Home Visits in Social Work: From Disembodiment to Embodied Presence

Abstract

This paper explores the bodily aspects of home visits, based on an institutional ethnography of home visits conducted by social workers of an Israeli municipal social services department. The analysis of fifteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews with social workers in various capacities revealed their heightened and unique corporeal experiences during home visits, in contrast with their work at the department. Four key aspects are discussed: the journey from the office to the client’s home as a transition from a disembodied position to an embodied one; the social worker’s tentative bodily presence during the visit; the home visit as a ‘dirty work’; and the social worker’s bodily experience in relation to the institutional and professional discourse. The discussion centres on the drawbacks and benefits of the workers’ increased embodied presence during home visits.