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The Practice of Community Psychiatric Nursing and Mental Health Social Work in Salford Some Implications for Community Care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

K. Wooff*
Affiliation:
Mental Health Information Unit, Salford Health Authority; formerly Research Fellow, Department of Community Medicine, University of Manchester
D. P. Goldberg
Affiliation:
University of Manchester Department of Psychiatry
T. Fryers
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine, University of Manchester
*
Mental Health Information Unit, Pendleton House, Broughton Road, Salford M6 6LQ

Abstract

The context and content of work undertaken with individual clients by community psychiatric nurses (CPNs) and mental health social workers (MHSWs) in Salford were found to be significantly different. Although there were some areas of overlap, the ways in which the two professions worked were quite distinct. MHSWs discussed a wide range of topics and were as concerned with clients' interactions with family and community networks as they were with symptoms. Their interviews with schizophrenic clients followed a similar pattern to those with other groups, and they worked closely with psychiatrists and other mental health staff. CPNs, on the other hand, focused mainly on psychiatric symptoms, treatment arrangements, and medications, and spent significantly less time with individual psychotic clients than they did with patients suffering from neuroses. They were as likely to be in contact with general practitioners as they were with psychiatrists, and had fewer contacts with other mental health staff than the MHSWs. There was evidence that the long-term care of chronic psychiatric patients living outside hospital required more co-ordinated long-term multidisciplinary input.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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