Welfare Reform on the Web (July 2003): Mental Health Services - Overseas

MANAGED CARE AND THE EVOLVING ROLE OF THE CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER IN MENTAL HEALTH

J. A. Cohen

Social Work, vol. 48, 2003, p.34-43

Under managed care in the USA, the role of the clinical social worker in mental health services has expanded as they are considered to be cheaper alternatives to psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. Managed care has also stimulated the use of clinical social workers in private practice, encouraged a move away from expensive individual psychoanalysis towards group therapy, promoted the use of outcome measures, and enhanced the role of the case manager.

ENFORCING PATIENT RIGHTS OR IMPROVING CARE? THE INTERFERENCE OF TWO MODES OF DOING GOOD IN MENTAL HEALTH CARE

J. Pols

Sociology of Health and Illness, vol. 25, 2003, p. 269-288

Article explores how an evolving legal framework regulating mental health care substantially changes medical practice, using empirical data from an ethnographic study of nursing care in two psychiatric hospitals in the Netherlands.