Social service improve the well-being of individuals an communities by adressing social and structural barriers in order to enable each person to realize their power (empowerment) to act within society.
Abuse
Noun
Abuse is an action that intentionally causes harm or injures another person. This can refer to physical abuse, psychological abuse, mental abuse, or child abuse.
Example: Conditions were often very poor and residents often experienced emotional, physical or sexual ABUSE.
fr: Abus
Addiction
Noun
Addiction is a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and life experiences. It is characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli—substance use (drugs, alcohol) or behaviors (gambling)—despite harmful, negative consequences. It involves functional changes to brain circuits related to reward, stress, and self-control.
Example: It also shows how unemployment can treble the chance of developing psychoses and drug ADDICTION. (7) Figure 4 : Prevalence (%) of psychiatric disorders according to social class, with odds ratio of employment status (6) The association between poverty and inequalities in health is widely discussed in the literature.
fr: Adiction
Advocacy
Noun
Advocacy usually means getting support from another person to help you express your views and wishes. And to help you stand up for your rights. Someone who helps you in this way is called your advocate.
Example: This is despite the recognised wealth of ADVOCACY and research on the interplay between gender issues, the environment and development in the past decades.
fr: Plaidoyer (Défenses des droits)
Asylum seeker
Noun
An asylum seeker is an individual who has left their home country, crossed an international border, and is seeking legal recognition and protection as a refugee in another country. They are currently waiting for a formal decision on their application regarding their fear of persecution or danger.
Example: Noll argues that states adopt four main strategies to externalize costs and risks: shifting costs onto other states through a burden-sharing scheme that presumes agreement on cooperation based on expectation of reciprocity; pushing refugees to other countries, for example, through safe-third country agreements; preventing migration altogether; and significantly reducing ASYLUM SEEKER's rights on one's territory.
fr: Demandeur d'asile
Child
Noun
A young human being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of majority.
Example: However the growing 'CHILD' was now inside Zeus.
fr: Enfant
Disability
Noun
A physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements, senses, or activities.
Example: Other groups mentioned are the elderly, children, people with a mental illness or DISABILITY, and people with a physical DISABILITY.
fr: Invalidité
Domestic violence
Noun
The CDC defines domestic violence as "physical violence, sexual violence, stalking, and psychological aggression (including coercive acts) by a current or former intimate partner.
Example: Moreover this has contributed to under-reporting as 'vast majority of such (DOMESTIC VIOLENCE) cases go unreported and unchallenged, often out of respect for the privacy of the family'.
fr: violence domestique
Empathy
Noun
Empathy is the ability or practice of imagining or trying to deeply understand what someone else is feeling or what it's like to be in their situation.
Example: This was to convey a positive attitude and show EMPATHY. Before closing the interview we asked if there were any questions the interviewee wanted to ask and then stood up to shake her hand.
fr: Empathie
Empowerment
Noun
The process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights.
Example: Like Hester to an extent, in silence she finds EMPOWERMENT, as her assertive tone implies a sense of pride in her newfound purpose;
fr: Autonomisation. (renforcements des capacités)
Foster care
Noun
Foster care is a temporary, state-certified, or government-supervised living arrangement for children who cannot safely live with their birth parents due to abuse, neglect, or crisis. Temporary custody or guardianship for children who have no parents or other relatives able to look after them.
Example: He had lost both parents by age twelve, and lived in FOSTER CARE before moving to Boston to live with a half-sister.
fr: Famille d'accueil
Homelessness
Noun
Homelessness is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and, appropriate housing, or the immediate means to acquire it.
Example: Een outcomes was statistically significant. Hensley found that three of the six outcome measures had statistical significance: general functioning (increase), substance abuse dual hospitalisations (decrease), and HOMELESSNESS (decrease).
fr: Sans-abris
Intervention
Noun
: the act or fact or a means of interfering with the outcome or course especially of a condition or process (as to prevent harm or improve functioning)4 j.
Example: It is worth highlighting that the capitalisation process might be broadly characterized as public- or market-biased, the latter being recommended since involves lower public INTERVENTION.
fr: Intervention
Mental health
Noun
Mental health is a state of psychological, emotional, and social well-being that enables individuals to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn, work well, and contribute to their community. It is not merely the absence of illness, but a positive state of functioning that affects how people think, feel, and act.
Example: Drugs and alcohol problems amongst individuals with severe MENTAL HEALTH problems in an inner city area of the UK.
fr: Santé mental
Outreach
Noun
Outreach social work is a proactive, community-based approach where professionals connect with vulnerable, isolated, or hard-to-reach individuals, often on the streets, in parks, or at their homes. It focuses on building trust, assessing needs, and providing direct access to essential services, including housing, mental health support, and addiction recovery.
Example: The project OUTREACH workers helped women complete the questionnaires, again the researcher failed to explain the environment that this was carried out in or whether they were trained helpers we therefore can't guarantee they didn't affect the answers that the women produced (persuading women to write certain answers and not others).
fr: Travaille de proximité
Poverty
Noun
Poverty is a multifaceted condition where individuals lack the financial resources, means, and power to meet basic needs—such as food, shelter, and clothing—and to participate fully in society.
Example: Differences within and between communities - at all levels and of all natures: age, gender, social group, POVERTY, and other social characteristics - exist everywhere and are relevant, so identifying and taking them into account should be part of any good intervention project.
fr: Pauvreté
Rehabilitation
Noun
The action of restoring someone to health or normal life through training and therapy after imprisonment, addiction, or illness.
Example: International Journal of Psychosocial REHABILITATION . 2004, 8, pp 141-149 Hoff & Rosenheck (1999).
fr: Réhabilitation
Social assistance
Noun
Financial support given to people in need.
Example: Finally there is evidence to suggest that "creating an extra job is more expensive than paying an unemployment benefit or SOCIAL ASSISTANCE, so a rise of the tax burden would be necessary to balance the government budget.".
fr: Aide social.
Nouveau terme ( Aide de dernier recours)
Social policy
Noun
Social policy refers to the guidelines, legislation, and actions of governments and institutions intended to promote citizen welfare, improve living conditions, and manage social services like education, healthcare, and income support.
Example: Poverty and Health: Working with families , Milton Keynes: Open University Press 11 Arblaster, L and Hawtin, M (1993) Health, Housing & SOCIAL POLICY , London: Socialist Health Association 12 Dowler, E.
fr: Politique sociale
Society
Noun
The aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community.
Example: This is interesting for the idea that pollution is a contravention to ordered relations of a SOCIETY.
fr: société
Trauma
Noun
Trauma is the lasting emotional, psychological, and physical response to deeply distressing or life-threatening events that overwhelm an individual's ability to cope.
Example: The 'psychological TRAUMA' of the strike had 'reinforced their perennial distrust of each other' so that initiatives at accommodation was undermined 'before they could even get off the ground.
