Write a short note on the role of social workers in the mental health field

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

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Social workers were first employed in the mental health field in 1906 to take social histories of newly admitted patients to Manhattan State Hospital in New York City. Since then they have been involved in providing a variety of preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services. Over the years, there has been a shift in emphasis from treating the individual to treating the family. Social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists now function interchangeably as individual, family, and group therapists. All three professional groups are also involved in designing and administering mental health programs. Other professionals involved in working as a team in mental health facilities include psychiatric nurses, occupational therapists, and recreational therapists. The number of social workers providing mental health services in the United States is larger than the number of psychiatrists or clinical psychologists providing such services. Many social agencies, in addition to community mental health centers, provide counseling and psychotherapy to people with emotional problems. Such agencies include schools, family counseling agencies, social service departments, hospitals, adoption agencies, and probation and parole departments. An increasing number of clinical social workers are opening private practices to provide individual, family, and group therapy for a variety of emotional problems. Increasingly, payments from public and private insurance programs reimburse social workers for providing therapy on a private basis. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has been promoting state licensing (or registration) requirements to assure the public that social work practitioners, especially those in private practice, meet high standards of competency. All states have now enacted legislation to license social workers. The NASW has also established a national Register of Clinical Social Workers. At one time, the social work role in the mental health field was generally considered subordinate to psychiatry. But with a growing recognition that emotional problems are primarily problems in living rather than organic in nature, social workers are increasingly employed in agencies to provide counseling and psychotherapy without supervision by a psychiatrist.

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