Social Service and Mental Health by M. Ashdown S. Clement Brown

Author:M. Ashdown, S. Clement Brown [M. Ashdown, S. Clement Brown]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Reference, General, Social Science, Sociology
ISBN: 9781136280153
Google: _ntzXMrZrH8C
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-07-04T04:12:02+00:00

While we believe that this liberal interpretation of the way a clinic team can work together closely represents what is happening in some child guidance clinics, it will make members of other clinic teams compare this ideal rather wistfully with the reality they know. The last sentence quoted deserves attention. Professional maturity is sometimes of slow growth and it would be unwise to assume that every qualified psychiatric social worker is necessarily ready for or would welcome the exacting combination of liberty and close association here implied.

A letter came to us in the course of our study putting a point of view about medical direction which may be unconsciously influencing some of those who, after a considerable period of time in clinic or hospital, leave psychiatric social work to apply their training and experience outside the clinical field. It should be noted that the writer’s longest and most recent experience has been in a child guidance clinic where the relationship within the team was, we believe, much like that recommended in the memorandum just quoted. After referring to the inferior pay and conditions of work of psychiatric social workers as compared with those of other members of the team, she goes on to say: ‘I think that in any profession there should always be the possibility of reaching the top even if only for a very few. That a very experienced first-rate psychiatric social worker’s work should always depend on the psychiatrist, whether experienced or inexperienced, seems to me to lead to a sense of insecurity within the profession, although, of course, there are many teams where such factors are of no importance. In ideal conditions—which are very rare—I think a psychiatric social worker’s work in a child guidance clinic is entirely satisfying.’ We have quoted this passage not because we want to question the necessity of medical direction in child guidance, but to illustrate an attitude of mind which must be taken into account in predicting the future of psychiatric social work.

We recall two referees, both of whose subjects were persons of unusual intelligence and energy, suggesting that psychiatric social work might not hold them much longer. As we indicate later4 we by no means necessarily regard as ‘wastage’ in any depreciatory sense the passing of psychiatric social workers beyond the borders of ‘social work undertaken in relation with psychiatry’. It is important however to understand what is happening and to distinguish between ‘wastage’ which is a sign of healthy growth and ‘wastage’ which points to dissatisfaction within the profession. In any honest exploration of the second, we should expect many of the issues raised in this chapter to claim attention.

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