In this chapter, we will use the term ‘social network’ to describe those people and groups with whom an individual has significant social contact. We will first examine the nature and importance of social networks, and will then go on to provide an account of what crisis resolution and home treatment teams (CRTs) can do to maximise the benefits to patients of support from key social relationships, both within the family and across their wider social networks.

The nature and importance of social networks

While for some the most important social relationships are within the family, for others they include a peer group, friends and acquaintances, neighbours or work colleagues. For most people there is a mix of all of these, varying perhaps with place of residence and state of health, and over time. Human beings are innately social in their behaviour, but it is important to remember that social relationships are not always supportive. For the mental health service user, relationships with and between informal and formal carers, and the relationships within the service between professionals and between the component teams, can have special importance (Chapter 7).

Bridgett and Polak (2003a) defined a social network as ‘a series of overlapping social systems: sets of human relationships that vary in size, formality, function and permanence’. At the less-intimate end of the social spectrum, there is an unclear boundary, with a more general social cohesiveness referred to as the social capital of a community.