Social workers in psychiatric facilities have several important responsibilities, including completing patient intake and evaluation procedures. The client will first have a meeting with the social worker who has been assigned to them, during which an intake process is done. This will involve gathering general identifying information regarding medical coverage, prior medical history, and specifics about current issues. The social worker documents the current reason for the client receiving treatment for their behavioral health issues.
Preparing Strategies for Behavioral Health Treatment
After completing the client’s intake and evaluation procedures, the social worker develops a treatment plan for the client’s behavioral health. Such a health treatment plan considers the recommended course of action for treating the client’s current problem and any additional issues discovered during the initial evaluation. The social worker may consult other medical professionals when formulating a treatment plan (Fraher et al., 2018). These professionals include experienced psychologists or psychiatrists who work within their psychiatric facility. The social workers may enquire about patients who have suicidal thoughts or delusions or other symptoms that necessitate medication and other intensive medical interventions.
Crisis Intervention
Intervening during times of crisis is a major role of social workers in meeting the behavioral needs of patients in the community setting. During this intervention, the social worker may provide telephone crisis coverage, offer community recommendations to a client who needs emergency health services and assist clients who need immediate mental health problem treatment. In such a crisis, the social worker’s goals are to evaluate if the patient can benefit and recover to normal functions or if they may need additional treatment or assistance. For example, a social worker may assess that a severely depressed client must be admitted to a healthcare unit for further psychological treatment and monitoring.
Provision of Treatment for Behavioral Health
The variety of therapeutic approaches that clients might choose from is determined by the social workers’ assessment of the clients’ unique mental health concerns. Social workers can conduct therapy for various concerns, including substance misuse and mental health problems, supportive, group, family, and cognitive behavior therapy (Hussein, 2018). The social workers coordinate the treatment plans for their patients with the assistance of other medical professionals. With the patient’s explicit permission and consent, the social workers can discuss with other psychologists how far along the patient is in their course of therapy.
Counseling and Educating Clients
Social workers should inform clients and their families of their diagnosis in behavioral health, the prescribed course of treatment, and when the client will be discharged from the facility. Social workers frequently interact with families to assist them in better comprehending the illnesses of their loved ones and learning how to cope with them. In some cases, the social workers may offer family counseling to patients and their families at once or to individual members of the patient’s family when needed.
Roles that Should Meet the Needs of Underserved Population
To better assist the underserved population, the functions of social workers could be expanded to include behavioral therapy, educational opportunities, and counseling sessions. Suppose social workers are allowed to provide a wider variety of behavioral treatment options. In that case, most people who struggle with mental health issues will benefit from improved care. To ensure that most families are taught how to deal with and manage their loved ones experiencing mental health issues, there should be an increased emphasis on family education and counseling.
Possible New Roles in Behavioral Health by Social Workers: Alleviation of Poverty
Most of the population suffers from mental health problems due to poverty. It is time for social workers to take on a new role in the fight against the scourge of poverty. As a result of this additional function, social workers can devise programs that mitigate the adverse consequences of poverty on behavioral health. A social worker in this role will be able to establish and implement programs that improve healthcare coverage and ensure that the expense of mental health treatment does not impede individuals from succeeding in their endeavors.
Advocacy
The public has a right to health care services of higher quality and more affordable, and social workers are responsible for advocating for this right. If social workers take on this responsibility, they can advocate for the health requirements of the most vulnerable members of society. Social workers in their practice on mental health may advocate on various fronts, such as locally, at the state or national level.
Case Management
It is possible for social workers to drastically increase their ability to support their patients in receiving the appropriate medical care by taking on a case management position inside and adopting a setting. People who are coping with issues such as chronic mental illness, marital discord, or other types of behavioral health sickness can benefit from case management since it is aimed to assist them in figuring out where they can get the best available medical care for their condition.
Most Influential Roles of Social Workers in Behavioral Health
Due to work done by the social workers, fewer people may be recorded to suffer from mental health problems resulting from the inability to cope with stressful conditions. Social workers try to maintain and improve their clients’ mental health by educating them about potential risks and issuing clear warnings when necessary (Farkas & Romaniuk, 2020). As part of their job in behavioral health, social workers educate patients and the general public about the importance of good emotional self-care, stress management, and strong interpersonal interactions.
Treatment
Social workers must assist clients who are experiencing challenges with their mental health. Social workers’ therapeutic efforts focus on individuals with serious mental health issues. Difficulties in the patient’s relationship with the therapist could be addressed during treatment. The social worker is involved in risk management and family counseling and helps clients analyze their stress levels. Other treatment options provided by the social worker include psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Rehabilitation
Social workers are greatly significant in the reduction of the burden of mental illness. The social workers provide the clients with retraining and rehabilitation services to the best of their efforts. Clients with severe mental health problems benefit from group and individual therapy to help them improve their coping skills.
Instances When Social Work May Be Less Effective
Social work has successfully dealt with many issues, including domestic violence, abuse of drugs and alcohol, inequality, and mental health problems. However, there have been various impediments, and social work has been less effective in achieving its goals of assuring the mental health development of the youth and lowering the incidence of family violence.
Fostering Mental and Emotional Health for the Youth.
Social work has not been as successful as assisting all teenagers and youths in behavioral development. Around one in ten young people struggle with significant mental health conditions (Kostova et al., 2018). The percentage of young adults in the United States who suffer from major depressive disorder has been high and was 13.01% percent in 2020 (Sherman et al., 2020). The treatment that is provided to the majority of children who struggle with behavioral issues is not sufficient.
Prevention of Family Violence against Women
It has also been demonstrated that social work has a diminished impact on reducing domestic violence. Every ten minutes, the wives of almost 20 different Americans violently attack their husbands, and it is estimated that domestic violence affects 10 million people annually in the United States (Caridade et al., 2020). These findings indicate that interventions in family-based social work to avoid domestic violence have been unsuccessful.
How Policies Affect the Roles of Social Workers
As a result of programs such as managed health care, social workers have greatly increased the amount of time spent on mental health issues. Due to the managed health care program, social workers were allowed to extend the scope of their practice areas. Social workers can give private health care in a setting that is not associated with medicine. They can advocate for and provide aftercare to their clients who are chronically mentally ill and destitute. As a direct effect of the policy governing managed health care, the proportion of the market occupied by social workers specializing in behavioral health has risen significantly. The technique, in particular, was essential in social workers’ rise to the position of preeminent professionals in the United States, which is the country’s primary provider of mental health care services. The social work profession has established itself as one of a kind. Social workers’ behavioral health services are subject to state legislation and managed health care policy.
References
Caridade, S. M. M., Saavedra, R., Ribeiro, R., Oliveira, A. C., Santos, M., Almeida, I. S., & Soeiro, C. (2021). Remote support to victims of violence against women and domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Journal of Adult Protection. Web.
Farkas, K. J., & Romaniuk, J. R. (2020). Social work, ethics and vulnerable groups in the time of coronavirus and Covid-19. Society Register, 4(2), 67-82. Web.
Fraher, E. P., Richman, E. L., de Saxe Zerden, L., & Lombardi, B. (2018). Social work student and practitioner roles in integrated care settings. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 54(6), S281-S289. Web.
Hussein, S. (2018). Work engagement, burnout and personal accomplishments among social workers: A comparison between those working in children and adults’ services in England. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 45(6), 911-923. Web.
Kostova, Z., Levin, L., Lorberg, B., & Ziedonis, D. (2019). Mindfulness-based interventions for adolescents with mental health conditions: A systematic review of the research literature. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28(10), 2633-2649. Web.
Sherman, A. C., Williams, M. L., Amick, B. C., Hudson, T. J., & Messias, E. L. (2020). Mental health outcomes associated with the COVID-19 pandemic: Prevalence and risk factors in a southern US state. Psychiatry Research, 293, 113476. Web.