I entered the field of mental health social work just a few weeks ago, joining a psychosis team. I had been warned by friends, family, taxi drivers and the media that this area of work is in dire straits and suffering hugely from cuts and poor practice.
After a couple of days, I could confirm that the former is true: swingeing cuts have had a drastic effect. Therapeutic groups and the time practitioners are able to spend with service users are incredibly stretched, and diaries no longer set aside any time for breaks – or, it seems, any time to breathe. However, my observations of current practice contradict the tales of woe.
I spent one day with a mental health support worker, shadowing him on four home visits with service users, and I was touched by the remarkable work he is doing. In the car between visits, we spoke about the value of things like listening, getting fresh air, and working collaboratively with each service user.
I had come across words like “collaborative” and “active listening” time and again in literature and legislation on mental health practice, but had pessimistically assumed that, for the most part, this language served to tick boxes for inspectors.
The support worker valued the time spent with each service user as much as they did with him
Here, I witnessed these things being practised in the truest, most genuine sense. The support worker valued the time spent with each service user as much as they did with him, and I observed them continuously teaching and learning from one another.
This was not in an expensive psychiatric unit or over a £4 coffee, but simply during walks, exploring new areas and the changing seasons, discovering the best places to go. It occurred to me that so much essential work, even administrative obligations, could take place in these settings. Why not?
Understanding of what good practice means is changing, and mental health finally seems to be taking centre stage in public discourse.
Unfortunately, because these changes have taken place in the era of austerity, many ideas about the value of a social approach feel unfeasible in practice. As a result, a return to a medical model is tempting, and can seem like the most time-saving and cost-effective option. However, from what I have seen, expensive medication with often complex side effects, compares poorly with therapeutic support.
Medication is undeniably an important part of recovery for some service users, but the knowledge that they have been prescribed drugs to alter their thoughts automatically places them in a category of “in need”, or in some sense “less human”.
The social work I have observed is therapeutic input at its best. Despite the challenges ahead – inevitable in every job – I am so grateful that the negative attitudes towards the field of mental healthcare are being challenged and contradicted in daily practice. Workers, such as the people I’ve met, are not giving up hope, and as a result, service users are not giving up hope either. This, to me, is the greatest outcome we could wish for.
The Social Life Blog is written by people who work in or use social care services. If you’d like to write for the series, email socialcare@theguardian.com with your ideas.
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Mental health social workers aren"t giving up hope, nor are their service users
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