Referrals Within a Mental Hospital: A Statistical Study of Requests for Social Service at Fairfield State Hospital, Newtown, Connecticut, 1957
Abstract
Ever since psychiatric social work was established as a special unit at Boston Psychopathic Hospital in 1913, social service departments within all mental hospitals have emerged as an important member of the professional group working with patients. This inter-disciplinary relation, orientated about the patient, is now referred to as the therapeutic team. Attitudinal shifts changed the focus of mental hospitals from custodial to individual patient care and treatment, and during these shifts the inter-disciplinary team concept grew in importance. As the team concept grew in importance, social work turned to evaluating its membership in the team in terms of assessment of need, accomplishment, and competence. Teamwork rested on a conviction that an integration of distinct and overlapping skills gave rise to unique insights and unique therapeutic possibilities - in a sense its very strength derived from the preservation of difference. For social workers in a psychiatric setting this implied that we must first establish our identity as social workers before we could become useful clinicians.
Subject Area
Mental health|Health care management|Social work
Recommended Citation
McDowell, Richard Downs, "Referrals Within a Mental Hospital: A Statistical Study of Requests for Social Service at Fairfield State Hospital, Newtown, Connecticut, 1957" (1958). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30557649.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30557649
