Psychosocial social work as part of interdisciplinary collaboration and care need assessment in psychiatric outpatient care

Abstract

ABSTRACT Psychosocial social work is usually defined as a holistic approach and therefore it is unclear how it should be structured in psychiatric outpatient care. This study aimed to clarify the framework of psychosocial social work as a part of interdisciplinary collaboration and care need assessment. The research data were gathered from two different sources: three focus group interviews in adolescent psychiatry and two video-recorded care consultations and reflection discussions in adult psychiatry. A total of seven doctors, five nurses and five social workers and one client participated in the study. This study examined how psychosocial social work is described by different occupational groups, and how psychosocial social work appears in psychiatric outpatient care as a part of the client’s care needs assessment and reflection discussions by an interdisciplinary team (IDT). The data-driven content analysis was used in analysing the data. In this study, psychosocial social work comprises four perspectives: Social Environment, Mental Health, Service System and Care and Rehabilitation. Perspectives affect an assessment in which the social worker plays an important role as a part of interdisciplinary collaboration. The perspectives describe and set a structure for a professional framework for psychosocial social work in psychiatry. According to this study, psychosocial social work involves forming a comprehensive understanding of the client’s psychological and mental well-being and the impact these have on social performance. It also includes the core perspectives of social work in assessing the client’s social environment and the need for comprehensive support and referring clients to relevant services.