Summary

Social workers have been members of community mental health teams (CMHTs) for many years. However, a combination of factors has resulted in their removal from CMHTs in some areas in recent years. This study presents findings from a 2018 national survey of CMHT team managers (44% response rate), to ascertain the current position of the social worker within CMHTs in England. Analyses focussed on membership, roles and tasks, and change within the previous 12 months. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data and content analysis to interpret free text comments.

Findings

Social workers were found to undertake a variety of generic roles and tasks but were reported to do so proportionally less often than nurses. A large minority were involved in non-traditional social work tasks such as monitoring medication. In one-fifth of teams, managers thought they had too few social workers. Free text comments suggested that managers valued social workers for their social perspective and expressed concern regarding their removal or the curtailment of their role, perceiving this as having a negative effect on overall CMHT service delivery.

Applications

The findings provide evidence of some instability in the position of social workers within CMHTs in relation to both their membership and their involvement in traditional and non-traditional roles and tasks. Free text comments suggest that if a biopsychosocial model of mental health support, now recognised as essential to long-term wellbeing, is to be achieved, a social work presence in CMHTs is required.

中文翻译：

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社区精神卫生团队中的社会工作者：国家调查的结果

概要

社会工作者多年来一直是社区精神卫生小组（CMHT）的成员。然而，近年来，多种因素导致它们从CMHT中去除。这项研究提出了2018年对CMHT团队经理的全国调查（44％的回应率）的调查结果，以确定英格兰CMHT中社会工作者的当前位置。分析的重点是成员资格，角色和任务以及过去12个月内的变更。描述性统计用于分析定量数据，内容分析用于解释自由文本注释。

发现

人们发现社会工作者承担着各种各样的一般角色和任务，但据报道，社会工作者的比例要比护士少。少数人参与了非传统的社会工作任务，例如监测药物。在五分之一的团队中，管理者认为他们的社会工作者太少了。自由文本评论建议管理者从社会角度看待社会工作者，并对他们的离职或角色缩减表示关注，认为这对整体CMHT服务提供具有负面影响。

应用领域

研究结果提供了证据，表明CMHTs中社​​会工作者的地位相对于其成员身份以及他们在传统和非传统角色和任务中的参与都存在不稳定。自由文本评论建议，如果要实现目前公认的长期健康必不可少的精神健康支持的生物心理社会模型，则需要在CMHTs中开展社会工作。