Social perspectives in mental health

Abstract

The chapter includes: an exploration of social and medical perspectives; a discussion of independence and where this overlaps with the social perspective; a discussion of the social perspective and whether it fits naturally with a particular profession; the Equality Act 2010; and cultural competence, including working with diverse communities and in different geographical contexts. The causes, manifestations, maintenance and recovery from mental health distress are not clear. Even the meaning attributed to each of those words can differ between professions. Despite this, professionals can, and do, assert that their particular paradigm of knowledge of mental disorder offers a better understanding than others, and you may have heard of differentiating perspectives, such as the social model, the medical model and social perspectives. For this reason, this chapter will explore these differing models to better understand their meaning for AMHP practice. One of the aspects deemed important and adopted by, or imposed on, AMHPs is that of assessing social issues, or of bringing in the social perspective, as required by the AMHP Regulations (see the Chapter aim box at the beginning of the chapter). An AMHP is required to have a critical understanding of the social perspective of mental disorder and mental health needs and to apply this to their practice. However, questions arise as to what a social perspective is, what it is challenging, and whether a single definition can be uniformly applied to all situations or be adopted by one profession only. In one edited collection exploring social perspectives in mental health, the authors write that understanding of ‘mental distress’ and ‘problems of living’ has appeared on many agendas, including sociology, psychology and social work, but despite this, there is a lack of clarity as to what exactly the social perspective is (Tew, 2005, p 13).