s experiences within a cultural, political, and historical context.
“Many social workers don’t have a framework to discuss the sociopolitical factors influencing their lives, or to challenge the external and internal oppression we as providers and clients face,” Belkin Martinez explains. “Or as we say in Liberation Health, people need a method to challenge the ‘cop in the street’ (external oppression) and the ‘cop in their head’ (dominant worldview messages that limit how we think about our lives and the world). The Liberation Health Model can help address all of these issues.”
Belkin Martinez is spending several weeks speaking to social workers around the world because this approach is universal. “Despite the differences between Greek and US social work–Greece doesn’t charge fees, they have a public health system, etc.–there are many more commonalities than differences,” says Belkin Martinez. “The Greek social workers I worked with had the same concerns I repeatedly hear in the United States: not enough resources, low pay, job insecurity, clients and community members falling through the cracks, hierarchy at work, not feeling respected, unstable economy…the list can go on and on. Many people feel macro social work is the place to challenge social injustice.” As an anti-oppressive practice approach to mental health, the Liberation Health Model provides a radical social justice method of clinical social work.