Social Work in Psychiatric Settings

Topic : Psychiatric Social Work
Paper : Introduction to Social Work
Presenting by
Kiran K K
Sem – 1 , MSW
CUTN

 Introduction
We are living in an epoch where is the enormous increasing of
psychological problems or mental health issues are happening. It’s a very
serious issue that people are not capable of maintaining their mental
strength. Here comes the importance of Psychiatric Social Work. Psychiatric
Social Work is a specialized branch of Social work mainly deals with
problems of the mind and associated disorders. Here we going to come
across with some aspects related with that including the interventions,
statistics , role and challenges of psychiatric social worker etc.

Psychiatric Social Work
 A specialized branch of Social work
 Concerns with theoretical & clinical work and the knowledge of Psychiatry
Primarily deals with problems of the mind and associated disorders.
 The essential purpose of Psychiatric Social Work is to help the people with
problems of the mind and/or with behavior problems
 Psychiatric social work is the application of social
work methods and practices in the field of psychiatry.

It has grown as the result of the need felt and its realization for people with
mental or emotionally disturb could be helped more effectively by understanding
their social and/or environmental factors responsible for the problems of mind
and brain in their management.
Professionally trained Psychiatric Social Worker is the qualified member of
psychiatric team & these professionals utilize social work principle, techniques
for the purpose of diagnosis, patient care and treatment and finally plan the
rehabilitation of the patients in the family and in the community also provide
other services to mentally challenged people like therapeutic treatment, social
rehabilitation, crisis intervention or outreach services in the community.

 Statistics - India
 WHO states that in India, (per 100,000 population) there are psychiatrists (0.3),
nurses (0.12), psychologists (0.07) and social workers (0.07), while the desirable
number is anything above 3 psychiatrists and psychologists per 100,000
population.
 WHO also estimates that about 7.5 per cent Indians suffer from some mental
disorder
 Lancet studies suggest that India’s contribution to global suicide deaths increased
from 25·3% in 1990 to 36·6% in 2016 among women, and from 18·7% to 24·3%
among men
 WHO also estimates that, in India, the economic loss, due to mental health
conditions, between 2012-2030, is 1.03 trillion of 2010 dollars.

 Statistics – Global
 970 million people worldwide have a mental health or substance abuse disorder.
 Anxiety is the most common mental illness in the world, affecting 284 million people.
(Our World in Data, 2018)

 Role of a Psychiatric Social Worker
 To assess patients and develop patients’ specific plans of care
 Providing therapy or counselling services to patients to family members
 Interviews with admitted patients, members of their families, agency staff
and others
 Helping the caregivers to learn more about mental disorders and the best
ways to cope with them.
 Plans and develops a social plan of care for each resident and his/her family
 Explains the scope of services to the resident and family as is appropriate
 Provides direct crisis intervention services when required

 Clinical and Non-Clinical Role of Psychiatric Social Worker:

 Challenges Faced by Social Workers in Psychiatric Social Work
1. Stigma
2. Access and Affordability
3. Challenges of Interdisciplinary
Teams

 Social Work Methods and Psychiatric Social Work
Primary Methods
 Social Case Work
 Social Group Work
 Community Organization
Secondary Methods
 Social Action
 Social Welfare Administration
 Social Work Research
The each methods of social work is very much interlinked with the
psychiatric social work. Each have its own importance and playing the
respective roles well. Some are directly linked or indirectly linked.

Global Intervention
 WHO ( World Health Organization )
WHO began when Constitution came into force on 7 April 1948 – a date we now celebrate
every year as World Health Day. As a result of the activities in 2001, the Mental Health
Global Action Programme (MHGAP) has been created.

 National Level ( India )
 National Mental Health Policy ( 2014 )
One of the major goals of this policy is to reduce distress, disability,
exclusion morbidity and premature mortality associated with mental
health problems across life span of the person. And one of the major
objective is to ensure respect for rights and protection from harm of
persons with mental health problems.
National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) in August 1982 was a
milestone in the history of Indian psychiatry. Such an ambitious program
was formulated at a time where there were <1000 psychiatrists is a
triumph of need for mental health care in the country.

 List of NGO’s In India dealing with mental health care
1. Sumaitri Voluntary Organization
2. Sanjivini Society For Mental Health
3. Manas – Mental Health and Social Service
4. The MINDS Foundation
5. Anjali Mental Health Rights Organisation
 NIMHANS
 The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS)
is a multidisciplinary institute for patient care and academic pursuit in the
field of mental health and neurosciences.

• COVID-19 and Mental Health
The world was not set up to respond to the growing mental health crisis before
COVID-19, and it is not now. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak global statistics on
mental health conditions were already bleak. The global economy loses more than
US$ 1 trillion per year due to depression and anxiety. Mental health conditions
contribute to 25% of years lived with disability in the world. Depression is a leading
cause of disability, affecting 264 million people. Around half of all mental health
conditions start by age 14, and suicide is the second leading cause of death in young
people aged 15-29. Every 40 seconds someone dies by suicide. More than 1 in 5
people living in settings affected by conflict suffer from a mental health condition,
and people with severe mental disorders die 10-20 years earlier than the general
population.

1. Mental Health and the Global Agenda
( Anne E. Becker, M.D., Ph.D and Arthur Kleinman, M.D )
This article depicts about the global statistics & the global agenda regarding the mental
health. The aggregate burden of YLDs( years lost due to disability ) resulting from mental and
behavioral disorders (22.7%) . . After that, the article points out the closing gaps in treatment
system. Developing new model of treatment reconfigures the role of the mental health specialist
to emphasize training, supervision, and tertiary care . The most basic cultural and moral barrier
to the amelioration of global mental health problems continues to be the enormously negative,
destructive, and almost universal stigma. In 2012, the report from the Sixty-fifth World Health
Assembly urged member states and the WHO director-general to take bold corrective
actions. Mental health has arrived on the global health agenda; establishing it as a priority at the
highest level is essential to match aspiration to need.
• Literature Review

2. Global burden of psychiatric disorders: Has it increased?
( Abhijit R Rozatkar, Nitin Gupta .(2016).)
Morbidity and mortality related to mental health assumed importance when the first report
documenting the global burden of disease using disability adjusted life years (DALYs) was
published. Here discusses about the Global burden of psychiatric disorders. The journal
shows the statistics of schizophrenia, alcohol substance disorders etc. As there was significant
change in methodology in the newer study, the data pertaining to previous study was
reanalyzed and compared with current estimates. Between 1990 and 2010, the burden due to
mental and substance used disorders increased 133.6 million DALYs to 183.9 million
DALYs. It was found that among men, alcohol-use disorder and other drug-use disorders
showed an increased burden in 2010 as compared to 1990. The aspects of articles in this
section should help put in perspective and guide the readers to make up their own mind
regarding the “ever-increasing burden of psychiatric disorders!”

 References
1. Anne E. Becker, M.D., Ph.D., and Arthur Kleinman, M.D. (2013). Mental Health and the Global Agenda. The New
England Journal of Medicine.
2. Abhijit R Rozatkar, Nitin Gupta .(2016). Global burden of psychiatric disorders: Has it increased?. Indian Journal of
Social Psychiatry.
3. Alpa Parmar. (2014). Methods of Social Work and Its Role in Understanding Team Climateand Team Effectiveness
for Organizational Development. Journal of Sociology and Social Work.
4. Grin Publications (2012). Psychiatric Social Work - An Emerging Mental Health Profession in India. Munich.
Upmesh K. Talwar & Ravinder Singh
5. World Health Organization ( 2019 ) WHO urges more investments, services for mental health.
6. Anisha Bhatia. NDTV-Swachhindia (2020). World Mental Health Day 2020: In Numbers, The Burden of Mental
Disorders In India.
7. World Health Organization (2020). World Mental Health Day: an opportunity to kick-start a massive scale-up in
investment in mental health.
8. Florida State University.(2019). Challenges Faced by Social Workers in Mental Health Social Work Today.

Social Work in Psychiatric Settings

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