The Professional Identity of Social Workers in Mental Health Services: A Scoping Review

Ascertaining social worker contacts in routine mental healthcare and describing their distribution: a descriptive analysis of electronic records data from a large south London mental healthcare provider

OBJECTIVES

To describe the distribution of contacts with mental health service-employed social workers over time and by patient characteristics using routine mental health service data resources.

DESIGN

A descriptive study.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

In a large secondary mental healthcare provider in London serving a geographic catchment of around 1.3 million residents, mental health social worker contacts were ascertained from the case note entries for all patients aged 16 years or above at the time of contact who received treatment in any services from 2008 to 2023.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Patient demographic and clinical characteristics at or closest to the social worker contact event.

RESULTS

A total 1 541 078 social worker contacts were extracted. Contacts were most likely in the 20-39 years age group (38.1%), in men (51.9%), in patients from white (45.3%) and black (38.8%) ethnic groups, in those who were non-cohabiting (89.9%) and in those living in more deprived neighbourhoods. The most likely diagnosis in those receiving social work contacts was schizophrenia (39.2%). Males had the highest number of face-to-face social worker contacts, and females were more represented in phone and video contacts. Over the past 16 years, social worker contacts were highest between 2014 and 2015.

CONCLUSIONS

To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first quantification of social work deployment within mental healthcare. Research into the role of social workers within mental health services has been of small scale and predominantly qualitative to date. However, growing data resources, building on distributions of service provision, present important opportunities for wider evaluation of the role of this professional group and the interventions they support within multidisciplinary teams.

Perceived Learning Needs of Hospitalised Cancer Patients and Nurses

AIM

To understand the differences in perceived learning needs between cancer patients and nurses.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional descriptive design.

METHODS

Data were collected from 1147 cancer patients and 1000 nurses using a convenience sampling method from February 2022 to June 2023. Sociodemographic data of patients and nurses were collected through a self-designed general information questionnaire. Patients and nurses completed the Revised Chinese version of the Patient Learning Needs Scale to identify their perceptions of the learning needs and the difference between patient and nurse knowledge of needs.

RESULTS

According to cancer patients and nurses, the top learning needs were information on complications and symptoms. In contrast, patients perceived the lowest priority learning needs to be disease-related issues, while nurses perceived the lowest priority learning needs to be daily treatment and activities.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients and nurses have different views on the essential contents to be learned, highlighting the importance of considering these two aspects in formulating health education programmes.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

Participating cancer patients and nurses took the time to complete the questionnaire during the data collection phase and answered the questions sincerely.

Roles and Dynamics within Community Mental Health Systems During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Systematic Review and Meta-Ethnography

Globally, COVID-19 had an immense impact on mental health systems, but research on how community mental health (CMH) systems and services contributed to the pandemic mental health response is limited. We conducted a systematic review and meta-ethnography to understand the roles of CMH services, determinants of the quality of CMH care, and dynamics within CMH systems during COVID-19. We searched and screened across five databases and appraised study quality using the CASP tool, which yielded 27 qualitative studies. Our meta-ethnographic process used Noblit and Hare's approach for synthesizing findings and applying interpretive analysis to original research. This identified several key themes. Firstly, CMH systems played the valuable pandemic role of safety nets and networks for the broader mental health ecosystem, while CMH service providers offered a continuous relationship of trust to service users amidst pandemic disruptions. Secondly, we found that the determinants of quality CMH care during COVID-19 included resourcing and capacity, connections across service providers, customized care options, ease of access, and human connection. Finally, we observed that power dynamics across the CMH landscape disproportionately excluded marginalized groups from mainstream CMH systems and services. Our findings suggest that while the pandemic role of CMH was clear, effectiveness was driven by the efforts of individual service providers to meet demand and service users' needs. To reprise its pandemic role in the future, a concerted effort is needed to make CMH systems a valuable part of countries' disaster mental health response and to invest in quality care, particularly for marginalized groups.

Health promotion roles shaped by professional identity: an ethnographic study in the Netherlands

How frontline care professionals interpret and fulfill their health promotion roles is of great importance for the health of the vulnerable clients they work with. While the literature on health promotion is limited to describing the roles of healthcare professionals, this study examines the health promotion roles held by various frontline professionals when working with clients with combined psychosocial problems and how this is associated with professional identity. Based on ethnographic data from Dutch frontline professionals in social welfare, general healthcare and mental healthcare, this article shows how various frontline professionals promote health by reframing and customizing health problems and that this is associated with how they identify as pragmatic or holistic professionals.