Power Relations in the Delivery of Human Services

Running head: ASSIGNMENT1-CRITICALAPPROACHES
ASSIGNMENT1-CRITICALAPPROACHES
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1ASSIGNMENT1-CRITICALAPPROACHES
The power in society has remained one of the prominent aspects since the beginning of
humanity1. According to Max Weber, power is the ability of a group or an individual to achieve
their own goals and fulfill their own aims while others are trying to prevent them from
understanding and realizing them. Power has been a constant phenomenon in society and can be
seen in every society2. The paper aims to develop understanding and awareness of the power
relation involved in the delivery of the human service that has been witnessed in my placement
setting, Mount Isa Base Hospital.
Mount Isa Base hospital in a rural town of Australia called as Mount Isa, Queensland
where I did my placement. The town where the hospital belonged has large communities of
aboriginals. It was certainly obvious to have a good number of aboriginal people who would seek
healthcare assistance. Although the hospital has several policies that would specifically aim for
helping socially backward groups, a sense of discrimination was observed. While I working in
the setting, I was pleased with the way the organization works with separate specialized
departments. However, while working in the setting, every department would give priority to the
non-aboriginals. Several problems such as communication gap, cultural differences and many
were an obstacle while providing they service therefore many workers would ignore working
with the aboriginals and avoid them. There were times when the pregnant women who would
require immediate attention were ignored since it’s hard to communicate them. Also, the
aboriginals could seek help and claim their fundamental right however they were unaware of it
and no one would inform them regarding their basic rights.
Discourse is the ways of constituting knowledge along with the social practices, power
relation and forms of subjectivity that have existed in such knowledge and relations between
1 Lovejoy, Arthur. The great chain of being: A study of the history of an idea. Routledge, 2017.
2 Blau, Peter. Exchange and power in social life. Routledge, 2017.