Social Worker in Psychiatric Setting
Roles and responsibilities
Keywords:
psychiatric social worker, role of psychiatric social worker, mental health social worker, duties of psychiatric social worker, multidisciplinary mental health team, psychosocial assessment, case work in psychiatry, crisis intervention, rehabilitation services, community mental health, patient–family education, psychoeducation, discharge planning, follow-up servicesAbstract
Social work is an evolving field of work in recent decades. Social workers play a helping role at various levels of society including the individual, family, group, organization, and community. Their roles have extended to include assessment, counselling & support, resource linking / referral, advocacy, case management, rehabilitation support, community development, crisis intervention, education & training, documentation and policy & program development. Psychiatric social workers will have opportunities to work in various settings within the mental health field. These include: Psychiatric hospitals, Addiction and substance abuse recovery centres (De-addiction centres), Mental health rehabilitation centres, Government-sponsored district-level mental health treatment programs, Research institutions, educational institutions (Teaching) and so on. This article discusses in detail the various roles of Psychiatric social workers in different mental health care settings.
