The Work of the Psychiatric Social Worker—Mental Hospital and Community Care

Three hundred and thirty-eight chronic psychiatric patients were followed up for two years after their discharge. Information was available on all but four patients. During the twenty-four month follow-up period, 11% had died and 25% required readmission. The source of support and living arrangements for the whole group were discussed, and the opinions about the outcome by the informant, psychiatrist, and social worker, were compared, The opinions correlated remarkably well. Characteristics of community care deemed important by the investigators were discussed briefly.

Download Full-text

Severe persistent mental illness

Psychiatric Bulletin ◽

10.1192/pb.16.12.743 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 16 (12) ◽

pp. 743-745 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Peter F. Liddle

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Mental Hospital ◽

Community Care ◽

Community Setting ◽

Detailed Examination ◽

Mental Illnesses ◽

Persistent Mental Illness ◽

Realistic Appraisal

Many patients with persistent mental illnesses enjoy a better life in a community setting than would be possible in a long stay mental hospital. Furthermore, the available evidence indicates that most such patients get better while living in the community. Unfortunately, community care has not served all patients well. Much of the difficulty can be attributed to lack of resources. However, there is also a tendency by planners to underestimate the severity of patients' disabilities. A realistic appraisal demands a detailed examination of the problems of patients whose needs have not been met by community care. One important issue is that of patients who fall through the net of community care and another is that of patients who have not but nonetheless have not survived in the community. This paper addresses the question of the needs of this latter group.

Download Full-text

A Doctor Looks at the Psychiatric Social Worker

The Collected Works of D. W. Winnicott ◽

10.1093/med:psych/9780190271343.003.0026 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 177-194

Author(s):

Donald W. Winnicott

Keyword(s):

Social Workers ◽

Social Worker ◽

Social Needs ◽

Psychiatric Social Worker

In this speech delivered to a class of psychiatric social workers, Winnicott gives a personal and specialized account of the value and importance of the psychiatric social worker to the kind of work he does as a doctor, analyst and consultant to provide for children with special social needs.

Download Full-text

Suicide Prevention

The British Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1192/bjp.160.2.149 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 160 (2) ◽

pp. 149-153 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

H. G. Morgan

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

General Hospital ◽

Suicide Prevention ◽

Mental Hospital ◽

Community Care ◽

District General Hospital ◽

Residential Area ◽

Psychiatric Services ◽

Local District ◽

Health Centres

In 1989 a crisis occurred in a West Country seaside town. Its psychiatric services had been regarded as a vanguard of community care, having been fully established some three years previously when the in-patient facilities which had been based in a mental hospital some 15 miles away were closed. The framework of the new-style service consisted of five mental health centres scattered throughout the residential area and a 60-bed in-patient unit, based in the grounds of the local district general hospital.

Download Full-text

Psychiatric Out-Patients in Plymouth—An Area Service Analysed

The British Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1192/bjp.111.470.10 ◽

1965 ◽

Vol 111 (470) ◽

pp. 10-17 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Neil Kessel ◽

Christine Hassall ◽

Robert Blair ◽

John M. Gilroy ◽

Francis Pilkington ◽

...

Keyword(s):

National Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

National Health ◽

Mental Hospital ◽

Psychiatric Care ◽

Community Care ◽

Psychiatric Patients ◽

Patient Department

Out-patient services in Britain for psychiatric patients have expanded enormously under the National Health Service. Well over half a million patients are seen at clinics annually. Concomitant with this increase the out-patient department has changed in function. No longer is it principally concerned with providing follow up and support for discharged mental hospital in-patients; instead, because of the greatly increased demand for psychiatric care for less severe disorders and under the influence of the movement for community care it now should play a part not at all subservient to the in-patient department. The clinic, properly run, should be an arena of treatment in its own right.

Download Full-text